323 



NATURE AND DECOMPOSITION OF THE FIXES ALKALIS. 



Potaskim and 

 sodium. 



in the philosophical division of the classes of bodies, the- 

 analogy between the greater number of properties must al- 

 ways be the foundation of arrangement. 

 Nomenclature. On this idea, in naming the bases of potash and soda, it 

 will be proper to adopt the termination, which, by common 

 consent, has been applied to other newly discovered metuls^ 

 and which, though originally Latin, is now naturalized in 

 our language. 



Potasium and sodium are the names, by which I have 

 ventured to call the two new substances: and whatever 

 changes of theory, with regard to the composition of bodies, 

 may hereafter take place, these terms can scarcely express 

 an errour ; for they may be considered as implying simply 

 the metals produced from potash and soda. I have consulted 

 with many of the most eminent scientific persons in this 

 country upon the methods of derivation, and the one I have 

 adopted has been the one most generally approved. It is 

 perhaps more significant than elegant. But it was not pos- 

 sible to found names upon specific properties not common to 

 both; and though a name for the bases of soda might have 

 been borrowed from the Greek, yet an analogous one could 

 not have b^een applied to that of potash, for the ancients do 

 not seem to have distinguished between the two alkalis. 



The more caution is necessary in avoiding any theoretical 

 expression in the terms, because the new electro-chemical 

 phenomena, that are daily becoming disclosed, seem distinctly 

 to show, that the mature time for a complete generalization 

 of chemical facts is yet far distant ; and though, in the ex- 

 planations of the various results of experiments that have 

 been detailed, the antiphlogistic solution of the phenomena 

 has been uniformly adopted, yet the motive for employing 

 it has been rather a sense of its beauty and precision, than 

 a conviction of its permanency and truth. 



The discovery of the agencies of the gasses destroyed the 

 hypothesis of Stahl. The knowledge of the powders and 

 eft'ects of the ethereal substances may at a future time possibly 



similar chemical nature to tlie bases of potash and soda will be 

 found of intermediate specific gravities between them and the 

 lightest of the common metals. Of this subject I shall treat ag^in 

 in the text in some of the following pages, 



act 



The terms 

 should be un- 

 connected with 

 theory. 



