"As Mechanical Philosophy has a respect to those motions of the larger bodies of the universe which fall under the inspection 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 examine the nature of these ingredients, the manner in which, and the laws by which, they combine, and the properties resulting from their combination." 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 volumes."