



PEINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY 



INTRODUCTION 



CHEMISTRY is concerned with the study l of the homogeneous substances 



1 The investigation of a substance or phenomenon of nature consists (a) in determin- 

 ing the relation of the thing under investigation to that which is already known, either 

 from former studies, or from experiment, or from the consciousness of the common sur- 

 roundings of life that is, in determining and expressing the quality of the unknown by 

 the aid of that which is known; (6) in measuring all that which can be subjected to 

 measurement, and thereby denoting the quantitative relation of that under investigation 

 to that already known and its relation to the categories of time, space, temperature, 

 ma^s. Are. ; (c) in determining the position held by the thing under investigation in the 

 system of the things known, guided by both qualitative and quantitative data; (d) in 

 finding, from the quantities which have been measured, the empirical (visible) depen- 

 dence (function, or ' law,' as it is sometimes termed) of variable factors for instance, the 

 dependence of the composition of the substance on its properties, of temperature on 

 time, of time on locality, &c. ; (r] in framing hypotheses or propositions as to the actual 

 cause and true nature of the relation between that studied (measured or observed) and 

 that which is known or the categories of time, space, Arc.; (f) in verifying the logical 

 consequences of the hypotheses by experiment ; and (g) in advancing a theory which 

 shall account for the nature of the properties of that studied in its relations with things 

 already known and with those conditions or categories among which it exists. It is 

 certain that it is only possible to thus study, when we have taken as a basis some incon- 

 testable fact which is self-evident to our understanding ; as, for instance, number, time, 

 space, movement, or mass. The determination o-f such primary or fundamental concep- 

 tions (categories), although not excluded from the possibility of investigation, frequently 

 does not subject itself to our present mode of scientific generalisation. Hence it follows 

 in the investigation of anything, there always remains something which is recognised 

 without investigation, or admitted as a known factor. The axioms of geometry may be 

 taken as an example. Thus in the science of biology it is necessary to admit the faculty 

 of organisms for multiplying themselves, as a conception whose meaning is yet unknown. 

 Thus in the study of chemistry the notion of elements must be recognised without 

 hardly any further analysis. However, by first investigating that which is visible and 

 subject to direct observation by the organs of the senses, we may hope that, first, 

 hypotheses will be arrived at, and afterwards theories of that which has now to be placed 

 at the basis of our investigations. The minds of the ancients strove to at once seize the 

 very fundamental categories of investigation, whilst all the successes of recent know- 

 ledge are based on the above-cited method of investigation without the determination of 

 ' the beginning of all beginnings.' By following this inductive method, the exact sciences 



VOL. I. B 



