The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (Volume 4); Elements of Chemical Philosophy Paperback -

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART I. ON THE LAWS OF CHEMICAL CHANGES; ON UNDECOM- POUNDED BODIES AND THEIR PRIMARY COMBINATIONS. DIVISION I. ON THE POWERS AND PROPERTIES OF MATTER, AND THE GENERAL LAWS OF CHEMICAL CHANGES. I. Preliminary Observations. 1. The forms and appearances of the beings and substances of the external world are almost infinitely various, and they are in a state of continued alteration: the whole surface of the earth even undergoes modifications: acted on by moisture and air, it affords the food of plants; an immense number of vegetable productions arise from apparently the same materials; these become the substance of animals; one species of animal matter is converted into another; the most perfect and beautiful of the forms of organised life ultimately decay, and are resolved into inorganic aggregates; and the same elementary substances, differently arranged, are contained in the inert soil, or bloom and emit fragrance in the flower, or become in animals the active organs of mind and intelligence. In artificial operations, changes of the same order occur; substances having the characters of earths are converted into metals; clays and sands are united so as to become porcelain; earths and alkalies are combined into glass; acrid and corrosive matters are formed from tasteless substances;?colours are fixed upon stuffs, or changed, or made to disappear; and the productions of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms are converted into new forms, and made subservient to the purposes of civilized life. 2. To trace in detail these diversified and complicated phenomena, to arrange them and deduce general laws from their analogies, would be a labour to which even the longest life of the most industrious and sagacious individual might be devoted in vain. The student who h...