An essay on the ultimate principles of chemistry, natural philosophy, and physiology : deduced from the distribution of matter into two classes or kinds, and from other sources / by Lardner Vanuxem.

  • Vanuxem, Lardner, 1792-1848.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the ultimate principles of chemistry, natural philosophy, and physiology : deduced from the distribution of matter into two classes or kinds, and from other sources / by Lardner Vanuxem. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    of matter, applied to the individual particles them- selves. Thus the properties of impenetrability, solidity, and extensibility, are known to us only as the consequent of the concreted, or aggregated state of the particles of matter, and not to any thing which is known of the particles themselves; where- as, the classification proposed is founded upon those properties, or rather attributes of matter, which appertain to its primary, elementary, or atomic state, which alone are obvious to common expe- rience, and common sense; being in fact, the only self evident knowledge we have of the particles of matter.* This arrangement of matter into concreting and non-concreting particles, as a necessary conse- quence, leads us to two of the most important attri- butes of matter; and hence, deservedly merits the consideration given to it. As the one class of par- ticles is known by its tendency to form concretions, or bodies, whose parts cohere together, and are tangible, we have attraction, or gravitation, as its inherent principle, or attribute: and as the other class of particles, on the contrary, exhibit no con- * The writings of the late Abbe Haiiy, and Dr. Wollaston, clearly show how little is the gain of knowledge, when rea- soning from the concreted state of the particles of matter, to the individual particles themselves. By the former phi- losopher, they are made to be polyhedral, and by the latter, globular.