A manual of chemistry : theoretical and practical : based on Watts' edition of Fownes' Manual / by William A. Tilden.

  • William A. Tilden
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of chemistry : theoretical and practical : based on Watts' edition of Fownes' Manual / by William A. Tilden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    A MANUAL OF CHEMISTRY. f INTRODUCTIOK The Science of Chemistry has for its object the study of the com- I^osition of the materials out of which are formed the earth, the sea, the air, and the organised and living beings which inhabit them. Chemistry also seeks to explain the connection between the compo- sition of bodies and their properties.* In ordinary scientific speech the term chemical is applied to changes which permanently affect the properties or characters of bodies, in opposition to effects termed physical, which are not attended by such conseciuences. Changes of composition or com- bination are thus easily distinguished from those temporarily brought about by heat, electricity, magnetism, and mechanical force, whose laws and effects lie within the province of Physics. The foundation of modern opinions concerning the nature of matter and the relation of a compound to its constituents was laid by Rf)bert Boyle (born 1627, died 1691) and his disciples Hooke and Mayow. Many chemical arts, snch as the working of several metals, the production of glass, soap, and some dyes, and the distil- lation of alcohol from fermented liquids, had been practised from very early times. Evidence of the antic^uity of such processes is afforded l>y references to tliem in the Old Testament, and by the <lyes found in the mummy cloths of Egypt. The early history of these arts and of the first notions as to the nature of matter which may have arisen in connection with them is entirely unknown to us now, but such words as alkali, alcohol, and alchemy, are evidently of Alclicmy. Arabic origin. Alchemy, and hence Chemistry, has been derived from the word Kemia, a native name of Egypt, also signifying black ; hence Alchemy was the black or Egyptian art. The ancient doctrine * Compare Scheele's definition:—It is the object and cliief business of Cliemistry to skilfully separate substances into their constituents, to discover their propel ties, and to compound tlicni in dill'erent ways.
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