Elements of chemistry : including the most recent discoveries and applications of the science to medicine and pharmacy, and to the arts / by Robert Kane.

  • Kane, Robert, 1809-1890.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of chemistry : including the most recent discoveries and applications of the science to medicine and pharmacy, and to the arts / by Robert Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    18/716
    either in the same proportions, and thus regenerate the natural compound bodies, or in new proportions, and thus add to the cata- logue of bodies which may exist in nature. Of these two operations, the first, or separation of a compound body into the simple substances which constitute it, is termed anal- ysis. The second, or combination of simple to form a compound substance, is called synthesis. All chemical processes are conducted upon the principle of one or other of these two, and occasionally they are both, successively or synchronously, accomplished. The objects of chemistry cannot, however, be considered as limited to the mere abstract study of the laws of elementary com- position ; to it also belongs the improvement of processes in the useful arts by the more accurate knowledge of their theory which chemistry confers, and the invention of new processes or of new arts, by the application or discovery of substances previously neg- lected or unknown; the alleviation of disease, by new remedies which may be placed at the command of the physician, or by more correct ideas of the origin and results of morbid action, to which the attentive study of the chemical processes of the great labora- tory of the human frame may ultimately lead, ranks also among the most important of its applications: and, although an abstract science, which reveals some of the most beautiful of nature's laws, deserves our best attention, yet it becomes invested with more general interest, and commands more universal homage, when, as with chemistry, it appears to be the basis of those practical arts on which so much of health, of national prosperity, and of civilization may depend. The origin or derivation of the word chemistry is unknown. It was first found as %7]\izia, indicating the art of making gold and silver among the Egyptians and Greeks of the Empire, at the com- mencement of that extraordinary perversion of the idea of ele- mentary constitution which fascinated mankind for nearly five hun- dred years. From the Greeks it was naturally adopted, with the vain pursuit which it denoted, by the Arabians, and, passing with the Arabic prefix into the languages of modern Europe, became alchemy. When the just objects and powers of the science were finally recognised, it was termed chemia or chemistry. In studying those properties of the different kinds of matter by which they are recognised to be distinct and independent chemical substances, it is unavoidable to include those qualities which al- though common to all forms of matter, yet differ in degree among the different kinds, and thus serve as distinguishing characteristics of them. The physical properties of various bodies are hence in common use among chemists, as serving to perfect their description ■ and, indeed, the limit between properly physical and properly chem- ical properties of substances is not always capable of being dis- tinctly drawn.