132 The Evolution of Chemistry. 



atoms ; yet they persistently confounded the two and tried 

 to show him and his followers how ridiculous it was as ap- 

 plied to atoms. Even Berzelius made fun of it, saying that 

 it undertook to split atoms. One volume of chlorine and 

 one of hydrogen forms two volumes of muriatic acid. If 

 the chlorine or hydrogen exists as free atoms (and they 

 thought they did), then to form two volumes the atoms must 

 be split. Later facts supported Avogadro and showed that 

 both hydrogen and chlorine as found free went in pairs, or 

 molecules of two atoms. After nearly fifty years of idleness 

 the law was accepted, and our latest new chemistry is found- 

 ed thereon. Since its acceptance progress has been marvel- 

 ous. Discoveries by the million have jostled each other for 

 public recognition, not one of which would probably ever 

 have been made but for it. It has enabled us to weigh the 

 atoms, to follow them through their complex blendings in 

 organic bodies, and to understand something of the magic 

 of biology. It has even given us some cues as to the pos- 

 sible inner structure of these so-called atoms of ours, and 

 points out their probable evolutionary derivation. In this 

 way it has been the indirect means of showing us that abso- 

 lutely elementary bodies are unknown to us. We have over 

 sixty substances which we call elements, but it is doubtful 

 whether a single chemist can be f ound who believes any 

 one of them to be primordial. "We take sugar and pull its 

 molecules asunder. It ceases to be sugar and becomes char- 

 coal, oxygen, and hydrogen. "We try to pull these three 

 apart in a similar manner, but fail. Because we fail, and 

 for no other reason, we call them elements. To-morrow 

 some one may find a way of decomposing charcoal, and for 

 ever after it will cease to be classed as an element. These 

 three substances carbon (charcoal), oxygen, and hydrogen 

 are known to make bodies of the most unlike qualities. 

 They assume all the colors of the rainbow, all the tastes im- 

 aginable, and odors without end. Vinegar and sugar, whis- 

 ky and pepper, aloes and butter, are only a few of their pro- 

 tean forms. The ancients classed gold and silver as com- 

 pounds, but with us they are elements. They called water 

 an element, and we know it to be a compound. Sulphur 

 and mercury we still call elements, but our reason for apply- 

 ing this name to them is totally different from theirs. 



"With the advent of the atomic theory of Dalton came an 

 effort to discover the relative weights of the ultimate parti- 

 cles of all undecomposable bodies. Of course they had to 



