THE BORDERLAND OE CHEMISTRY AND ELECTRICITY. 
211 
the atmosphere and are present in the form of hydrofluoric acid. A 
drop of this acid burns the skin like red-hot iron and when present in 
air, even in infinitesimal amount, acts on respiratory organs most 
deleteriously, inflammation of Mucous membrane is developed, rise 
of temperature naturally takes place, with general symptons like 
influenza. 
The transmutation of metals or the artificial production of gold is a 
fraudulent science supposed to be non-existent, but it was only the 
other day that an individual in America made the announcement that 
he could turn Mexican silver dollars into gold; he was a gentleman 
well known in England a few years back. It is a strange fact that 
our daily press had so much to say in its favour; granted it may have 
been copied from American papers, but surely the education of those 
who write for the press should teach them better. Young people nowa¬ 
days are educated or should be educated as observers of facts, and 
that education should include the study of electricity, chemistry and 
physics ; it would prevent superstition and humbug from producing 
disastrous effects on human intellects, and stop fraud. In the future, 
if our children^ children are to obtain a living, they must undoubtedly 
be so educated that they can apply their scientific training to the 
common wants of life. 
Cavendish was contemporary with Priestley, and his investigations 
from a strictly intellectual point of view were most important, for he 
was the first to determine the specific gravity of gases ; he took notes 
on the alterations of volume due to changes of pressure as the tem¬ 
perature varied, and he also proved that by using a given weight of 
each of certain metals that the same volume of gas could be obtained, 
no matter what acids were employed to dissolve them, and he found 
that equal weights of metals gave unequal volumes of gas, a proof of 
the different atomic weights and the different affinities of the metals 
for the various acids. 
Dalton, in 1803, proved that the relative atomic weights of elements 
are the proportions by weight in which the elements combine; he 
gave the first table of atomic weights ; he made known the action of 
oxidation, which rendered possible the production of a force by chem¬ 
ical action and which we know as electricity; a somewhat mysterious 
force which even at the present time is not completely understood. 
In 1828, Wohler discovered chemicals which were thought up to 
that time to have been merely the product of animal life, and broke 
down the barrier between organic and inorganic or mineral chemistry 
the first proof that the science of physiology was the chemistry and 
physics of the living body. 
Berzelius by his analyses proved that organic compounds had the 
same laws as inorganic compounds; the combination of two bodies, 
inorganic or organic, do as we now know, evolutionise a force, as there 
is a rise of temperature. This chemical action may produce heat, 
gradual or immediate, variation being due to the affinities which 
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