The diamond is one of the most remarkable substances known. It is always distinctly crystallized, often quite transparent and colorless, now and then having a shade of yellow, pink, or blue. Carbon is also found as graphite or plumbago. It constitutes a large proportion of all organic structures, animal and vegetable. Pure carbon, diamond, is the hardest substance known. In combination with Oxygen and Hydrogen it forms the softest of living matter, protoplasm. In combination with Oxygen it is poisonous to all animal life, and beneficial to vegetable life. Combined with Hydrogen, it forms the gas we burn, and is destructive to animal life. It is the food-maker in the plant, and it is the food-provider for the animal. It is the combustive agent in nature, in vegetables and in animals. From a thunderstorm to a flickering flame of a candle, carbon displays its power. From the smallest and lowliest aquatic vegetable cell to the highest animal cell tissue, it is the important solidifying, heat-giving element. These elements when free have neither color, odor, nor taste. Combined, however, they acquire odor, taste, and color.
O and N, the atmosphere, has no color, taste, or odor.
O and H, water, has no color, taste, or odor.
N and H, ammonia, has color, taste, and odor.
O and C is given off by animals, taken in by vegetables—carbonic acid.
C and H, the gas, has taste, odor, and color.
N and O produce a gas—laughing gas.
Any two of these elements may combine in the form of a gas, a liquid, or a solid. And any one may combine with any other element known and form a substance, a molecule.
O combines with all the elements known.
H combines,, with,, many.