ADVERTISEMENT.
The Author, in this fifth edition, hasendeavoured to give an account of the principal discoveries which havebeen made within the last four years in Chemical Science, and of thevarious important applications, such as the gas-lights, and theminer’s-lamp, to which they have given rise. But in regard to doctrinesor principles, the work has undergone no material alteration.
London, July, 1817.
vPREFACE.
In venturing to offer to the public, andmore particularly to the female sex, an Introduction to Chemistry, theauthor, herself a woman, conceives that some explanation may berequired; and she feels it the more necessary to apologise for thepresent undertaking, as her knowledge of the subject is but recent, andas she can have no real claims to the title of chemist.
On attending for the first time experimental lectures, the authorfound it almost impossible to derive any clear or satisfactoryinformation from the rapid demonstrations which are usually, and perhapsnecessarily, crowded into popular courses of this kind. But frequentopportunities havingviafterwards occurred of conversing with a friend on the subject ofchemistry, and of repeating a variety of experiments, she became betteracquainted with the principles of that science, and began to feel highlyinterested in its pursuit. It was then that she perceived, in attendingthe excellent lectures delivered at the Royal Institution, by thepresent Professor of Chemistry, the great advantage which her previousknowledge of the subject, slight as it was, gave her over others who hadnot enjoyed the same means of private instruction. Every fact orexperiment attracted her attention, and served to explain