Chapter I: Front Matter

[Transcriber’s Note:

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The full caption of each Plate is given after its first mention in the text--generally a few pages before the Plate’s physical appearance, as specified in the caption.

Many terms used in this book are different from today’s standard terminology. Note in particular:

oxy-muriatic acid = the element chlorine
phosphat of lime = calcium diphosphate _or_ the element calcium
glucium = the element beryllium

muriatic acid = hydrochloric acid
muriat of lime = calcium chloride
oxymuriate of potash = potassium chlorate
carbonic acid = carbon dioxide

Further details and more examples are at the end of the e-text.

Each Volume had its own table of contents. They have been merged for this e-text, but the Vol. II title page was retained. Some Conversations were renumbered between the 4th and 5th edition, 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.