Excerpt from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1923, Vol. 47 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen - To tell the story of the scientists of Philadelphia would require many hours. I propose therefore to restrict myself to a recital of the work of some of the men who were partial to my science, chemistry, because it is the oldest of the sciences. All other sciences are dependent upon it. In the language of another, it has done more for the comfort, the welfare and the happiness of man than all the others put together. There was a time when chemistry was looked upon as the black art. There was a period in its history when kings and emperors called it to their aid. Ivhen their money coffers were depleted they looked to the devotees of the science to replenish them. That was the period in which chemis try bore the name alchemy, when it was said to be the science or the art of making gold and silver; when through the instrumentality of what was termed the philosopher's stone, base, ignoble metals were trans muted into the precious metals, silver and gold. No one ever dreamed that alchemy was practiced outside of Europe. If five years ago any chemist in any part of the world had been asked whether alchemy was. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.