36 JOURNAL OF THE 



strychnine with the delicacy of the spectroscope towards sodium, 

 we find the latter in the neighborhood of one hundred times 

 stronger. 



These, then, are the bounds of our senses, so far as can at 

 present be determined. That they were unlimited was not to 

 be expected. Yet when we see these limits there is no room for 

 a feeling of disappointment that man cannot grasp everything. 

 The field for his powers is almost infinitely vast as it is, and the 

 only cause for discouragement lies in the sharp limit put to the 

 attainment of knowledge by the short space of his working time. 



THE ELEMENTS, HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 



F. P. VENABLE. 



According to the modern definition an element is the simplest 

 form of matter. It cannot be further decomposed nor reduced. 

 Other elements may be added to it and compounds formed, but 

 nothing can be taken from it when in its elemental state. If it 

 can be decomposed it ceases to be considered an element. Hence 

 we can only state that such and such forms of matter are ele- 

 ments, because at present no means of reducing them is known. 



This is an interpretation which has gradually grown up. In 

 earlier times the idea was ratlier that of the genesis of matter. 

 This last has been a puzzle which man has long striven to solve, 

 and not merely a vexed question of these modern days, as we, 

 in our arrogant assumption of vast intellectual superiority, are 

 ^pt to think. Dr. Gladstone, in his address befi)re the British 

 Association, at its meeting of 1883, says: "In the childhood of 

 the human race the question was eagerly put, ^By what process 

 were all things made?'" Shoo King, the most esteemed of 

 Chinese classics, comprises the Great Plan with nine divisions. 

 The first division relates to five elements — water, fire, wood, 

 metal, earth. And this idea of the genesis of matter is attached 



