SECT. m. FORCE OF CHEMICAL COMBINATION. 97 



ever from any explanation of the mystery of life, whether 

 animal or vegetable. 



Carbon and hydrogen will not combine at any arti- 

 ficial heat however great ; but when the electric arc 

 between highly purified charcoal terminals passes 

 through hydrogen gas, acetylene, a new carburet of 

 hydrogen, is formed, consisting of four equivalents of 

 carbon and two of hydrogen. This substance, which 

 no organized being is capable to form, was discovered 

 by M. Berthelot, and being assumed as a base, yielded 

 an extensive series of organic substances. Thus when 

 two atoms of carbon are added to acetylene it becomes 

 olefiant gas ; when two equivalents of oxygen are added 

 to olefiant gas, the result is alcohol, which is transformed 

 into acetic acid by the addition of two atoms of 

 oxygen, and from this by a similar process have been / 

 obtained the malic, tartaric, succinic, and the other ) 

 acids ; glycerine also, which is the sweet principle of j 

 the oils, wax, essential oils, the perfumes of fruit and 

 flowers, the principle of the balms, the essential oil of 

 mustard, and numerous other organic substances, simply 

 from carbon, oxygen and hydrogen ; but nitrogen was 

 introduced by combining alcohol with ammonia, an in- 

 organic substance consisting of three equivalents of 

 hydrogen and one of nitrogen, from whence a vast 

 number of nitrogenized substances were derived, both 

 animal and vegetable. 



Chemical combination, which has from the beginning 

 of created things, and still is, building up organic and 

 inorganic matter in the earth, in the air, and the ocean, 

 exerts forces of transcendent power, though silent, 

 unperceived, and for the most part unknown. Professor 

 Tyndall has given a striking instance of this in water, 

 the most simple compound of oxygen and hydrogen, a 

 constituent alike of organic and inorganic nature. ' In 

 the combustion of the two gases to form a gallon of 



VOL. i, H 



