CHAPTER XI.
CHEMICAL FORCES.
Nature’s Chemistry—Changes produced by Chemical Combination—Atomic Constitution of Bodies—Laws of Combination—Combining Equivalents—Elective Affinity—Chemical Decomposition—Compound Character of Chemical Phenomena—Catalysis or action of Presence—Transformation of Organic Bodies—Organic Chemistry—Constancy of Combining Proportions—The Law of Volumes, the Law of Substitutions, Isomeric States, &c.
All things on the earth are the result of chemical combination. The operations by which the commingling of molecules and the interchange of atoms take place, we can imitate in our laboratories; but in nature they proceed by slow degrees, and, in general, in our hands they are distinguished by suddenness of action. In nature chemical power is distributed over a long period of time, and the process of change is scarcely to be observed. By art we concentrate chemical force, and expend it in producing a change which occupies but a few hours at most. Many of the more striking phenomena of nature are still mysterious to us, and principally because we do not, or cannot, take the element time into calculation. The geologist is compelled to do this to explain the progress of the formation of the crust of the earth, but the chemist rarely regards the effects of time in any of his operations. The chemical change which within the fissure of the rock is slowly and silently at work, displacing one element or molecule, and replacing it by another, is in all probability the operation of a truly geological period. Many, however, of the changes which are constantly going on around us, are of a much more rapid character, and in these nature is no slower in manipulating than the chemist.
Had it been that the elements which are now found in combination could exist in a free state, the most disastrous consequences would necessarily ensue. There must have been a period when many of the combinations known to us were not yet created. Their elements either existed in other forms, or were uncombined. Our rocks are compounds of oxygen with certain peculiar metals which unite with oxygen so rapidly that incandescence is produced by their combination. Let us suppose that any of these metals existed in purity, and that they were suddenly brought into contact with water, the atmospheric air, or any body containing oxygen, the result would be a convulsion of the most fearful kind; the entire mass of metal would glow with intensity of heat, and the impetuosity of the action would only be subdued when the whole of the metal had become oxidized. Volcanic action has been referred to some such cause as this, but there is not sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis; indeed, it is contrary to the opinion of most philosophers.[200] Such a condition may possibly have existed at one time, during that period when darkness was upon the face of the deep, when the earth was a chaos; but it is only adduced here as an example of the violent nature of some chemical changes. Potassium thrown on water bursts into flame, and sodium does so under certain conditions. If these, or the metals proper in a state of fine division, are brought into an atmosphere of chlorine, the intensity of chemical action is so great that they become incandescent, many of them glowing with extreme brilliancy. If hydrogen gas is mixed with this element (chlorine) they unite, under the influence of light, with explosive violence, giving rise to a compound, muriatic acid, which combines with water in an almost equally energetic manner. Nitrogen, as it exists in the atmosphere, mixed with oxygen, appears nearly inert; with hydrogen it forms the pungent compound, ammonia; with carbon, the poisonous one, cyanogen, the base of prussic acid; with chlorine it gives rise to a fluid, oily in its appearance, but which, when merely touched by an unctuous body, explodes more violently than any other known compound, shivering whatever vessel it may be contained in, to atoms; with iodine it is only slightly less violent; and in certain combinations with silver, mercury, gold, or platinum, it produces fulminating compounds of the most dangerous character.[201] Here we have elements harmless when uncombined, exhibiting the most destructive effects if their combinations are at all disturbed; and in the other case we have inert masses produced from active and injurious agents.
We regard a certain number of substances as elementary; that is to say, not being able, in the present state of our knowledge, to reduce them to any more simple condition, they are considered as the elements which by combination produce the variety of substances found in the three kingdoms of nature.
We have already spoken of the atomic constitution of bodies. It remains now to explain the simplicity and beauty which mark every variety of combination under chemical force. As a prominent and striking example, water is a compound of two gaseous bodies, oxygen and hydrogen:—
If we decompose water by means of galvanic electricity, or determine its composition by direct chemical analysis, we shall find it consists of two volumes of hydrogen gas, united to one volume of oxygen, or, by weight, of one part of hydrogen combined with eight of oxygen. In 100 parts, therefore, we should find—
| Oxygen | 88·9 |
| Hydrogen | 11·0 |