The elements of experimental chemistry (Volume 1).

  • William Henry
Date:
Nov. 1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of experimental chemistry (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    fer the most public and respectful incitements to the application of theory in the improvement of the chemical arts ; and, with the view of promoting this object, national institutions have been formed among them, which have been already, in several instan- ces, attended with the most encouraging success. It may be sufficient, at present, to mention, as an example, that France, dur- ing a long war, supplied from her own native resources, her enor- mous, and, perhaps, unequalled consumption of nitre. The general uses of chemistry have been thus fully enlarged upon, because it is a conviction of the utility of the science, that can alone recommend it to attentive and persevering study. It may now be proper to point out, in detail, a few of its more strik- ing applications. [See note 1 at the end of this vol.] I. The art which is, of all others, the most interesting, from its subserviency to wants that are interwoven with our nature, is agriculture, or the art of obtaining, fiom the earth, the larg- est crops of useful vegetables at the smallest expense. The vegetable kingdom agrees with the animal one, in the possession of a living principle. Every individual of this king- dom is regularly organized, and requires for its support an un- ceasing supply of food, which is converted, as in the animal body, into substances of various foi'ms and qualities. Each plant has its periods of growth, health, disease, decay and death ; and is af- fected, in most of these particulars, by the varying condition of ex- ternal circumstances. A perfect state of agricultural knowledge would require, therefore, not only a minute acquaintance with the structure and economy of vegetables, but with the nature and ef- fects of the great variety of external agents, that contribute to their nutriment, or influence their state of health and vigour. It can hardly be expected, that the former attainment will ever be generally made by practical farmers; and it is in bringing the agriculturist acquainted with the precise composition of soils and manures, that chemistry promises the most solid advantages. Indeed, any knowledge that can be acquired on this subject, with- out the aid of chemistry, must be vague and indistinct, and can neither enable its possessor to produce an intended effect with cer- tainty, nor be communicated to others in language sufficiently intelligible. Thus we are told, by Mr. Arthur Young, that in some parts of England, any loose clay is called marl, in others marl is called chalk, and in others clay is called loam. From so Vol. I. 3
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