22 NUMBER Of ELEMENTARY BODIES 



Now if we take a portion of almost any of those numerous forms 

 of matter which we meet with either in the inorganic or in the organic 

 kingdoms, we find, that on subjecting it to certain cliemical processes, it 

 is capable of being resolved or separated into more than one substance. 

 Thus coal when put into a gas retort is resolved into tar, coal gas, and 

 certain other substances. Wood, when treated in the same way, yields 

 pyroligneous acid, tar, and water, and leaves behind a residue of char- 

 coal. Jf again we subject charcoal to the action of heat (not in the 

 open air), or to any other process we can devise, we can never separate 

 any thing further from it. After all our operations we obtain only 

 charcoal. 



So a piece of common lead ore, when heated in a similar manner, 

 will, if pure, give offsulphuronly, and leave the lead behind, from which 

 nothing but lead can afterwards be extracted. 



Thus it is evident that wood and the ore of lead differ from charcoal 

 and metallic lead in this respect, that the former consist of more than one 

 kind of matter, the latter of one kind of matter only. Hence charcoal 

 and lead are called simple or elementary bodies, while wood and all otli- 

 er substances which are capable of being resolved into two or more 

 different kinds of matter are called compound bodies. 



The diversified forms of matter which present themselves to our no- 

 tice in the mineral crust of the globe, and in the organs and vessels of 

 .plants and animals, are absolutely without number. We can no more 

 reckon them than we can the stars of heaven. Yet it is one of those re- 

 sults of modern chemistry which to the mind not yet familiarized 

 with chemical discoveries appears most wonderful, — that these num- 

 berless forms of matter are capable of being resolved into, and there- 

 fore are composed or made up of, only 55* of those simple or ele- 

 mentary substances, the nature of which has been above explained. 

 Occasionally these elementary substances occur in a separate state, as 

 in native [so called when found in the malleable state,] gold and silver, 

 but they are generally found associated together, forming substances 

 from whioh several of the 55 simple bodies may be extracted. 



All the material substances in nature consist of one or more of these 

 65 elementary bodies. This is suflSciently surprising, yet it is, if pos- 

 sible, still more remarkable that nearly the entire mass of every vege- 

 table substance may be resolved into one or more o^ four only of these 

 simple substances. 



When a portien of animal or vegetable matter is burned it either en- 

 tirely disappears or leaves behind it only a small quantity of ash. Ani- 

 mal and vegetable oils and fats, gum, sugar, and starch, when burned, 

 disappear entirely ; a piece of wood or of lean meat leaves a small 

 quantity of earthy (inorganic) matter behind. 



Now all that disappears when any portion of vegetable matter, of any 

 kind, is burned, consists generally of three, and only in some rare cases 



• The names of these elementary bodies are as follows :— Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 

 sulphur, selenium, phosphorus, chlorine, bromine, iodine, fluorine, carbon, boron, silicon, 

 potassium, sodium, lithium, barium, strontium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, glucinium, 

 yttrium, zirconium, thorium, cerium, lanthanium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, zinc, 

 cadmium, load, tin, bismuth, copper, uranium, mercury (quicksilver), silver, palladium, 

 iridium, platinum, gold, osmium, titanium, tantalum (columbium), fungsten, molybdenum, 

 vaoadiumT chromium, antimony, tellurium, arsenic. 



