THE PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCE ARE INVESTIGATED ANEW,
AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO THE PHENOMENA OF NATURE, MEDICINE,
MINERALOGY, AGRICULTURE, AND MANUFACTURES,

DETAILED.

BY ANDREW URE, M. DY

PROFESSOR OF THE ANDERSONIAN INSTITUTION, MEMBER OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
&c. &c.

WITH AN

Introductory Dissertation;

CONTAINING

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONVERTING THE ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT
INTO A SYSTEMATIC ORDER OF STUDY.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION;

WITH SOME ADDITIONS, NOTES, AND CORRECTIONS,
BY ROBERT HARE, M. D.

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
ASSISTED BY

FRANKLIN BACHE, M. D.

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL
SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA.

IN TWO VOLUMES,

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:

PUBLISHED BY ROBERT DESILVER, No. 110, WALNUT STREET.

1821.

Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirteenth day of October, in the forty-sixti year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1821, Robert Desilver, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"A Dictionary of Chemistry on the basis of Mr. Nicholson's; in which the prin"ciples of the Science are investigated anew, and its applications to the phenomena "of Nature, Medicine, Mineralogy, Agriculture, and Manufactures, detailed. By An"drew Ure, M. D. Professor of the Andersonian Institution, Member of the Geologi"cal Society, &c. &c. with an Introductory Dissertation; containing instructions for "converting the Alphabetical Arrangement into a systematic order of study. First "American edition; with some additions, notes, and corrections, by Robert Hare, M. "D. Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania: Assisted by Franklin "Bache, M. D. Member of the American Philosophical Society, and of the Academy "of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In two Volumes."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned.”—And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Paper, manufactured by

Joshua and Thomas Gilpin. S

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE EARL OF GLASGOW.

BARON ROSS OF HAWHEAD,

&c. &c. &c.

LORD-LIEUTENANT OF AYRSHIRE.

MY LORD,

WHEN I inscribe this volume to your Lordship, it is neither to offer the incense of adulation, which your virtues do not need, and your understanding would disdain; nor to solicit the patronage of exalted rank to a work, which in this age and nation must seek support in scientific value alone. The present dedication is merely an act of gratitude, as pure on my part, as your Lordship's condescension and kindness to me have been generous and unvarying. At my outset in life, your Lordship's distinguished favour cherished those studious pursuits, which have since formed my chief pleasure and business; and to your Lordship's hospitality I owe the elegant retirement, in which many of the following pages were written. Happy would it have been for their readers, could I have transfused into them a portion of that grace of diction, and elevation of sentiment, which I have so often been permitted to admire in your Lordship's family.

I have the honour to be,

MY LORD,

Your Lordship's most obedient

And very faithful Servant,

Glasgow, Nov. 7, 1820.

ANDREW URE.

INTRODUCTION.

In this Introduction I shall first present a GENERAL VIEW of the objects of chemistry, along with a scheme for converting the alphabetical arrangement adopted in this volume, into a systematic order of study. I shall then describe the manner in which this Dictionary seems to have been originally compiled, and the circumstances under which its present regeneration has been attempted. This exposition will naturally lead to an account of the principles on which the investigations of chemical theory and facts have been conducted,which distinguish this Work from a mere compilation. Some notice is then given of a treatise on practical chemistry, publicly announced by me upwards of three years ago, and of the peculiar circumstances of my situation, as a teacher, which prompted me to undertake it, though its execution has been delayed by various obstructions.

THE forms of matter are numberless, and subject to incessant change. Amid all this variety which perplexes the common mind, the eye of science discerns a few unchangeable primary bodies, by whose reciprocal actions and combinations, this marvellous diversity and rotation of existence, are produced and maintained. These bodies, having resisted every attempt to resolve them into simpler forms of matter, are called undecompounded, and must be regarded in the present state of our knowledge as experimental elements. It is possible that the elements of nature are very dissimilar; it is probable that they are altogether unknown; and that they are so recondite, as for ever to elude the sagacity of human research.

The primary substances which can be subjected to measurement and weight, are fifty-three in number. To these, some chemists add the imponderable elements,-light, heat, electricity, and magnetism. But their separate identity is not clearly ascertained.

Of the fifty-three ponderable principles, certainly three, possibly four, require a distinct collocation from the marked peculiarity of their powers and properties. These are named Chlorine, Oxygen, Iodine (and Fluorine?) These bodies display a pre-eminent activity of combination, an intense affinity for most of the other forty-nine bodies, which they corrode, penetrate, and dissolve; or, by uniting with them, so impair their cohesive force, that they become friable, brittle, or soluble in water, however dense, refractory, and insoluble they previously were. Such changes, for example, are effected on platinum, gold, silver, and iron, by the agency of chlorine, oxygen, or iodine. But the characteristic feature of these archeal elements is this, that when a compound consisting of one of them, and one of the other forty-nine more passive elements, is exposed to voltaic electrization, the former is uniformly evolved at the positive or vitreoelectric pole, while the latter appears at the negative or resino-electric pole.