Those who wish to get an insight
into the matter (which cannot be pursued farther here) will do well to
read Josiah Cooke's "The New Chemistry," in the International Scientific
Series. The mind is really lost in trying to realize the idea of a
fragment of matter too small for the most powerful microscope, but
existing in fact (because of faultless reasoning from absolutely
conclusive experiments), and yet so constituted that it is
_practically_ a different thing when placed in one position or order,
from what it is when placed in another.
Turning from this mystery, as yet so obscure, to what is more easily
grasped, we shall hardly be surprised to learn, further, that every kind
of, atom obeys its own laws, and that while atoms of one kind always
have a _tendency to combine_ with atoms of other kinds, it is absolutely
impossible to get them to combine together except on certain conditions.
The difference between combination and mixture is well known. Shake sand
and sugar in a bag for ever so long, but they will only _mix_, not
_combine_ or form any new substance even with the aid of electric
currents; but place oxygen and hydrogen gas under proper conditions, and
the gases will disappear, and water (in weight exactly equal to the
weight of the volume of gases) will appear in their place.
It is only certain kinds of atoms that will combine at all with other
kinds; and when they do so combine, they will only unite in absolutely
fixed proportions, so that chemists have been able to assign to every
kind of element its own combining proportion.
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