CHEMISTRY

OF

THE FOUR SEASONS.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE FOUR SEASONS present many phenomena which admit of interpretation through the Science of Chemistry.

Some persons imagine that the science of chemistry consists entirely of experiments with furnaces, crucibles, alkalies, acids, salts, and metals, which are all more curious, than useful, and they will ask-Can the chemist emerge from the narrow precincts of his laboratory, and venture upon the boundless realms of Nature, with explanations concerning the verdure of Spring, the heat of Summer, the harvest of Autumn, and the cold of Winter?

The reply of the chemist is in the affirmative; he can expound such phenomena to a certain extent,

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for the chief object of chemistry, is to ascertain the composition of things, and to determine the laws by which they are governed.

By numerous experiments with furnaces, crucibles, alkalies, acids, salts, and metals, the chemist has obtained a key to the vast laboratory of Nature, and although standing merely upon the threshold of its newly-opened portal, if he temper his little knowledge with humility, he may witness and understand many of the gigantic and refined operations therein proceeding, under the guiding and protecting hand of Almighty God, for maintaining the regularity and order of the Four Seasons.

The most prominent features of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, may be thus briefly enumerated:In spring, the earth is covered with verdure, buds and blossoms vary and adorn its surface; soft showers descend, the air is clear, sunshine glads the heavens, and steadily increases in power unto the fervent glow of summer; then, generally speaking, vegetation has attained its fulness, the earth is crowned with foliage and flowers, the fields are becoming ripe for the scythe, and sickle; and soon the sultry noon-tide heat, the refreshing night dew, and the lowering thunder-cloud, herald the advent of autumn;-it comes, laden with purple fruit, and golden grain; it yields its bounteous store, it passes,-and then, sunshine is pale and langaid, winds are bleak and cold, trees become leafless, streams are fast bound with ice, hoar-frost and snow form the winter mantle of the earth.

These Four Seasons, these miraculous changes in the aspect of the globe, these definite periods of Germination, of Growth, of Maturity, and of Repose, familiar to all men, yet unheeded by many, present the votary of chemistry with magnificent illustrations of facts regarding the powers and properties of matter, which he has discovered upon a minor scale by experiments in his laboratory.

To him, who comes with a mind duly prepared and fitted to the business of the interpretation of Nature, in accordance with the axioms of Inductive Philosophy, the tendency of the science of chemistry is most exalting; at each step, it implants a firm belief in the Power, and a perfect reliance upon the Goodness of God, who promised that, "While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."

The object of this essay is to adduce a few of the principal phenomena of the four seasons, which admit of explanation and illustration through the medium of chemistry; and as it teaches the composition of things, a general statement regarding natural objects and the powers unto which they are subject, will form the remainder of this introductory chapter.

The chemist, by experimenting upon the various solid, liquid, and aëriform matters, presented throughout the creation, discovers that many of them can be divided into two or more substances of distinct and opposite characters, and that these cannot be again. divided into others.

Substances that can be divided, analysed, or simplified, are called Compounds; and such as cannot be so treated, are called Elements.

Fifty-five of these are known, all Ponderable, and subject to the agencies of Light, Heat, and Electricity, which are Imponderable. The ponderable elements are distinguished by the following names ;those marked * are Combustible and non-metallic; those marked † are Incombustible and non-metallic; the others are Metallic.

1, Aluminum; 2, Antimony; 3, Arsenicum; 4, Barium; 5, Bismuth; 6*, Boron; 7+, Bromine; 8, Cadmium; 9, Calcium; 10*, Carbon; 11, Cerium; 12†, Chlorine; 13, Chromium; 14, Cobalt; 15, Columbium; 16, Copper; 17+, Fluorine; 18, Glucinum; 19, Gold; 20*, Hydrogen; 21†, Iodine; 22, Iridium; 23, Iron, 24, Lantanum; 25, Lead; 26, Lithium; 27, Magnesium; 28, Manganesium; 29, Mercury; 30, Molybdenum; 31, Nickel; 32†, Nitrogen; 33, Osmium; 34†, Oxygen; 35, Palladium; 36*, Phosphorus; 37, Platinum; 38, Potassium; 39, Rhodium; 40*, Selenium; 41, Silicium; 42, Silver; 43, Sodium; 44, Strontium ; 45*, Sulphur; 46, Tellurium; 47, Thorium; 48, Tin; 49, Titanium; 50, Tungstenum; 51, Vanadium; 52, Uranium; 53, Yttrium; 54, Zine; 55, Zirconium.

Of these elements, the following are the most abundant, and will be most frequently mentioned throughout this inquiry.

I. Combustible and non-metallic,-Carbon, Hydrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulphur.

II. Incombustible and non-metallic,

Nitrogen, and Oxygen.

III. Metallic,-Aluminum, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Silicium, and Sodium.

The ponderable elements are capable of uniting in various ways to form a great number of compounds; and these compounds in their turn are capable of uniting with each other to form a greater number of complex compounds; and so far as the knowledge of the chemist extends, it leads him to consider that all natural and artificial objects consist of elements, and their combinations and mixtures, arranged according to definite laws of weight and measure.

The term Element will occur very frequently during this examination of the principal chemical phenomena of the Four Seasons, and therefore its exact meaning. demands explanation at this early stage.

The metal Iron, its tenacity, ductility, and numerous uses, are familiar to all persons; but the chemist is not satisfied with this mere knowledge of its mechanical properties, he wishes to ascertain the composition of the metal, the things of which it consists; he endeavours to do this by making experiments; he submits iron to every process that he can devise; he alters or disguises its ordinary properties in many curious ways; but at length the metal presents itself in its original state, pure and unharmed by the ordeals through which it has passed, and without yielding the slightest clue regarding its composition.

The chemist depends entirely upon the results of