26. The practice of this profession is generally attended with great labor, and, in many cases, with much perplexity. Diseases are often stubborn or incurable, and effectually baffle the most skilful practitioner. In most cases, however, diseases are under the control of medical skill; and the high satisfaction which a benevolent physician feels, in relieving the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, may serve as a recompense for the many adverse circumstances which attend the profession.
THE CHEMIST.
1. This globe, and every thing appertaining to it, is composed of substances, which exist either in a compound or simple state. It is the object of the scientific chemist to investigate the properties of these substances, and to show their action upon each other. By this science, therefore, compound bodies are reduced to the simple elements of which they are composed, or new combinations formed.
2. According to the preceding definitions, chemistry comprehends an immense variety of objects. It is scarcely possible to name a thing or phenomenon in the natural world, to which it does not directly or indirectly apply; even the growth of vegetables, and the preparation and digestion of our food, depend upon chemical principles.
3. The word chemistry is supposed to be of Egyptian origin, and, in its primary application, was the same with our phrase natural philosophy. Its meaning was afterwards restricted to the art of working those metals which were most esteemed. In the third century, it came to be applied to the pretended art of transmuting baser metals into gold. The science, in the latter sense of the word, was eagerly cultivated by the Greeks; and from them it passed to the Arabians, who introduced it into Europe under the name of alchemy.
4. The professors of the art were dignified with the appellation of alchemistic philosophers, and the leading doctrine of the sect was, that all metals are composed of the most simple substances; and that, consequently, base metals were capable of being changed into gold; hence, the chief object of their researches was the discovery of an agent, by which this great change was to be effected. The substance supposed to possess this wonderful property was called "the philosopher's stone;" the touch of which was to change every kind of metal into gold.