28 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



It is convenient to arrange them under the 

 following heads : 1, gases ; 2, fluids ; 3, solids. 

 Or they may be also described as 1, metallic; 

 2, non-metallic : 3, gaseous. But in these 

 conditions bodies shade as it were into each 

 other, the same body being under some circum- 

 stances solid, and under others fluid, such as 

 water or mercury when frozen, and at the com- 

 mon temperature. 



Out of the number above mentioned, forty- 

 seven are tolerably well-marked metallic sub- 

 stances, about which little doubt now prevails ; 

 thus the majority of the elements belong to this 

 division. There are but four gases ; that is, 

 of course, elementary or primary gases ; these 

 are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and chlorine. 

 The remaining eleven are the non-metallic ele- 

 ments, or elements of intermediate characters. 



When we come to consider the amount of 

 relative importance which is borne by each of 

 these elements to the rest of creation, we arrive 

 at an interesting and somewhat startling result. 

 It would have been more in accordance with the 

 ideas and expectations of the human mind to 

 anticipate that a number of elements compara- 

 tively so small as that specified (sixty-two), was 

 inadequate to form such singularly contrasted 

 objects as surround us in creation, and to produce 

 such varied results as are presented to us in the 



