By the word chemistry we understand the science which investigates the composition of all material substances, taking them apart or separating them, by a chemical process, and discovers the nature and properties of the minutest particle. These small particles have received the name, elements or elementary substances; that term is applied in chemistry to those forms of matter which have hitherto resisted all attempt to decompose them.

“We know that we have earth, air, water, and we have seen in Chapter II that the earth’s crust is made up of many substances, rocks, coral reefs, clay, marl, feldspar, quartz, limestone, granite, etc., etc. These substances are composed of small particles, or elements, and are called minerals or inorganic substances. There is another class of substances, called organic, that are derived from living things or beings. These are also taken apart or separated into their elementary substances. As plants or animals, all such elementary substances have received the name organic substances because plants and animals have organs of reproduction, hence the name.

The taking apart of any substance into its constituent elements is called analysis by chemists.

The same elements can also be put together to produce various substances; that is termed synthesis.

Chemists have adopted a name for each of the elements, and these names are represented by symbols, or letters.

Compound substances may contain two or more elements. When the composition of a substance is determined by splitting the compound into its elementary constituents a chemical analysis of that substance is said to have been made; and if the proportions by weight in which each of the constituents is present be determined, a quantitative analysis of the substance has been made, etc.

By chemical action, we signify that which occurs when two or more substances so act upon one another as to produce a third substance differing altogether from the original ones in properties; or when a substance is brought under such conditions that it forms two or more bodies differing from the original one in properties. Chemistry is called an experimental science. In investigating all the materials within his reach, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, whether contained in the earth, sea, or air; whether belonging to the mineral, animal, or vegetable creation, the chemist finds himself obliged to divide substances into two classes: (1) compound substances—those which he is able to split up into two or more essentially different materials; (2) elements or simple substances—those which he is unable thus to split up, and out of which nothing essentially different from the original substances has been obtained.

Compound bodies are made up of two or more elementary substances chemically combined with each other; thus sulphur, copper, lead, are elementary bodies; out of each of these nothing different from sulphur, copper, lead, can be obtained; whereas when two of these bodies are heated together, a compound is formed from which both of the original elementary constituents can at any time be obtained. Water is a compound body—it can be split up into two elementary gases, hydrogen and oxygen; common salt, again, is a compound of a gas (chlorine) with a metal (sodium); and limestone, clay, sugar, and wax may serve as examples of compound bodies; whilst phosphorus, charcoal, iron, mercury, and gold may be mentioned as belonging to the class of simple substances.

As to physical properties of gases—they have weight, volume, diffusion, density, etc.

Theologians insist that there is a God, a God that was first introduced to us by a man with the name of Abraham, advertised by Moses, and has been palmed off upon the masses as a something exceedingly wonderful. A multitude of men who find it to their interest to advocate his pretended claims, are still doing their utmost to sustain their God. We are trying to discover where he is to be found, whether he is a local or a universal God, what he is composed of, whether he resides on earth permanently or transiently, whether he controls the entire solar system or more systems, whether he occasionally takes a trip to other planets; and if he has created everything we want to find out how he has created it. For that reason we have to search, taking a glimpse among the stars, in the earth, atmosphere, etc. Since geology does not respond favorably, we are trying to discover what this earth is composed of. The elementary bodies at present recognized amount to sixty-four in number. Of these about fifty belong to the class called metals. Several of them are of recent discovery, and as yet very imperfectly known. The distinction between metals and certain non-metallic substances or metalloids, although very convenient for purposes of description, is entirely arbitrary, since the classes graduate into each other in the most indefinite manner. The following is a complete list of the elementary substances known, giving their names, symbols, and combining weight:

All matter is made up of very small particles which are chemically indivisible and which are termed atoms, and the atom of each elementary substance differs essentially from that of every other. All the atoms of each element are alike, and chemical compounds are formed by the combination of unlike atoms. Hence the smallest particle of a compound consists of a group of atoms. This group, which can be divided by chemical but not by mechanical means, is termed a molecule. The smallest particle of an element in a free state is, however, not a single atom, but a group of atoms mechanically indivisible, or a molecule. This explains why elementary bodies act more energetically and enter more readily into combination at the moment of their liberation from a combination than when in the free state.

When chemical changes occur, it is the molecules which react upon one another, and the change consists in the change of position of certain atoms contained in the groups. When an element is set free from a compound, the liberated join together to form molecules, unless some body is present with which the element can combine.

By an atom we therefore understand the smallest portion of a chemical element which can enter into a chemical compound; by a molecule, the smallest portion of a simple compound body which can occur in the free state or which can take part in a chemical action.

All the elements, with the single exception of fluorine, combine with oxygen to form oxides. In this act of combination, which is termed oxidation, heat is always, and light is frequently, given off. When bodies unite with oxygen, evolving light and heat, they are said to burn, or undergo combustion. All bodies which burn in the air burn with increased brilliancy in oxygen gas; and many substances, such as iron, which do not readily burn in the air, may be made to do so in oxygen.

Oxygen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor smell.

Hydrogen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor smell. It is the lightest gas known, being 14.47 times lighter than air. It combines with oxygen to form water.

Nitrogen is a colorless, tasteless, inodorous gas, slightly lighter than air. It does not combine readily with bodies, and it is a very inert substance, neither supporting combustion or animal life, nor burning itself. It has, however, no poisonous qualities, and animals plunged into a jar of this gas die simply of suffocation from want of oxygen. Nitrogen exists in a free state in the air, of which it constitutes four-fifths by bulk. It occurs combined in the bodies of plants and animals, and in various chemical compounds, such as nitre, whence the gas derives its name.

Carbon is a solid element; it is not known in the free state, either as a liquid or as a gas. Carbon is remarkable as existing in three distinct forms, which in outward appearance or physical properties have nothing in common, whilst their chemical relations are identical. These three allotropic forms of carbon are (1) diamond, (2) graphite or plumbago, (3) charcoal. These substances differ in hardness, color, specific gravity, etc., but they each yield on combustion in the air or oxygen the same weight of the same substance, carbonic acid or carbon dioxide. Carbon is the element which is especially characteristic of animal and vegetable life, as every organized structure, from the simplest to the most complicated, contains carbon. If carbon were not present on the earth, no single vegetable or animal body such as we know could exist. In addition to the carbon which is found free in these three forms, and contained combined with hydrogen and oxygen in the bodies of plants and animals, it exists combined with oxygen as free carbon dioxide in the air, and with calcium and oxygen as calcium carbonate in limestone, chalk, marble, corals, shells, etc. Plants are able when exposed to sunlight to decompose the carbon dioxide in the air, liberating the oxygen, and taking the carbon for the formation of their vegetable structure, whilst all animals, living directly or indirectly upon vegetables, absorb oxygen, and evolve carbon dioxide. Thus the sun’s rays, through the medium of plants, effect deoxidation, or reduction, whilst animals act as oxidizing agents with respect to carbon.

Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon—these are the life-giving elements. They are the life-producing and life-sustaining elements. Neither animal nor vegetable life can exist without them. The entire activity of nature depends upon them. Every organic substance contains them.

No organic substance can exist without them.

The principle of life is due to them.

From a blade of grass to an insect, from an insect to an animal, including man, one cannot emerge into life without these elements.

The birth, growth, and development of plant and animal depend upon them, the sustenance and nurture.

All our food-substances are almost wholly made up of these elements.

No force, power, or energy can be produced without their presence.

Our muscular strength, our nervous force, our very thoughts, our imagination, as well as digestion, respiration, circulation of the blood, depend on these elements.

Our sensations, our pleasures, our pains, depend upon them. All the excitement and depression in life are dependent on them.

The beauties of vegetation, all the various shades and colors of flower and blossom, the tints and odors, are dependent on them.

No phenomenon in nature, no matter how terrible, delightful, or enchanting, can be manifested without these elements.

No earthquake, thunder, storm, lightning, wind, hail, rain, snow, or ice could exist without them.

No light, heat, or motion—in fact, none of the physical forces, could be evolved without them.

Our atmosphere, ocean, seas, rivers, forests, are composed of them.

No art, science, mechanics, architecture, nor indeed anything that we now enjoy, could exist without them.

Gunpowder, dynamite, electricity, and all else are dependent on these elements.

Why attempt to enumerate the extraordinary roles they play on earth and in the universe?

Every plant would wither, every life would perish, without Oxygen; this element may be truly called the breath of life.

The creation of God is dependent on these elements, because were it not for man God would never have been.

The ark, made of wood, was composed of them. The figure of Christ, and the Virgin Mary, as she is called, as well as all the saints, were and are composed of Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, etc. We know that these chemical elements enter into the composition of all things in nature—mineral, vegetable, animal.

We also may be absolutely certain that no more elements exist now, at this present time, than existed ten, twenty, or one thousand million of years ago.

Chemical elementary substances have no greater relative weight towards one another, nor a greater volume, at this present time than they had at any time since the existence of this earth. The total weight of all elements that enter into the formation of this terrestrial globe has never varied, whether they were in solid, fluid, or gaseous state.

The law of gravitation has always existed.

Elements that enter into the formation of organic beings, vegetable or animal, must in due time undergo decomposition and return to the same elements of which they were composed.

The chemical action has always been the same. All substances are subject to chemical action when exposed to the primary elements, oxygen and hydrogen especially.

An element can never be annihilated.

It may not be out of place to mention some of the substances in daily use. For example, water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen. Air is composed of oxygen and nitrogen. Bread, of starch, sugars—oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. Meats, of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, etc. Salt, of sodium and chlorine. Vegetables, fruits, etc., of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. Fats, of oil. alcohols, of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The tissues of the animal body are composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen.

The combination of five elements produces electricity, thus: Zinc (Zn) + copper (Cu) + sulphuric acid, which consists of hydrogen (H₂), sulphur (S), and oxygen (O₄), = electricity.

A few examples in the changes of the combination of oxygen and hydrogen are shown in water. Under conditions of heat and cold it becomes ice, steam, dew, rain, hail, snow, clouds, etc., etc. These phenomena are known.

We merely mention these facts to show how much has been discovered by human skill, but of how much more remains to be discovered we can not form the slightest notion. All that has been done in the field of science has been of actual benefit to humanity. For the discoveries are based on fact and truth. They are ushered into this world to alleviate and to lighten the struggle and the burden of men. They come without oppression, without crime, without bloodshed. They come as the great benefactors of mankind. Men would be much better off to-day if they received for their Sunday lessons instruction in the natural, instead of wasting their precious time in repeating the silly twaddle of supernatural extravagance, that tends to stupefy instead of clearing up the understanding.

Scientific research has advanced so far, that not only are we able to know, from the discoveries made, the elementary composition of this earth, and all that belongs thereto, but other far more difficult problems have been partially solved. That is, with the aid of newly discovered instruments, we can ascertain, to a considerable extent, the elementary composition of the sun, stars, and distant planets.

In 1802 Dr. Wollaston, and later Fraunhofer, discovered and perfected an instrument called the spectroscope. It consists of a prism, fixed upon an iron stand, and a tube carrying a slit. When light passes through a slit it impinges upon a flint glass prism, by which it is dispersed. The light of burning metals has been tested in that manner. Thus when any light passes through the slit of a spectroscope, the substance giving the light may be determined, the elements burning ascertained. If the solar spectrum be examined—the light of the sun’s rays—numerous dark lines parallel with the edge of the prism are observed, and reveal a number of colors giving the following: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. These are intersected by fine black lines of different degrees of breadth and shade, which are always present, and always occupy the same relative position in the solar spectrum. These are called Fraunhofer’s lines. By the means of this instrument, the spectra of the sun, planets, and moon have been analyzed, and the color and position, the kind of metals these distant bodies are composed of. The sun’s atmosphere, from experiments made, is known to contain metals, such as soda, iron, etc., in the condition of glowing gas, the white light proceeding from the solid or liquid strongly heated mass of the sun which lies in the interior. The metals hitherto detected in the sun’s atmosphere are about fifteen or more—iron, sodium, strontium, cadmium, magnesium, calcium, chromium, nickel, barium, zinc, cobalt, manganese, aluminium, titanium, hydrogen, etc.

So delicate is this instrument that 1/180000000? part of a grain of sodium can be detected, and a portion of lithium weighing 1/6000000? part of a grain has been detected; thus showing that there exists a very strong probability that the sun, planets, and moons are composed of similar, if not the same, elements that this earth is composed of.