Oxygen, 



Sulphur, 



Nitricum, 



Muriatic radicle, 



Phosphorus, 



Fluoric radicle. 



Boron, 



Carbon, 



Hydrogen, 



Arsenic, 



Chromium, 



Molybdenum, 



Tungsten, 



Antimony, 



Tellurium, 



Silicon, 



1815.] m the Physical Sciences. 5 



susceptible of great improvements: but such a table, if it could be 

 constructed with accuracy, would be of prodigious service to the 

 progress of scientific chemistry. 



Columbium, Cobalt, 



Titanium, Uranium, 



Zirconium, Zinc, 



Osmium, Iron, 



Bismuth, Manganese, 



Iridium, Cerium, 



Platinum, Yttrium, 



Gold, Glucinum, 



Rhodium, Aluminium, 



Palladium, Magnesium, 



Mercury, Calcium, 



Silver, Strontium, 



Lead, Barytium, 



Tin, Sodium, 



Nickel, Potassium. 

 Copper, 



According to tWs table, oxygen and potassium have the greatest 

 affinity for each other ; and tiiere is very little affinity between 

 iridium, platinum, and gold. 



M. Oersted published at Berlin, in 1S12, a work entitled Consi- 

 derations on the Physical Laws of Chemistry deduced from the 

 new Phenomena. Like Davy and Berzelius, he has adopted the 

 electrical theory of affinity ; but he has not been so reserved as 

 these philosophers. On the contrary, he has pushed matters as far 

 as they will go, and has endeavoured to make his electrical hypo- 

 thesis complete in all its parts. As this theory has attracted great 

 attention, and gained great eclat in Germany, though 1 believe it 

 is entirely unknown in Britain, 1 shall give the outlines of it in this 

 place. 



He considers the phenomena of electricity, galvanism, magnetism, 

 heat, light, and chemical affinity, as all depending on the same 

 forces ; and he shows that the same cause, which in one case pro- 

 duces electrical actions, occasions in another chemical actions. 

 These actions are produced by two forces ; the one nenalive, the 

 other positive. These forces are opposite to one another; and by 

 being made to act against one another, may suspend or destroy one 

 another. 



Heat is produced by the extinction of the two forces, either in 

 electrical or chemical processes. We may suppose also that tiie 

 light is derived from the same cause. 



Acids which are attracted to the same pole as oxygen possess tlie 

 same force with that principle ; while alkalies and coml)ustiljle 

 bodies, which are attracted to tlic opposite pole, possess the oppo- 

 site force. Oersted arranges chemical substances under two series: 

 the first containing the products of combustion ; the second, th« 



