Carbon^ Silicon^ and Nitrogen, 7 



the same bodies present in many. We can suppose all the 

 metals proving to be compounds in different proportions of 

 but two : fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine, in the same 

 way reduced to two ; carbon, boron, silicon, and the other 

 groups of simple bodies, in like manner diminished to two. 

 In this way, or in some other, we may resolve all the ele- 

 mentary bodies, as Mr Low thinks we shall, into the two 

 lowest on the atomic scale, carbon and hydrogen ; or, descend- 

 ing further, identify them every one, as Mr Rigg thinks we 

 should, with hydrogen ; or, in the lowest deep, finding a lower 

 still, pass beyond even hydrogen to the long dreamed of 

 "rx»j -r^wrjj, the materia prima^ or material substratum and 

 essence of all things. 



The application of synthesis to the reduction of the list of 

 elementary bodies, is not so obvious as that of analysis, but 

 may, on the whole, be made manifest enough. We can con- 

 ceive the possibility of its being discovered, that two of the 

 lower metals, such as lead and copper, when fused together 

 formed gold ; and that, nevertheless, the compound should be 

 of such a nature, as to resist the decomposing influence of 

 every agent. In such a case, it would be possible to prove 

 gold not to be a simple substance, by shewing our ability to 

 compound it out of lead and copper, though we might for ever 

 remain unable to establish the same point analytically, by re- 

 solving it into these metals. Should such a synthetic demon- 

 stration of the compound nature of one of the elements ever 

 be obtained, it would prepare us for attacking the problem of 

 their true nature, by endeavouring to compound them out of 

 each other. There is nothing, however, in the present state 

 of Chemistry to warrant the expectation of such a discovery 

 being made ; and it is not in this shape, but as one of the 

 forms of the method of reduction by isomeric transmutation, 

 that synthesis has been applied to the diminution of the list 

 of elementary bodies. 



I turn now, therefore, to the consideration of Isomerism. 

 For a long period after the publication of the Atomic Theory, 

 it was universally believed that the same elements could com- 

 bine in the same proportion to form only one compound, and 

 that difference in physical properties, such as hardness, solu- 



