PREFACE.

IN venturing to offer to the public, andmore particularly to the female sex, an In -troduction to Chemistry , the author, herself,a woman, conceives that some explanationmay be required ; and she feels it the morenecessary to apologize for the present under-taking, as her knowledge of the subject isbut recent, and as she can have no real claimsto the title of chemist.

On attending, for the first time, experi-mental lectures, the author found it almostimpossible to derive any clear or satisfactoryinformation from the rapid demonstrationswhich are usually, and perhaps necessarily,crowded into popular courses of this kind.But frequent opportunities having afterwardsoccurred of conversing u ith a friend on thesubject of chemistry, and of repeating a va-