Conversations on chymistry : in which the elements of that science are familiarly explained and illustrated by experiments and plates, from the last London edition.

Jane Marcet

Date:: 1809

Credit: Conversations on chymistry : in which the elements of that science are familiarly explained and illustrated by experiments and plates, from the last London edition. 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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education is seldom calculated to prepare their minds for a* 'iracl ideas, or scientific language. As, however, there are but few nvomen who have access to this mode of instruction ; and as the author was not ac- quainted with any hook that could prove a substitute for it, ohe thought that it might be usef id for beginners, as well as atafuclcry to herself, to trace the steps by -which she had acquired her little stock of chymical knowledge, and to record m the form of dialogue, those ideas which she- had first de- t ived from conversation. But to do this with sufficient method, and to fix upon a mode of arrangement, was an objeel of some difficulty. After much hesitation, and a degree of embarrassment, which, pro- bably, the most competent chymical writers have often felt in ommon with the most superficial, a nuide of division was ted, v.hich, though the most natural, does not always admit of being strictly pursued—it is that of treating first uf'the simplest bodies, and then gradually rising to the most . tricate compounds, It is not the duiker's intention to enter into a minute vlndi- n of this plan. But, whatever may be its advantages or inconveniences, the method adopted in this work is such± that a young pupil, who should occasionally recur to it. with a view to procure information on particular subjecls, might eft en find it obscure or unintelligible ; for its various parts ere so connected with each other as to form an uninterrupted i bain of fails and reasonings, which will appear sufficiently dear and consistent to those only who snay have patience to go ; ''.rough the whole work, or have previously devoted seme at- tention to the subjecl. It will, no doubt, be observed, that in the course of these conversations, remarks are often introduced, which appear much too a:ute for the young pupils, by whom they are suppo- sed to be made. Of this fault the author is fully aw/are.— But in order to avoid if, it vjculd have been necessary either to omit a variety of useful illustrations, or to submit to such 7ninute explanations and frequent repetitions, as vjculd have rendered the work much less suited to its purpose. In writing these pages, the author vjas more than once checked in her progress by the apprehension, that such an at- tempt might be considered by some, either as unsuited to the ordinary pursuits of her sex, or ill justified by her own recent and imperfect knowledge of the subjecl. But, on the one hand, she felt encouraged by the establishment of those public

Conversations on chymistry : in which the elements of that science are familiarly explained and illustrated by experiments and plates, from the last London edition.

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