MODERN CHEMISTRY. 441 



and complex chemical actions. But the explosive-cotton, 

 recently discovered, is peculiarly the product of chemical 

 research ; depending on very singular affinities, which have 

 already been variously applied. 



Another striking example of this chemical creation is the 

 Protoxide of Nitrogen the intoxicating gas a particular 

 combination, in slightly different proportions, of the oxygen 

 and nitrogen composing the air we breathe ; but nowhere 

 existing in nature under the form in which science presents 

 it to us. The admission that atmospheric air is a simple 

 intermixture of gases, and not a chemical compound, scarcely 

 abates the wonder that so small a change in the proportions 

 which minister to common life should become the cause of 

 those sudden and strange affections of the brain and nervous 

 system, which alter for a time the whole condition of the 

 being. Chemistry, however, and especially organic chemistry, 

 accustoms us to these wonders. Equally striking in their 

 properties are the two creations of the laboratory, Sulphuric 

 Ether and Chloroform. By working with and among the 

 affinities of certain elements, man has obtained these com- 

 pounds (and there are others of kindred quality) the 

 simple inhalation of which produces insensibility to pain, even 

 under operations the most severe which surgery can inflict. 

 We have spoken much of chemical analysis. This is in effect 

 an analysis of the compound nature of Man ; the separation 

 and removal for a time of a part of our sensitive existence ; 

 having close analogy indeed to certain of the conditions 

 of sleep (itself the great mystery of life), but even more 

 striking in some of the inferences it conveys ; and, unless it 

 be that bodily suffering is allotted to us for moral uses, a 

 discovery profuse of benefit to the human race. 



It would be easy to multiply similar examples of the gene- 

 ration of new compounds, remarkable in physical properties 

 or in their physiological effects. We will give but one 



