Chapter I: The Scope of Chemistry

Chemistry treats of all kinds of material substances. This is a very broad assertion, but it appears to be true. The solid rock matter of the earth and the wealth of living animal and vegetable substances upon it undergo all their varied changes in subjection to chemical laws. The same is true of the water and of all liquid things we know; and the declaration applies yet further to the invisible gaseous mass which surrounds and envelopes our terrestrial globe. This deeper but thinner ocean which we call the atmosphere is also governed by chemical law in all its varied relations to the living beings as well as to the inanimate substances that have their existence within it. In thought we may ascend above these solid, liquid and gaseous substances connected with our earth. When thus we reach out to the heavenly bodies beyond, we feel sure that these, possessing as they may, solid, liquid or gaseous matter, are likewise controlled by chemical laws, and that in their changes they exemplify with more or less fulness, distinct chemical principles.

The Great Number of Different Substances in the Earth.

Here then it is intimated that chemistry relates to an enormous number of substances. In fact the number of the various kinds of matter already existing on our earth is so great that they have never been so much as counted, much less described, in any list or volume; nay more, doubtless many exist that human beings have never recognized at all. This last statement refers not merely to such substances as may be known only to savages dwelling beyond the reach of civilization and commerce, nor yet to such as may be secreted in absolutely uninhabited portions of the globe, nor even to those that exist so deep in the earth that man’s power may never be sufficient to reach them. Probably even some of the most humble and familiar natural things, such as blades of wheat, petals of daisies, silks of corn, and the like, contain small quantities of distinct and separate compounds that have not yet been recognized as such by even the most skillful chemists.

But even compounds such as are described in books on chemistry are exceedingly numerous; and further, the chemical laws now known suggest the possibility of producing _artificially_ a great multitude of substances not yet recognized, and even more than have yet been produced in the great laboratory of nature.

How it Happens that there is such a Variety.

By searching aright for the secret of the countless number and the rich and splendid variety of beings that nature and art present to the curious gaze of man, a comprehensive answer is at last obtained.

Forms of ordinary matter may be compared to great cathedrals, like those of Cologne and of Milan, which have been growing for centuries and which by the combined labor of artists and artisans have at length become intricate and beautiful structures, the admiration and delight of the beholder. Just as these arise from the combination in a multitude of ways of a comparatively small number of original and fundamental substances—like stone, brick, iron, copper, plaster, glass, wood—so all things known to chemists are made up of a few simple substances, either existing alone or in richly various combination.

The simplest substances when alone are called the _chemical elements_ or elementary substances; the things resulting when different elements are united together are called _compounds_. Thus metallic iron is one familiar example of a chemical element; the oxygen gas of the atmosphere is another example. A piece of iron exposed to damp air soon becomes changed to a mass of iron-rust. This rust is a compound; it is made up of iron and oxygen united together.

In the light of what has been said the chemical elements assume a new and grand importance: they are the individuals chosen by the Creator to be the foundation stones and the essential constituents of the glorious natural edifices of his handiwork.

Again when the elementary individuals unite together they do so by reason of the interaction of many and complex forces which reside, almost like soul and spirit, within the elements.

These last remarks suggest the twofold character of chemical study. It involves, _First_, the examination of elementary substances and their compounds. _Secondly_, it requires a consideration of the many general and special _laws and forces_ which determine the various possible combinations.

READING REFERENCES.

In general, the first-mentioned books in each group are those which are most accessible and at the same time most serviceable. Some rare and costly books are mentioned, for the benefit of persons who have access to large libraries.

Chemistry, General and Applied, Serial Publications.

=Chemical= News. (William Crookes, Ed.) London. Weekly.
(Commenced 1860.)
=Popular= Science News and Boston Journal of Chemistry.
Boston. Monthly. (Commenced 1867.)
=Journal= of the Chemical Society. London. Monthly.
———— Index to foregoing. 1841-1872: pp. 263.
=Annales= de Chimie et de Physique. Paris. Monthly.
———— Table des Tomes I à XXX. (1841-1851.) Paris, pp. 134.
———— Table Analytique des Tomes XXXI à LXIX. 3d Series.
(1851-1863.) Paris. pp. 474.
———— Table des Noms d’Auteurs et Table Analytique des Matieres.
(1864-1873.) 4th Series. Paris. pp. 249.
=Berichte= der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. Berlin.
(Commenced 1868.) 20 parts per year.
=Wagner=, Johannes R. v.—Jahres-Bericht über die Fortschritte
und Leistungen der chemischen Technologie. Leipzig.
Annual. (Commenced 1855; last vol. had 1,332 pp.)
———— Index to foregoing. Vols. I-X.
———— ” ” Vols. X-XX.

Dictionaries of Chemistry, etc.

=Watts=, Henry.—Dictionary of Chemistry and the allied branches
of other sciences. 8 vols. London. 1865-1875.
=Storer=, Frank H.—First Outlines of a Dictionary of
Solubilities of Chemical Substances. Cambridge. 1864.
=Wurtz=, Ad.—Dictionnaire de Chimie, pure et appliquée.
3 vols. Paris. 1870.
=Fehling=, Hermann v.—Neues Handwörterbuch der Chimie.
A to Morphin. Braunschweig. 1871—now issuing.

General Treatises on Chemistry.

=Roscoe=, H. E., and Schorlemmer, C.—A Treatise on Chemistry.
London and New York. 1878. Vol. I, pp. 771; Vol. II, part I,
pp. 504, part II, pp. 552; Vol. III, part I, pp 724.
(Now issuing.)
=Cooke=, Josiah P., Jr.—Principles of Chemical Philosophy.
Boston. 1881.
=Gmelin=, Leopold (Henry Watts, Tr.)—Hand-Book of Chemistry.
Printed for the Cavendish Society. 14 vols. London.
1848-1860.
=Graham-Otto’s= Ausführliches Lehrbuch der Chemie. 6 vols.
Braunschweig. 1857.
=Schützenberger=, P.—Traité de Chimie générale. 3 vols.
Paris. 1880.