Great books of the Western world, vol. 45

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LUCRETIUS EPICTETUS MARCUS AURELIUS

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Introductory Volumes: 1.

2.

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The Great Conversation

The Great The Great

Ideas

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Ideas II

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AUGUSTINE

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GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD Lavoisier - Fourier Faraday

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CHEMISTRY

57

would be

Section III

lifeless

and inanimate. By means

of

the benevolence of the Deity hath filled the surface of the earth with organization, senlight,

Observations upon the Combinations of Light

and Caloric

with Different Substances

tions are not hitherto sufficiently accurate.

We

know, in general, that all bodies in nature are imbued, surrounded, and penetrated in every way with caloric, which fills up every interval left between their particles; that, in certain cases, caloric becomes fixed in bodies, so as to constitute a part even of their solid substance, though it more frequently acts upon them with a repulsive force, from which, or from its accumulation in bodies to a greater or lesser degree, the transformation of solids into fluids,

and

of fluids to aeriform elasticity, is entirely

owing. We have employed the generic name gas to indicate this aeriform state of bodies pro-

duced by a so that,

accumulation of

sufficient

when we wish

caloric,

to express the aeriform

state of muriatic acid, carbonic acid, hydrogen,

water, alcohol, &c. we do it by adding the word gas to their names; thus muriatic acid gas, carbonic acid gas, hydrogen gas, aqueous gas, alcoholic gas, &C.

The combinations act ni; i

By

upon

of light,

different bodies,

the experiments of

M.

and

is still

its

mode

less

of

known.

Berthollet,

pear- to have great affinity with oxygen,

it

ap-

is

sus-

combining with it, and contributes alongst with caloric to change it into the state of gas. Experiments upon vegetation give reason to believe that light combines with certain parts of vegetables, and that the green of their Leaves, and the various colours of their flowers, is chiefly owing to this combination. This much is certain, that plants which grow in darkness ceptible of

are perfectly white, languid,

and that

and unhealthy,

make them

recover vigour, and to acquire their natural colours, the direct influence of light is absolutely necessary. Something similar takes place even upon animals: to

mankind degenerate

and

sation,

have not constructed any table of the combinations of light and caloric with the various simple and compound substances, because our conceptions of the nature of these combinaI

to a certain degree

when

employed in sedentary manufactures, from living in crowded houses or in the narrow lanes of huge cities; whereas they improve in their nature and constitution in most of the country labours which are carried on in the open air. Organization, sensation, spontaneous motion, and all the operations of life, only exist at the surface of the earth, and in places exposed to the influence of light. Without it nature itself

intelligence.

The

fable of

Prome-

theus might perhaps be considered as giving a hint of this philosophical truth, which had even presented itself to the knowledge; of the ancients. I have intentionally avoided any disquisitions relative to organized bodies in this work, for which reason the phenomena of respiration, sanguification, and animal heat, are not considered; but I hope, at some future time, to be able to elucidate these curious subjects.

Section IV Observations

upon

the

Combinations of Oxygen

with the Simple Substances

Oxygen forms almost a third of the mass of our atmosphere and is consequently one of the most plentiful substances in nature. All the animals and vegetables live and grow in this immense magazine of oxygen gas, and from it w e procure the greatest part of what we employ in experiments. So great is the reciprocal affinity between this element and other substances that we cannot procure it disengaged from all combination. In the atmosphere it is united with caloric, in the state of oxygen gas, and this again is mixed with about two thirds r

of its

w eight r

of azotic gas.

Several conditions are requisite to enable a body to become oxygenated or to permit oxygen to enter into combination with it. In the first place, it is

necessary that the particles of

the body to be oxygenated shall have less reciprocal attraction with each other than they have for the oxygen, which otherwise cannot possibly combine with them. Nature, in this

may be assisted by art, as we have it in our power to diminish the attraction of the particles of bodies almost at will by heating them, or, in other words, by introducing caloric into the interstices between their particles; and, as the attraction of these particles for each other is diminished in the inverse ratio of their distance, it is evident that there must be a certain point of distance of particles when the affinity they possess with each other becomes less than that they have for oxygen, and at which oxygenation must necessarily take place if oxygen be present. We can readily conceive that the degree of heat at which this phenomenon begins must be different in different bodies. Hence, on purpose to oxygenate most bodies, especially the greatcase,

—

— LAVOISIER

58 er part of the simple substances,

essary to expose

them

only nec-

it is

to the influence of the

atmosphere in a convenient degree of temperature. With respect to lead, mercury, and tin, this needs be but little higher than the medium temperature of the earth; but it requires a more considerable degree of heat to oxygenate iron, copper, &c, by the dry way, or when this operation is not assisted by moisture. Sometimes oxygenation takes place with great air of the

and is accompanied by great sensible and flame; such is the combustion of phosphorus in atmospheric air and of iron in oxygen gas. That of sulphur is less rapid; and the oxygenation of lead, tin, and most of the metals, takes place vastly slower, and consequently the disengagement of caloric, and more especially of light, is hardly perceptible. Some substances have so strong an affinity with oxygen, and combine with it in such low rapidity

heat, light,

degrees of temperature, that

we cannot

pro-

cure them in their unoxygenated state; such is the muriatic acid, which has not hitherto been

Table

decomposed by art, perhaps even not by nature, and which consequently has only been found in the state of acid.

many other substances

It is

are necessarily oxygenated in the

further action

upon that element.

There are other means

of oxygenating simple substances besides exposure to air in a certain degree of temperature, such as by placing them in contact with metals combined with oxygen and which have little affinity with that element. The red oxide of mercury is one of the best substances for this purpose, especially with bodies which do not combine with that metal. In this oxide the oxygen is united with very little force to the metal, and can be driven out by a degree of heat only sufficient to make glass red hot; wherefore such bodies as are capable of uniting with oxygen are readily oxygenated by means of being mixed with red oxide of mercury and moderately heated. The

of the Combinations of

of the Radicals

Names

Oxygen with

the

of the Resulting Acids

New Names Nitro-muriatic

Nitro-muriatic acid

radical

Malic

Tartarous acid Malic acid

Citric

Citric acid

Tartaric

Pyro-lignous

Pyro-mucous Pyro-tartarous Oxalic

£ -*-3

o

Acetic Succinic

Benzoic

Camphoric