228 7. S. Hunt on the Theory of Chemical Changes. 
For these reasons, it is conceived that the notion of preéxisting 
elements or groups of elements, should find no place in the the- 
ory of chemistry. Of the relation which subsists between the 
igher species, and those derived from them, we can only assert 
the possibility, and under proper conditions, the certainty of pro- 
ducing the one from the other. Ultimate chemical analyses, and 
the formulas deduced from them, serve to show what changes are 
possible in any body, or to what new species it may give rise by 
its changes. ‘t 
Chemical union is interpenetration, as Kant has taught, and 
not juxtaposition, as conceived by the atomistic chemists. When 
bodies unite, their bulks, like their specific characters, are lostin 
that of the new species. Gases and vapors unite in the propor 
tion of one volume of each, or in some other simple ‘ratio, and 
the resulting species in the gaseous state occupies one volume, 8° 
that the specific gravity of the new species is the sum of t 
of its factors. "The converse of this is true in division, and the 
united volumes of the resulting species, are some simple multiple 
of that of the parent ; in metamorphosis a similar ratio is always 
and two of hydrogen, this was assumed to be the equivalent 
water, and of hydrogen, while oxygen was represented by 
But two volumes of hydrogen unite without condensation otic 
gas, are found to be eqnivalent to four volumes of chlorine, vA 
drogen, or water-vapor. Hence four volumes are to be taken. 
ine of water, and it becomes H2O2 ; term equi 
ent of 18; corresponding to H Cl, and to volatile s as 
ally, whose equivalents oe represented by four volumes of vapor 
from these, the equivalents of non-volatile species are determin? 
by comparison. 
