Volume 1

A system of chemistry ... / [John Murray].

  • John Murray
Date:
1806-1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of chemistry ... / [John Murray]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    merous, and important,applications.. From. the mul; tiplicity, of its,objetts, and extent of; its relations, no science, indeed,.can. be more interesting, to the. spe- culative inquirer, or can promise »more, prattical) ad, vantage; there,is mone of which the progress in mo- dern times has been so rapid, on of which the prospe& of improvement.is more unlimited. est In surveying the progress of chemistry, we ae the earlier, part of its history involved, in obscurity. and fable. We are able only to. discover. traces of. the prattice « of certain arts from. the. most remote,antiqui- ty, the principles, of. which are. chemical. But this undoubtedly < affords. no reason to,conclude, that, they originated from. any previous, acquisition « of: chemical science... They. must. have been | the. result of. casual observation, or of experiments, di@ated by necessity, and they were long taught and practised without any knowledge of the principles on which, they are found- Of these arts, metallurgy, or the art.of extracting metals from substances with which they are naturally mixed, of purifying, casting and. forging them, was probably of earliest invention, since some knowledge of it must have been indis spensable i in that state, of so- ciety in which the others would be cultivated. Gold, silver and copper, metals which are found native, and which are easily worked, appear, from ancient history, to have been first applied to use. Iron, which i is much more refraGtory » was of later introduéion. The pro- perties and uses of these, as well as of lead and tin, were, however, known. at a very early, period, nor
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