24 SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



their individual nature, or identity with electricity, remains 

 unsettled. 



The science of chemistry, which has achieved greater tri- 

 umphs over matter, and conferred more practical knowledge 

 of nature upon civilized man than all other sciences com- 

 bined, has gradually grown out of the superstitious art of 

 Alchemy. 



Modern chemistry, instead of alluring its votaries into a 

 fruitless search after the "philosopher's stone," crowns their 

 investigations with results which tend to the advancement of 

 civilization and the increase of human comforts and happi- 

 ness. Its objects are not limited to the study of abstract laws 

 alone ; but also to the improvement of the useful arts, the 

 cure of disease, the production and preparation of food, the 

 study of the laws of organic life, and finally to every thing- 

 affecting our physical relations to the material universe. 



PROPERTIES OF BODIES. 



CAPILLARITY. 



Capillarity is the force by which small tubes and porous 

 substances absorb and raise fluids above the surface of that in 

 which they are immersed. This force depends upon the cohe- 

 sion of the molecules, or ultimate atoms of the fluid for each 

 other, and the attraction of the solid body for those of the 

 fluid. If we dip the end of a small tube open at both ex- 

 tremities, into a fluid, it will be observed to rise slowly above 

 the surface of the surrounding mass : if one corner of a sponge 

 be dipped into water and allowed to remain, it will by virtue 

 of its capillarity in a little time be saturated ; the water hav- 

 ing been raised by this force against the antagonizing force of 

 gravity. 



