dition, resulting in the
apparent disappearance of Conversations XI and XII.

Typographical errors are listed at the end of the text.]

* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *

CONVERSATIONS
ON
CHEMISTRY;

In Which
The Elements Of That Science
Are
_Familiarly Explained_
And
Illustrated By Experiments.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

_The Fifth Edition, revised, corrected,_
_and considerably enlarged._

VOL. I.
ON SIMPLE BODIES.

_London:_
Printed For Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,
Paternoster-Row.
1817.

Printed by A. Strahan, Printers-Street, London.

ADVERTISEMENT.

_The Author, in this fifth edition, has endeavoured to give an account
of the principal discoveries which have been made within the last four
years in Chemical Science, and of the various important applications,
such as the gas-lights, and the miner's-lamp, to which they have given
rise. But in regard to doctrines or principles, the work has undergone
no material alteration._

_London_, _July_, 1817.

PREFACE.

In venturing to offer to the public, and more particularly to the female
sex, an Introduction to Chemistry, the author, herself a woman,
conceives that some explanation may be required; and she feels it the
more necessary to apologise for the present undertaking, as her
knowledge of the subject is but recent, and as she can have no real
claims to the title of chemist.

On attending for the first time experimental lectures, the author found
it almost impossible to derive any clear or satisfactory information
from the rapid demonstrations which are usually, and perhaps
necessarily, crowded into popular courses of this kind. But frequent
opportunities having afterwards occurred of conversing with a friend on
the subject of chemistry, and of repeating a variety of experiments, she
became better acquainted with the principles of that science, and began
to feel highly interested in its pursuit. It was then that she
perceived, in attending the excellent lectures delivered at the Royal
Institution, by the present Professor of Chemistry, the great advantage
which her previous knowledge of the subject, sli