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The Christian Philosopher; or, Science and Religion

Chemistry

Chemistry.

This science, which is intimately related to the preceding, has for its object to ascertain the ingredients, or first principles, of which all matter is composed—to examine the compounds formed by the combination of these ingredients—to investigate those changes in natural bodies, which are not accompanied with sensible motion, and the nature of the power which produces these combinations and changes.

Within the limits of the last half century, the empire of Chemistry has been wonderfully extended. From an obscure and humble place among the objects of study, it has risen to a high and dignified station among those sciences which improve and adorn the human mind. No longer confined to the paltry and mercenary object of searching for the philosopher's stone, or of furnishing a little amusement, it now extends its sway over all the arts which minister to the comfort and improvement of social life, and over every species of animate and inanimate matter, within the range of human investigation. There is scarcely any science so immediately conducive to social improvement and human comfort. To whatever art or manufacture we turn our attention, we find that it has either been created by chemistry, or is indebted to its discoveries for some of its greatest improvements; and to whatever process in the material world we direct our investigations, the principles of this science, as deduced from modern experiments and discoveries, are capable of being applied. “The forms and appearances,” says Sir Humphrey Davy, “of the beings and substances of the external world, are almost infinitely various, and they are in a state of continued alteration. Even the earth itself, throughout its whole surface, 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 organized 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 mi[gap — reason: unclear] and intelligence. In artificial operations, change’ of the same order occur: substances having the characters of earth, 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; colors are fixed upon stuffs; or changed, or made to disappear; and the productions of the vegetable, mineral, and animal kingdoms, are converted into new forms, and made subservient to the purposes of civilized life.—To trace, in detail, those diversified and complicated phenomena; to arrange them, and deduce general laws from their analogies, is the business of Chemistry.”*

* Elements of Chemical Philosophy.

page 104

Chemists have arranged the general forms of matter into the four following classes:—The first class consists of solids, which form the principal parts of the globe, and which differ from each other in hardness, color, opacity, transparency, density, and other properties. The second class consists of fluids, such as water, oils, spirits, etc., whose parts possess freedom of motion, and require great mechanical force to make them occupy a smaller space. The third class comprehends elastic fluids, or gases, which exist freely in the atmosphere; but may be confined by solids and fluids, and their properties examined. Their parts are highly movable, compressible, and expansive; they are all transparent; they present two or three varieties of color; and they differ greatly in density. The fourth class comprehends ethereal substances, which are known to us only in their states of motion, when acting upon our organs of sense, and which are not susceptible of being confined. Such are the rays of light, and radiant heat, which are incessantly in motion, throughout the spaces that intervene between our globe, and the sun and the stars.—Chemists divide the substances in nature also into simple and compound. Simple substances are those which have never yet been decomposed, nor formed by art. Compound substances are those which are formed by the union of two or more simple substances. The following are all the simple substances with which we are at present acquainted: Caloric, Light, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, the Metals, and some of the earths.—All that I propose under this article is simply to state some of the properties of two or three of these simple substances.

Caloric, or elementary fire, is the name now given by chemists to that element or property which, combined with various bodies, produces the sensation of heat while it is passing from one body to another. This substance appears to pervade the whole system of nature. There are six different sources from whence Caloric may be procured. It may be produced by combustion, in which process the oxygen gas of the atmosphere is decomposed, and caloric, one of its component parts, set at liberty—by friction, or the rubbing of two substances against each other—by percussion, as the striking of steel against a piece of flint—by the mixture of two or more substances, as when sulphuric acid is poured upon water or magnesia—by electricity and galvanism. The discharge of an electric or galvanic battery, will produce a more intense degree of heat than any other means whatever. But the principal, and probably the original source of caloric, is the Sun, which furnishes the earth with a regular supply for the support and nourishment of the animal and vegetable tribes. From this source it moves at the rate of 192,000 miles in a second of time; for it has been already stated, that the sun sends forth rays of heat which are distinct from those which produce illumination, and which accompany them in their course through the ethereal regions.

Caloric is the cause of fluidity, in all substances which are capable of becoming fluid. A certain portion, or dose of it, reduces a solid body to the state of an incompressible fluid; a larger portion brings it to the state of an aeriform or gaseous fluid. Thus, a certain portion of caloric reduces ice to a state of water; a larger portion converts it into steam or vapor. There is reason to believe, that the hardest rocks, the densest metals, and every solid substance on the face of the earth, might be converted into a fluid, and even into a gas, were they submitted to the action of a very high temperature. This substance is called sensible caloric, when it produces the sensation of heat; and latent caloric, when it forms an insensible part of the substance of bodies. One of the principal effects of caloric is the expansion of bodies. All bodies, with a very few exceptions, are capable of expansion by means of heat; the gases being the most expansive, and solids the least susceptible of expansion. The expansion of gases or any aeriform substance is illustrated by the experiment of a half-blown bladder held before a fire, as stated under the article Pneumatics, p. 94. The expansion of solids is illustrated by the following process: When the iron rim of a cartwheel is to be put on, it is first heated to a considerable degree. When hot, the circle is somewhat larger than when cold, and thus easily slips round the wheel; but, as it cools, the circle decreases, and firmly binds together the woodwork of which the wheel is composed. In reference to fluid bodies the same fact is exemplified in the Thermometer—the mercury or spirit of wine in which rises or falls in proportion to the quantity of heat which is applied to the instrument.—Other effects of heat are liquefaction, as when ice is converted into water—vaporization, as when water is converted into steam—ignition, as when bodies by heat are made to produce flame—and evaporation, when substances send off vapor from their surfaces at temperatures below the boiling point. The heat of the sun and other causes produce this effect every day over the whole surface of the globe. An immense quantity of vapor is thus continually rising from the surface of the land and seas, which is either formed into clouds, or condensed into rains or dew—which process is of most essential service throughout the whole economy of the physical constitution of our globe.—All bodies are, in a greater or less degree, conductors of caloric. Metals and liquids are good conductors of heat; but silk, cotton wool, wood, etc., are bad conductors of it. For example, if we put a short poker into the fire at one end, it will soon become hot at the other; but this will not happen with a piece of wood of the same length, and under the same circumstances. A person with a silken purse, containing metal coin, may stand so near the fire, as to make the metal almost too hot to touch, though the temperature of the purse will apparently be scarcely altered. If a hand be put upon a hot body, part of the caloric leaves the hot body and enters the hand, producing the sensation of heat. On the contrary, if a hand be put on a cold body, as a piece of iron, or another colder hand, part of the caloric contained in the hand leaves it to unite with the colder body, producing the sensation of cold. In short, caloric is diffused throughout all bodies, and enters into every operation in nature; and, were it not for the influence of this subtile fluid, there is reason to believe that the whole matter of the universe would be condensed into a solid mass.

Oxygen is a very pure, subtile, and elastic substance, generally diffused throughout nature; but is never found unless in combination with other substances. It is one of the most important agents in nature; there being scarcely a single process, whether natural or artificial, in which oxygen has not some important share. When combined with caloric it is called oxygen gas, which forms one of the constituent parts of the atmosphere. It is a permanently elastic fluid, transparent, colorless, and destitute of taste and smell; 100 cubic inche[gap — reason: unclear] page 105 of it weigh 33°9153 grains, that is, nearly 34 grains. And as the same bulk of common air weighs 30°8115 grains under the same circumstances, the specific gravity of oxygen is reckoned 1°1007, that of common air being reckoned 1°000, though some chemists have adopted 1°111 as its specific gravity compared with atmospheric air. In this state, it forms the principle of combustion: producing the most rapid deflagration of all combustible substances. If a lighted taper be let down into a jar of oxygen gas, it burns with such splendor that the eye can scarcely bear the glare of light, and at the same time produces a much greater heat than when burning in common air. If a steel wire, or a thin file, having a sharp point, armed with a piece of wood in inflammation, be introduced into a jar filled with this gas, the steel will take fire, and its combustion will continue producing a most brilliant phenomenon. It has been proved, by numerous experiments, that this gas is so essential to combustion, that no substance will burn in common air which has been previously deprived of its oxygen. It is also essential to the support of animal life; so that man, and all the inferior ranks of animated nature, may be said to depend upon this fluid for their existence. Its basis gives the acid character to all mineral and vegetable salts; and the calcination of metals is altogether effected by their union with oxygen. It constitutes the basis both of the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, and of the water which forms its rivers, seas, and oceans. It pervades the substance of all the vegetable tribes, and enables them to perform their functions; and, in combination with the different metals, serves the most important purposes in the useful arts. In the operation of this elementary principle, we perceive a striking display of the agency of the Creator, and of the admirable means which his wisdom has contrived for preserving in due order the system of nature. And as this wonderful substance is so essentially necessary to animal and vegetable existence, everything is so arranged as to produce a regular supply of it, notwithstanding its incessant changes, and the multifarious combinations into which it is continually entering.

One of the most extraordinary effects of oxygen appears, when it is combined, in a certain proportion, with nitrogen, so as to form the gaseous oxide of nitrogen, or what is commonly called nitrous oxide. This gas consists of 63 parts nitrogen, and 37 oxygen, by weight. When inhaled into the lungs, it produces an extraordinary elevation of the animal spirits, a propensity to leaping and running, involuntary fits of laughter, a rapid flow of vivid ideas, and a thousand delightful emotions, without being accompanied with any subsequent feelings of debility. This circumstance shows what a variety of delightful or pernicious effects might flow from the slightest change in the constitution of the atmosphere, were the hand of the Almighty to interpose in altering the proportion of its constituent parts; for atmospheric air is composed of 79 parts of nitrogen, and 21 of oxygen, which is not a very different proportion from the above. Another gas, called nitric oxide, composed of 56 parts oxygen, and 44 nitrogen, produces instant suffocation in all animals that attempt to breathe it. One of the most corrosive acids, the nitrous acid, or aquafortis, is composed of 75 parts oxygen, and 25 parts nitrogen; so that we are every moment breathing a certain substance, which, in another combination, would produce the most dreadful pain, and cause our immediate destruction. What a striking proof does this afford of the infinite comprehension of the Divine Mind, in foreseeing all the consequences of the elements of nature, and in directing their numerous combinations in such a manner as to promote the happiness of animated beings!

Nitrogen, or azote, is a substance generally diffused throughout nature, and particularly in animal bodies. It is not to be found in a solid or liquid state, but, combined with caloric, it forms nitrogen gas, which is one of the ingredients of the atmosphere. It enters extensively into combination with various substances; it is an abundant element in animal matter; and its existence in such large quantity is a chief distinction between the constitution of the substances which compose animal and vegetable matter. Its specific gravity is 0°9748, which is lighter than common atmospheric air, and therefore ascends in it. Were it heavier it would accumulate to such a degree in our apartments as to be pernicious and even destructive to our health and existence. It is incapable of supporting either flame or animal life. This is proved by introducing an animal, or a burning candle, into a vessel full of this gas; in which case, the animal is suddenly suffocated, and the candle instantly extinguished. It is this gas which is expelled from the lungs at every expiration, and rising over our heads, soon enters into new combinations. Though it is destructive to animal life, it appears to be favorable to plants, which vegetate freely when surrounded with nitrogen.

Hydrogen is another elementary substance, abundant in nature, and, when united to caloric, forms hydrogen gas. It is one of the constituent parts of water; for it has been completely demonstrated by experiment, that water is composed of 85 parts by weight of oxygen, and 15 of hydrogen, in every hundred parts of the fluid. This gas was formerly known by the name of inflammable air. It is distinguished among miners by the name of fire-damp; it abounds in coal-mines, and sometimes produces the most tremendous explosions.* It is incapable by itself of supporting combustion, and cannot be breathed without the most imminent danger. It is the chief constituent of oils, fats, spirits, ether, coals, and bitumen; and is supposed to be one of the agents which produce the ignes fatui, and the northern lights. It is the lightest of all ponderable bodies, being from twelve to fifteen times lighter than common air A hundred cubic inches of it weigh about 214 grains. On account of its great levity, it is used for filling air balloons. In contact with atmosperic air, it burns with a pale blue color. When mixed with oxygen gas, it may be exploded, like gunpowder, with a violent report. Carburetted hydrogen gas, which is carbon dissolved by hydrogen, is that beautiful gas which is now employed in lighting our streets, shops, and manufactories.

* It appears from the First Report of the “Children's Employment Commission,” appointed by Parliament in 1842, that, at the very least, 1500 lives have been sacrificed in and about the Tyne and Weir collieries in the neighborhood of Newcastle within the last 40 years, chiefly by the explosions of hydrogen gas which have taken place in the coal-mines. To counteract such effects, Sir H. Davy, in 1815, displayed his ingenuity by the invention of his Safety Lamp—which is made of wire gauze, and has this particular property, that the miner may move about with it, and even work by its light in the midst of those explosive mixtures which have so often proved fatal, when entered with a common lamp or candle. But the want of accuracy in some of the manufacturers of the gauze with which the instrument is constructed—and the carelessness of the miners in using it—have frequently prevented its beneficial effects from being realized. For a particular description of this lamp, see “Diffusion of Knowledge,” Sees. II, V, and the Appendix.

page 116

Carbon is another simple substance extensively diffused throughout nature. It is found pure and solid only in the diamond; but it may be procured in the state of charcoal, by burning a piece of wood, closely covered with sand, in a crucible. Carbon enters into the composition of bitumen and pit coal, and of most animal and some mineral substances; and it forms nearly the whole of the solid basis of all vegetables, from the most delicate flower to the stately oak. It is also a component part of sugar, and of all kinds of wax, oils, gums, and resins. It combines with iron in various proportions, and the results are, cast-iron and steel. Black lead is a composition of nine parts of carbon to one of iron; and is therefore called a carburet of iron. Carbon is indestructible by age, and preserves its identity in all the combinations into which it enters—Carbonic acid gas is a combination of carbon and oxygen. It is found in a state of combination with lime, forming limestone, marble, and chalk; and may be separated from them by heat, or by means of the mineral acids. This gas, which was formerly called fixed air, is found in mines, caves, the bottoms of wells, wine cellars, brewers’ vats, and in the neighborhood of limekilns. It is known to miners by the name of choke-damp, and too frequently runs on deadly errands. It extinguishes flame and animal life. It is the heaviest of all the gases; being nearly twice the weight of common air, and twenty times the weight of hydrogen. It may therefore be poured from one vessel to another; and a lighted taper is instantly extinguished by pouring a small quantity of it over the flame. It is a powerful antiseptic, or preserver from putrefaction. Meat which has been sealed up in it (says Mr. Parkes), has been known to have preserved its texture and appearance for more than twenty years. There is no substance of more importance in civilized life than the different forms of Carbon. “In nature,” says Sir H. Davy, “this element is constantly active in an important series of operations. It is evolved in fermentation and combustion, in Carbonic acid; it is separated from oxygen in the organs of plants; it is a principal element in animal structures; and is found in different forms in almost all the products of organized beings.”

Chlorine is a gas of a greenish color. It is fatal to animal life, if breathed undiluted with common air, but it does not, like nitrogen and carbonic acid gas, extinguish combustion. A candle burns in it with a red flame; and it possesses the remarkable property of setting fire to many of the metals, even at the common temperature of the air, when introduced into it beaten out into thin leaves or reduced to filings—such as copper, tin, arsenic, zinc, and antimony. It has the property of destroying all vegetable colors. If a vegetable blue, for instance, be exposed to its action, the color is not changed to a red, as it would be by an acid,—nor to a green, as it would be by an alkali,—but it is totally destroyed. On this account Chlorine has been introduced as a powerful agent in the art of bleaching; for if unbleached linens be properly exposed to its action, the matter which gives them their gray color is destroyed. But if applied in its pure state, and not sufficiently diluted, it invariably destroys the strength and texture of the linens. The specific gravity of this gas, when free from watery vapor is 2°5, common air being 1° and 100 cubic inches of it weigh about 77 grains.

Iodine is the name of an undecompounded principle or element in chemistry. It remained undiscovered until 1812, when a manufacturer of saltpeter in Paris detected it in the ashes of sea weeds. It resembles chlorine in some of its properties, and is derived from a source which also supplies chlorine, both of them being of marine origin. It may be procured by drying and powdering common sea weed, and heating it with sulphuric acid. A violet colored vapor rises, which, if received in a cool vessel, will condense on its sides, and will form scaly crystals of a somewhat metallic luster. These crystals are the substance in question; and from the violet color of its vapor it is called iodine. Its specific gravity is 3°084; it melts at a heat a little above that of boiling water; at the temperature of 350° it boils and evaporates in a violet-colored vapor. It stains the fingers yellow, and consumes the cork of the vial in which it is contained. Its smell is disagreeable, its taste acrid, it destroys vegetable colors, and it possesses poisonous properties. It has the property of forming a beautiful blue color, when mixed with a little powdered starch, and diffused through cold water; and hence iodine and starch are used by chemists as mutual tests of each other's presence, even in the most minute quantity.

Sulphur is a substance which has been known from the earliest ages. It was used by the ancients in medicine, and its fumes have, for more than 2000 years, been employed in bleaching wool. It is found combined with many mineral substances, as arsenic, antimony, copper, and most of the metallic ores. It exists in many mineral waters, and in combination with vegetable and animal matters, but is most abundant in volcanic countries, particularly in the neighborhood of Vesuvius, Etna, and Hecla in Iceland. It is a solid, opaque, combustible substance, of a pale yellow color, very brittle, and almost without taste or smell. Its specific gravity is nearly twice that of water: it is a non-conductor of electricity, and, of course, becomes electric by friction. when heated to the temperature of 170° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, it rises up in the form of a fine powder, which is easily collected in a proper vessel, and is named the flowers of sulphur. It is insoluble in water, but may be dissolved in oils, in spirit of wine, and in hydrogen gas. When sulphur is heated to the temperature of 302° in the open air, it takes fire spontaneously and burns with a pale blue flame, and emits a great quantity of fumes of a strong suffocating odor. When heated to the temperature of 570°, it burns with a bright white flame, and emits a vast quantity of fumes. When these fumes are collected, they are found to consist entirely of sulphuric acid; so that sulphur, by combustion, is converted into an acid. It is the base of several compound substances. It unites with oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, the alkalies, the metals, and some of the earths. This substance is of great importance in medicine, as it is found to penetrate to the extremities of the most minute vessels, and to impregnate all the secretions. It is also used in the arts, particularly in bleaching and dyeing; it forms a very large proportion of gunpowder; and one of its most common but not least useful properties, is that of its combustibility, by which, with the help of a tinder-box, light is almost instantaneously produced. As this substance has not yet been decomposed, it is considered by chemists, in the meantime, as one of the simple substances.

Phosphorus is another simple combustible substance, but is never found in a pure state in nature. It is commonly united to oxygen in the state of phosphoric acid, which is found in differ- page 107 ent animal, vegetable, and mineral substances. It was first discovered by Brandt, a chemist of Hamburgh, in the year 1667, and afterward by the Honorable Mr. Boyle, in 1679. It was formerly obtained by a disgusting process; but is now extracted from the bones of animals, by burning them, and then reducing them to a fine powder, and afterward pouring sulphuric acid upon them. This substance, when pure, resembles bees’ wax, being of a clear, transparent, yellowish color; it is insoluble in water; it may be cut with a knife, or twisted to pieces with the fingers; and it is about double the specific gravity of water. Its most remarkable property is its very strong attraction for oxygen, from which circumstance it burns spontaneously in the open air at the temperature of 43°; that is, it attracts the oxygen gas from the atmosphere, and heat and flame are produced. It gradually consumes when exposed to the common temperature of air, emits a whitish smoke, and is luminous in the dark; for this reason it is kept in vials of water; and as the heat of the hand is sufficient to inflame it, it should seldom be handled except under water. At the temperature of 99° it melts; it evaporates at 219°, and boils at 554°. When heated to 148° it takes fire, and burns with a very bright flame, and gives out a large quantity of white smoke, which is luminous in the dark: at the same time it emits an odor, which has some resemblance to that of garlic; and this smoke, when collected, is proved to be an acid. It burns with the greatest splendor in oxygen gas, and, when taken internally, it is found to be poisonous. If any light substance, capable of conducting heat, be placed upon the surface of boiling water, and a bit of phosphorus be laid upon it, the heat of the water will be sufficient to set the phosphorus on fire. If we write a few words on paper, with a bit of phosphorus fixed in a quill, when the writing is carried into a dark room it will appear beautifully luminous. If a piece of phosphorus, about the size of a pea, be dropped into a tumbler of hot water, and a stream of oxygen gas forced directly upon it, it will under water display the most brilliant combustion that can be imagined. All experiments with phosphorus, however, require to be performed with great caution. This substance is used in making phosphoric match-bottles, phosphoric oil, phosphoric tapers, and various phosphoric fire-works. Phosphorized hydrogen gas is produced by bits of phosphorus remaining some hours in hydrogen gas. It is supposed to be that gas which is seen hovering on the surface of burial-grounds and marshes, known in Scotland by the name of spunkie, and in England by that of will-o'-the-wisp.

Some animals, as the glow-worm and the fire-fly, and fish in a putrescent state, exhibit phosphorescent qualities. M. Peron describes a singular instance of this kind in an animal which he calls the pyrosoma atlanticum, which he observed in his voyage from Europe to the Isle of France. The darkness was intense when it was first discovered; and all at once there appeared at some distance, as it were, a vast sheet of phosphorus floating on the waves, which occupied a great space before the vessel. When the vessel had passed through this inflamed part of the sea, it was found, that this prodigious light was occasioned by an immense number of small animals, which swam at different depths, and appeared to assume various forms. Those which were deepest looked like great red-hot cannon balls, while those on the surface resembled cylinders of red-hot iron. Some of them were caught, and were found to vary in size from three to seven inches. All the exterior surface of the animal was bristled with thick oblong tubercles, shining like so many diamonds; and these seemed, to be the principal seat of its wonderful phosphorescence.

Such is a brief description of the principal elementary substances, which, in a thousand diversified forms, pervade the system of nature, and produce all that variety which we behold in the atmosphere, the waters, the earth, and the various processes of the arts. It is probable that some of these substances are compounds, though they have not yet been decomposed. Yea, it is possible, and not at all improbable, that there are but two, or at most three elementary substances in nature, the various modifications of which produce all the beauties and sublimities in the universe. Perhaps caloric, oxygen, and hydrogen, may ultimately be found to constitute all the elementary principles of nature.—Without prosecuting this subject further, I shall conclude this article with a few cursory reflections, tending to illustrate its connection with religion.

The remarks which I have already thrown out in reference to Natural Philosophy will equally apply to the science of Chemistry; and there—fore do not require to be repeated. In addition to these, the following observations may be stated:—

1. This science displays, in a striking point of view, the wisdom and goodness of God, in producing, by the most simple means, the most astonishing and benevolent effects. All the varied phenomena we perceive throughout the whole system of sublunary nature are produced by a combination of six or seven simple substances. I formerly adverted to the infinite variety which exists in the vegetable kingdom.* About 56,000 different species of plants have already been discovered by botanists. All these, from the humble shrub to the cedar of Lebanon, which adorn the surface of the globe, in every clime, with such a diversity of forms, shades, and colors, are the result of the combinations of “four or five natural substances—caloric, light, water, air, and carbon.” “When we consider,” says Mr. Parkes, “that the many thousand tribes of vegetables are not only all formed from a few simple substances, but that they all enjoy the same sun, vegetate in the same medium, and are supplied with the same nutriment, we cannot but be struck with the rich economy of nature, and are almost induced to doubt the evidence of those senses with which the God of nature has furnished us. That it should be possible so to modify and intermingle a few simple substances, and thence produce all the variety of form, color, odor, etc., which is observable in the different families of vegetables, is a phenomenon too astonishing for our comprehension.—Nothing short of Omnipotence could have provided such a paradise for man.”

“Soft roll your incense, herbs and fruits and flowers, In mingled clouds, to Him whose sun exalts, Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.”Thomson.

What an admirable view is here opened up of the economy of Divine wisdom, and of the beneficent care which has been taken to secure the comfort and happiness of every living creature; and how ungrateful a disposition must it indicate in rational beings to overlook such benevolent arrangements! It is highly probable, that, in all the other worlds dispersed throughout the universe,

* See. p. 34.

Chemical Catechism, chap. ix.

page 108 an infinite diversity of scenery exists, and that no one globe or system exactly resembles another; and yet it is probable, that the primary elements of matter, or the few simple substances of which our world is composed, may be of the same nature as those which form the constituent parts of every other system; and may give birth to all the variety which exists throughout the wide extent of creation, and to all the changes and revolutions through which the different systems may pass, during every period of infinite duration.

2. From this science we have every reason to conclude that matter is indestructible. In the various changes that take place in material substances, the particles of matter are not destroyed, hut only assume new forms, and enter into new combinations. When a piece of wood, for example, is burned to ashes, none of its principles are destroyed; the elementary substances of which it was composed are only separated from one another, and formed into new compounds. Carbon, as already stated, appears to be indestructible by age, and to preserve its essential properties, in every mode of its existence. That Being, indeed, who created matter at first, may reduce it to nothing when he pleases; but it is highly improbable that his power will ever be Interposed to produce this effect; or that any particle of matter which now exists, will ever be annihilated, into whatever new or varied combinations it may enter. When any particular world, or assemblage of material existence, has remained in its original state for a certain period of duration, and accomplished all the ends it was intended to subserve in that state, the materials of which it is composed will, in all probability, be employed for erecting a new system, and establishing a new series of events, in which new scenes, and new beauties and sublimities will arise from new and varied combinations. For the Creator does nothing in vain. But to annihilate, and again to create, would be operating in vain; and we uniformly find, that in all the arrangements of Deity, in the present state of things, Nature is frugal and economical in all her proceedings; so that there is no process, when thoroughly investigated, that appears unnecessary or superfluous.

From the fact, that matter appears to be indestructible, we may learn, that the Creator, with the self-same materials which now exist around us, may, after the general conflagration, new model and arrange the globe we inhabit, so as to make a more glorious world to rise out of its ashes; purified from those physical evils which now exist; and fitted for the accommodation either of renovated men, or of other pure intelligences. From the same fact combined with the consideration of the infinite diversity of effects which the simple substances of nature are capable of producing, we may be enabled to form a conception of the ease with which the Creator may new-model our bodies, after they have been dissolved in the dust; and how, from the same original atoms, he may construct and adorn them with more glorious forms, and more delightful and exquisite senses than they now possess.

In short, the rapid progress which chemical science is now making, promises, ere long, to introduce improvements among the human race, which will expand their views of the agency of God, counteract many physical evils, and promote, to an extent which has never yet been experienced, their social and domestic enjoyment.—The late discoveries of Chemistry tend to convince us, that the properties and powers of natural substances are only beginning to be discovered.

Who could have imagined, a century ago, that an invisible substance is contained in a piece of coal, capable of producing the most beautiful and splendid illumination—that this substance may be conveyed, in a few moments, through pipes of several miles in length—and that a city, containing several hundred thousands of inhabitants, may be instantly lighted up by it, without the aid of either wax, oil, or tallow? Who could have imagined that one of the ingredients of the air we breathe is the principle of combustion—that a rod of iron may be made to burn in it with a brilliancy that dazzles the eyes—that a piece of charcoal may be made to burn with a white and splendid light, which is inferior only to the solar rays—and that the diamond is nothing more than carbon in a crystallized state, and differs only in a slight degree from a bit of common charcoal?—who could have surmised, that a substance would be discovered, of such a degree of levity, as would have power sufficient to buoy up a number of men to the upper parts of the atmosphere, and enable them to swim, in safety, above the region of the clouds? These are only specimens of still more brilliant discoveries which will, doubtless, be brought to light by the researches of future generations. We have reason to believe, that the investigations of this science will in due time, enable us to counteract most of the diseases incident to the human frame; and to prevent many of those fatal accidents to which mankind are now exposed. Davy's safety lamp has already preserved many individuals from destruction, when working in coal mines; and thousands, in after ages, will be indebted to this discovery, for security from the dreadful explosions of hydrogen gas. And, we trust, that the period is not far distant, when specific antidotes to the diseases peculiar to the different trades and occupations in which mankind are employed will be discovered; and the health and vigor of the mass of society be preserved unimpaired, amidst all the processes in which they may be engaged.

In fine, the rapid progress of chemical discovery carries forward our views to a period, when man, having thoroughly explored the powers of nature, and subjected them, in some measure, to his control, will be enabled to ward off most of those physical evils with which he is now annoyed, and to raise himself, in some degree, to the dignity and happiness he enjoyed before moral evil had shed its baleful influence on our terrestrial system. Such a period corresponds to many of the descriptions contained in the Sacred Oracles of the millennial state of the church; when social, domestic, moral, and intellectual improvement shall be carried to the utmost perfection which our sublunary station will permit; when wars shall cease; when the knowledge of Jehovah shall cover the earth; when every man shall sit under his vine and fig-tree, without being exposed to the least alarm; and when there shall be no thing to hurt nor destroy throughout the church of the living God. And, therefore, we ought to consider the various discoveries and improvements now going forward in this, and other departments of science, as preparing the way for the introduction of this long-expected and auspicious era.