PREFACE

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The following treatise has been composed for the instruc-tion of such as are actually unacquainted with chemical science;and with that view I have followed such an arrangement of thesubjects, as appeared best calculated to afford a clear and perma-nent knowledge of their relations and consequences.

As the proofs of chemistry are grounded upon an appeal to thesenses, I have in the first place described some experiments,which are easy to be performed, and particularly adapted to ex-hibit the general nature of chemical action.

But mere facts do not constitute a science. The reasoning fa-culty must be exerted to dispose them in the order of cause andeffect; first by the method called analysis, and afterwards in thatof synthesis: which last may be considered as including thosetentative processes of the mind called hypotheses, which in natu-ral science are rendered legitimate by experiment.