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A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century
A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century Author:Samuel Miller Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY. AS Mechanical Philosophy has a respect to those motions of the larger bodies of the universe which fall under the inspecti... more »on of our senses, so Chemical Philosophy is the science which explains those motions which take place among the minute component parts of bodies, and which are known chiefly by the effects which they produce; in other words, its object is, " to ascertain the ingredients " that enter into the composition of bodies—to ex- " amine the nature of these ingredients, the manner " in which, and the laws by which, they combine, " and the properties resulting from their combina- " tion." It may safely be asserted, that there is no branch of science in which the discoveries and improvements, during the last century, have been more numerous, or more important, than in this. Indeed, such has been their number, and their interesting nature, that to exhibit them in detail would be to fill many volumes. Though some of the facts and principles which - enter into all the systems of modern chemistry have been known for many centuries, and indeed as far back as history reaches; yet, as a regular science, it could scarcely be said to have had an existence prior to the middle of the seventeenth century. It was about that time that the learned societies in Europe began to be formed, and the reign of Alchemy to decline. In the inquiries then instituted in chemical philosophy, the celebrated Mr. Boyle led the way. His speculations and experimentson light, heat, air, water, and other subjects allied to those, were in several respects useful, and prepared the way for subsequent improvements. To his learned labours succeeded those of Dr. Mayow, who not only prosecuted the inquiries commenced by Boyle, but had also the honour of devising others, eq...« less