A System of Instruction in the Practical 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.