Elements of Chemistry Part 11

TABLE OF SIMPLE SUBSTANCES.

Simple substances belonging to all the kingdoms of nature, which may be considered as the elements of bodies.

_New Names._ _Correspondent old Names._

Light Light.

Caloric {Heat.

{Principle or element of heat.

{Fire. Igneous fluid.

{Matter of fire and of heat.

Oxygen {Dephlogisticated air.

{Empyreal air.

{Vital air, or {Base of vital air.

Azote {Phlogisticated air or gas.

{Mephitis, or its base.

Hydrogen {Inflammable air or gas, {or the base of inflammable air.

Oxydable and Acidifiable simple Substance not Metallic.

_New Names._ _Correspondent old names._

Sulphur } Phosphorous }The same names.

Charcoal }

Muriatic radical } Fluoric radical }Still unknown.

Boracic radical }

Oxydable and Acidifiable simple Metallic Bodies

_New Names._ _Correspondent Old Names._

Antimony } { Antimony.

a.r.s.enic } { a.r.s.enic.

Bis.m.u.th } { Bis.m.u.th.

Cobalt } { Cobalt.

Copper } { Copper.

Gold } { Gold.

Iron } { Iron.

Lead } Regulus of { Lead.

Manganese } { Manganese.

Mercury } { Mercury.

Molybdena } { Molybdena.

Nickel } { Nickel.

Platina } { Platina.

Silver } { Silver.

Tin } { Tin.

Tungstein } { Tungstein.

Zinc } { Zinc.

Salifiable simple Earthy Substances.

_New Names._ _Correspondent old Names._

Lime {Chalk, calcareous earth.

{Quicklime.

Magnesia {Magnesia, base of Epsom salt.

{Calcined or caustic magnesia.

Barytes Barytes, or heavy earth.

Argill Clay, earth of alum.

Silex Siliceous or vitrifiable earth.

SECT. I.--_Observations upon the Table of Simple Substances._

The principle object of chemical experiments is to decompose natural bodies, so as separately to examine the different substances which enter into their composition. By consulting chemical systems, it will be found that this science of chemical a.n.a.lysis has made rapid progress in our own times. Formerly oil and salt were considered as elements of bodies, whereas later observation and experiment have shown that all salts, instead of being simple, are composed of an acid united to a base. The bounds of a.n.a.lysis have been greatly enlarged by modern discoveries[36]; the acids are shown to be composed of oxygen, as an acidifying principle common to all, united in each to a particular base. I have proved what Mr Haffenfratz had before advanced, that these radicals of the acids are not all simple elements, many of them being, like the oily principle, composed of hydrogen and charcoal. Even the bases of neutral salts have been proved by Mr Berthollet to be compounds, as he has shown that ammoniac is composed of azote and hydrogen.

Thus, as chemistry advances towards perfection, by dividing and subdividing, it is impossible to say where it is to end; and these things we at present suppose simple may soon be found quite otherwise.

All we dare venture to affirm of any substance is, that it must be considered as simple in the present state of our knowledge, and so far as chemical a.n.a.lysis has. .h.i.therto been able to show. We may even presume that the earths must soon cease to be considered as simple bodies; they are the only bodies of the salifiable cla.s.s which have no tendency to unite with oxygen; and I am much inclined to believe that this proceeds from their being already saturated with that element. If so, they will fall to be considered as compounds consisting of simple substances, perhaps metallic, oxydated to a certain degree. This is only hazarded as a conjecture; and I trust the reader will take care not to confound what I have related as truths, fixed on the firm basis of observation and experiment, with mere hypothetical conjectures.

The fixed alkalies, potash, and soda, are omitted in the foregoing Table, because they are evidently compound substances, though we are ignorant as yet what are the elements they are composed of.

TABLE _of compound oxydable and acidifiable bases._

_Names of the radicals._

Oxydable or acidifiable { Nitro-muriatic radical or base, from the mineral { base of the acid formerly kingdom. { called aqua regia.

{ Tartarous radical or base.

{ Malic. } { Citric. } { Pyro-lignous. } Oxydable or acidifiable { Pyro-mucous. } hydro-carbonous or { Pyro-tartarous. } carbono-hydrous radicals { Oxalic. } from the vegetable { Acetous. } kingdom. { Succinic. } Radicals { Benzoic. } { Camphoric. } { Gallic. } } Oxydable or acidifiable { Lactic. } radicals from the animal { Saccholactic. } kingdom, which { Formic. } mostly contain azote, { Bombic. } and frequently phosphorus. { Sebacic. } { Lithic. } { Prussic. }

_Note._--The radicals from the vegetable kingdom are converted by a first degree of oxygenation into vegetable oxyds, such as sugar, starch, and gum or mucus: Those of the animal kingdom by the same means form animal oxyds, as lymph, &c.--A.

SECT. II.--_Observations upon the Table of Compound Radicals._

The older chemists being unacquainted with the composition of acids, and not suspecting them to be formed by a peculiar radical or base for each, united to an acidifying principle or element common to all, could not consequently give any name to substances of which they had not the most distant idea. We had therefore to invent a new nomenclature for this subject, though we were at the same time sensible that this nomenclature must be susceptible of great modification when the nature of the compound radicals shall be better understood[37].

The compound oxydable and acidifiable radicals from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, enumerated in the foregoing table, are not hitherto reducible to systematic nomenclature, because their exact a.n.a.lysis is as yet unknown. We only know in general, by some experiments of my own, and some made by Mr Ha.s.senfratz, that most of the vegetable acids, such as the tartarous, oxalic, citric, malic, acetous, pyro-tartarous, and pyromucous, have radicals composed of hydrogen and charcoal, combined in such a way as to form single bases, and that these acids only differ from each other by the proportions in which these two substances enter into the composition of their bases, and by the degree of oxygenation which these bases have received. We know farther, chiefly from the experiments of Mr Berthollet, that the radicals from the animal kingdom, and even some of those from vegetables, are of a more compound nature, and, besides hydrogen and charcoal, that they often contain azote, and sometimes phosphorus; but we are not hitherto possessed of sufficiently accurate experiments for calculating the proportions of these several substances. We are therefore forced, in the manner of the older chemists, still to name these acids after the substances from which they are procured. There can be little doubt that these names will be laid aside when our knowledge of these substances becomes more accurate and extensive; the terms _hydro-carbonous_, _hydro-carbonic_, _carbono-hydrous_, and _carbono hydric_[38], will then become subst.i.tuted for those we now employ, which will then only remain as testimonies of the imperfect state in which this part of chemistry was transmitted to us by our predecessors.

It is evident that the oils, being composed of hydrogen and charcoal combined, are true carbono-hydrous or hydro-carbonous radicals; and, indeed, by adding oxygen, they are convertible into vegetable oxyds and acids, according to their degrees of oxygenation. We cannot, however, affirm that oils enter in their entire state into the composition of vegetable oxyds and acids; it is possible that they previously lose a part either of their hydrogen or charcoal, and that the remaining ingredients no longer exist in the proportions necessary to const.i.tute oils. We still require farther experiments to elucidate these points.