For
centuries nothing had been done in it whatever. Besides the commonest
previsions of every-day life, the ancients knew scarcely anything either
of chemistry or physics, except that amber possessed attractive
properties. The discovery of the strong acids by the Arabs Giafar and
Rhazes, and of phosphorus by Bechil, are almost the only landmarks in
the history of the science, until the discovery of oxygen and the
destruction of the phlogistic theory by Priestley and Lavoisier,
together with the introduction of the balance and the thermometer into
the laboratory, rendered quantitative experiments possible. Since then
its progress has been unexampled. The law of definite proportions, not
long since disputed or unwillingly accepted, has been proved to hold
even among organic compounds. A nomenclature has been invented and
perfected, such as no other science can boast of, whether we consider
the extent to which it facilitates practical operations, or its logical
value as a means of mental discipline. Chemistry has also interacted
with the different branches of physics, giving us the voltaic battery,
the telegraph, and the wonderful results of spectrum-analysis.
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