Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Qualitative chemical analysis / by C. Remigius Fresenius. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![importance: and, in the second place, the substances that fall within the sphere of its operations, and the principal parts into which its study is divided. . . . ,. ... -u n For the successful pursuit of qualitative investigations, it is above all things indispensable that the student should have some knowledge of the chemical elements, and of their most important combinations, as well as of the general principles of chemistry; also that he should have some practice in the mechanism of chemical reactions. It demands more- over strict order, the greatest cleanliness, and a certain skill in manipu- lation If in addition to these qualifications the student has the habit of inv'ariably ascribing his failures to some defect in his operations, or rather to the absence of some condition or other indispensable to the success of the experiment-and a firm belief in the immutability of natural laws cannot fail to create this habit—he wiU have all the qualities necessary to render his study of analytical chemistry successful Now, although chemical analysis is based on general chemistry, and cannot be cultivated without some previous knowledge of the latt^jr, yet, on the other hand, we must regard it as one of the f oundation_ stones unon which the entire structure of the science rests, since it is ot almost equal importance for all branches of chemi^stry whether theo- retical or practical. It is unnecessary to expatiate here on the advan- tages which the technical chemist, the physician, the pharmaceutist the mhieralogist, the. metallurgist, the skilful farmer, and many others This^'c^sideration would surely in itself be sufficient to recommend a thorough and diligent study of analysis, even if its cultivation lacked those attractions which it unquestionably possesses for every one who devotes himself zealously and ardently to it. The human mmd is con- stantly striving after truth; it delights in solving problems; and where do we meet with a greater variety of them, some easier, some more difficult to solve, than in the province of chemistry] But as a pro- blem to which, after long pondering, we fail to discover the key, wearies and discourages the mind; so, in like manner, do chemical investiga- ?Sns if the obiect in view is not attained-if the results do not bear thTstamp of truth, of uuerring certainty. A half-knowledge m every department of science, but more especially m this must be considered worse than no knowledge at all; so that amere superficiala^qn^mt^uce with chemical analysis must be particularly guarded against A qualitative investigation may be made with a twofold object, either to prove that a certain compound is or is not contamed m a sub- stance for example, lime in spring-water; or to ascertain all the con- tSt present in a chemical compound or mixture. Any substance may of course become the object of a chemical analysis. _ All dements, however, are not equally important m practical chemistry a cer ain number only of them being found more widely dlsemtl ed in nature, and more generally employed in metaUurgy, in nharmacy, in the arts and manufactures, and m agriculture, whilst the StherTaJe met with only as constituents of rarely occurring minerals^ ?he elements of the former class, therefore, and the more impoi-tant of SSr compoL will alone be considered fully m the present work, whist those of the latter class will be discussed more briefly and in Tuch a manner as to enable the learner to separate,^ without difficulty the stu^y of the former from that of the latter. This arrangement will](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21966953_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
