GASES FLUIDS SOLIDS. 27 



future years to develop the truth or falsity of 

 a view which has been entertained by the minds 

 of some of the profoundest philosophers, as well 

 as by those of the wildest of the alchemists, 

 that all matter has a common origin; that in 

 fact, there is but one element, of which all the 

 others are but modified forms. 



Modern chemists have laboured to reduce, 

 as far as possible, all substances within their 

 reach to their ultimate constituents ; to separate 

 them, that is to say, until it was impossible to 

 separate them any further. In so doing it has 

 been discovered that a number of bodies once 

 conceived to be elementary, have no real claim 

 to that character. Such bodies have been 

 found to be in fact composed of two or more 

 elements. The number of chemical elements 

 at present recognised as such is sixty-two.* 

 But several of these are doubtful ; and as 

 science proceeds, it will probably remove many 

 from the list. The phenomena exhibited by 

 some of the so-called elements, in different ex- 

 periments of the laboratory, are so suspicious 

 as to perplex the mind of the chemist as to 

 their real constitution, leading him to suppose 

 that they are anything but simple bodies, and 

 many are looking forward to a period when it 

 will be found that the number of true elements 



is small indeed. 



* Dr. Fownes. 



