Those metallic bodies we are at present acquainted with, and which we
can reduce to the metallic or reguline state, are the following
seventeen:
1. Arsenic.
2. Molybdena.
3. Tungstein.
4. Manganese.
5. Nickel.
6. Cobalt.
7. Bismuth.
8. Antimony.
9. Zinc.
10. Iron.
11. Tin.
12. Lead.
13. Copper.
14. Mercury.
15. Silver.
16. Platina.
17. Gold.
I only mean to consider these as salifiable bases, without entering at
all upon the consideration of their properties in the arts, and for the
uses of society. In these points of view each metal would require a
complete treatise, which would lead me far beyond the bounds I have
prescribed for this work.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] I have not ventured to omit this element, as here enumerated with
the other principles of animal and vegetable substances, though it is
not at all taken notice of in the preceding chapters as entering into
the composition of these bodies.--E.
[31] Perhaps my thus rejecting the alkalies from the class of salts may
be considered as a capital defect in the method I have adopted, and I am
ready to admit the charge; but this inconvenience is compensated by so
many advantages, that I could not think it of sufficient consequence to
make me alter my plan.--A.
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