NOTHING LOST IN NATURE. 31 1 



fond of combining (just as opposite electricities attract each other), and the 

 body made by this combination differs in its properties from its constituents. 



SALTS are composed of acids and bases, and are considered neutral 

 compounds, but there are other bodies not salts, which likewise come under 

 that definition sugar, for instance. As a rule, when acids and alkalis com- 

 bine salts are found. 



Chemical phenomena are divided into two groups, called inorganic and 

 organic, comprising the simple and compound aspects of the subject, the 

 elementary substances being in the first, and the chemistry of animals or 

 vegetables, or organic substances, in the latter. In the inorganic section we 

 shall become acquainted with the elements and their combinations so often 

 seen as minerals in nature. Chemical preparations are artificially prepared. 

 To consider these elements we must have certain appliances, and indeed a 

 laboratory is needed. Heat, as we have already seen, plays a great part in 

 developing substances, and by means of heat we can do a great deal in the 

 way of chemical decomposition. It expands, and thus diminishes cohesion ; 

 it counteracts the chemical attraction. Light and electricity also decompose 

 chemical combinations. But before proceeding it will be as well to notice a 

 few facts showing how Nature has balanced all things. 



The earth, and its surrounding envelope, the atmosphere, consist of a 

 number of elements, which in myriad combinations give us everything we 

 possess, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the fire that warms us, are 

 all made up of certain elements or gases. Water, hydrogen and oxygen ; 

 air, oxygen and nitrogen. Fire is combustion evolving light and heat. 

 Chemical union always evolves heat, and when such union proceeds very 

 rapidly fire is the result. 



In all these combinations we shall find when we study chemistry that 

 not a particle or atom of matter is ever lost. It may change or combine or 

 be " given off," but the matter in some shape or way exists still. We may 

 burn things, and rid ourselves, as we think, of them. We do rid ourselves of 

 the compounds, the elements remain somewhere. We only alter the condition. 

 During combustion, as in a candle or a fire, the simple bodies assume gaseous 

 or other forms, such as carbon, but they do not escape far. True they pass 

 beyond our ken, but nature is so nicely balanced that there is a place for 

 everything, and everything is in its place under certain conditions which 

 never alter. We cannot destroy and we cannot create. We may prepare a 

 combination, and science has even succeeded in producing a form like the 

 diamond a crystal of carbon which looks like that beautiful of all crystals, 

 but we cannot make a diamond after all. We can only separate the chemical 

 compounds. We can turn diamonds into charcoal it is true, but we cannot 

 create " natural " products. We can take a particle of an element and hide 

 it, or let it pass beyond our ken, and remain incapable of detection, but the 

 particle is there all the time, and when we retrace our steps we shall find it 

 as it was before. 



This view of chemistry carries it as a science beyond the mere holiday 



