Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Comparison Between The Ancients And Moderns In Science And Literature.
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ANCIENTS AND MODERNS IN SCIENCE AND LITERATURE .
[ CONCLUDED FROM OUR IAST . 3
Hj ^ I-IE name of Chemistry-had scarcely a place in the dictionary of A antiquity , and iudeed ' it is but of late years that it has become the object of investigation , and much less the favourite occupation of the . leisure hours of the'leanied , which is the case at present It Was before generally esteemed a barren and uninteresting subject ; but since the great progress lately made in almost all its branches , the to which it has
great variety of new facts and curious discoveries given birth , has been sufficient at once to excite and reward the laborious exertions of the philosophic chemist . The universality of the objects of chemistry is another circumstance which unquestionably attaches a very considerable degree of importance to the study . But however numerous these objects are , and however heterogeneclassed under three
ous in their nature , they have all been general and distinct heads—animal , vegetable , and mineral . These have each been strictly analysed by fire , which is the great agent in the decomposition of all substances , and many of them reduced to their first p rincip les : a process which has enabled lis to form better conceptions concerning their internal structureand toacquire juster ideas
, . of the nature and number of those elements ,, of which all matter , however modified , is composed . By different combinations of these princinles , other substances have been formed ; and by different apwhich be
plications of them , a variety of new properties discovered , - fore had no existence ; but which have since proved of the highest utility both in the arts and in medicine . We cannot here resist mentioning a curious ' hypothesis , that has recently been started by a few philosophical theorists , particularly by Dr . Watson , Bishop of Landaff , concerning the chemical classification of material substances . between animal and bodie
In their opinion , the distinction vegetable , which has been uniformly adopted by preceding naturalists , is without any real foundation in nature ; and , with great ingenuity of reasoning , contend that the latter should be classed in the same genus with the former , if an adherence to consistency and propriety is not totally disregarded . In support of this , they , adduce many experiments to in vari
shew the similarity of their properties and structure , a great - ety of respects ; but more particularly in the sexual distinction of male and female , which Linnaeus has proved , beyond the shadow of a doubt , to exist in all vegetables . From a number of other facts in the natural world , sufficiently obvious to the attentive observer , they have lausiblattributed to lants the faculty of perception ; and thus ,
very p y p with the addition of a few arguments drawn from a metaphysical view of the subject , having endeavoured to shew that they possess the essential properties of animal life , with great appearance of rationa-VOL . x . I
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Comparison Between The Ancients And Moderns In Science And Literature.
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ANCIENTS AND MODERNS IN SCIENCE AND LITERATURE .
[ CONCLUDED FROM OUR IAST . 3
Hj ^ I-IE name of Chemistry-had scarcely a place in the dictionary of A antiquity , and iudeed ' it is but of late years that it has become the object of investigation , and much less the favourite occupation of the . leisure hours of the'leanied , which is the case at present It Was before generally esteemed a barren and uninteresting subject ; but since the great progress lately made in almost all its branches , the to which it has
great variety of new facts and curious discoveries given birth , has been sufficient at once to excite and reward the laborious exertions of the philosophic chemist . The universality of the objects of chemistry is another circumstance which unquestionably attaches a very considerable degree of importance to the study . But however numerous these objects are , and however heterogeneclassed under three
ous in their nature , they have all been general and distinct heads—animal , vegetable , and mineral . These have each been strictly analysed by fire , which is the great agent in the decomposition of all substances , and many of them reduced to their first p rincip les : a process which has enabled lis to form better conceptions concerning their internal structureand toacquire juster ideas
, . of the nature and number of those elements ,, of which all matter , however modified , is composed . By different combinations of these princinles , other substances have been formed ; and by different apwhich be
plications of them , a variety of new properties discovered , - fore had no existence ; but which have since proved of the highest utility both in the arts and in medicine . We cannot here resist mentioning a curious ' hypothesis , that has recently been started by a few philosophical theorists , particularly by Dr . Watson , Bishop of Landaff , concerning the chemical classification of material substances . between animal and bodie
In their opinion , the distinction vegetable , which has been uniformly adopted by preceding naturalists , is without any real foundation in nature ; and , with great ingenuity of reasoning , contend that the latter should be classed in the same genus with the former , if an adherence to consistency and propriety is not totally disregarded . In support of this , they , adduce many experiments to in vari
shew the similarity of their properties and structure , a great - ety of respects ; but more particularly in the sexual distinction of male and female , which Linnaeus has proved , beyond the shadow of a doubt , to exist in all vegetables . From a number of other facts in the natural world , sufficiently obvious to the attentive observer , they have lausiblattributed to lants the faculty of perception ; and thus ,
very p y p with the addition of a few arguments drawn from a metaphysical view of the subject , having endeavoured to shew that they possess the essential properties of animal life , with great appearance of rationa-VOL . x . I