Part First.

THE USE OF THE BLOWPIPE.


Perhaps during the last fifty years, no department of chemistry has
been so enriched as that relating to analysis by means of the
Blowpipe.

Through the unwearied exertions of men of science, the use of this
instrument has arrived to such a degree of perfection, that we have a
right to term its use, "Analysis in the _dry_ way," in contradistinction
to analysis "in the _wet_ way." The manipulations are so simple and
expeditious, and the results so clear and characteristic, that the
Blowpipe analysis not only verifies and completes the results of
analysis in the wet way, but it gives in many cases direct evidences
of the presence or absence of many substances, which would not be
otherwise detected, but through a troublesome and tedious process,
involving both prolixity and time; for instance, the detection of
manganese in minerals.

Many substances have to go through Blowpipe manipulations before they
can be submitted to an analysis in the wet way. The apparatus and
reagents employed are compendious and small in number, so that they
can be carried easily while on scientific excursions, a considerable
advantage for mineralogists and metallurgists.