The discovery of the vital principle, or physiology of man.

Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The discovery of the vital principle, or physiology of man. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    natural state. Mode of cleansing it. Transparency, purity, and colour. Its imperfections. Minute layers of which it is composed. Its hardness, and use in cutting glass. Opinion of the ancients on its hardness. Difference of the diamond from all other substances. A food repository of wealth. How to determine the value of diamonds. -eeuenhoek’s experiments, and opinion as to their formation and increase. Action of the sun upon the gem. Its luminous properties. Its refraction and reflexion of light. Sir Isaac Newton’s prophecy veri- . fled by experiment. Identified by Sir II. Davy with charcoal. Specific gravity. A non-conductor of electricity. How acted upon when burnt in oxygen. Lavoisier’s discovery that carbonic- acid was formed from diamond. Differs from charcoal only in the arrangement of its parts. Its identity with blacklead and plumbago, and comparative rarity. Importance of this circumstance. Charcoal, a conductor of electricity. Experiment of Sir H. Davy. Pliny on the diamond and singular fact in relation to the loadstone. Author's inferences from the preceding testimonials. Iron. Its five states. Native iron. Its forms. Oxyd and sulphuret of iron. Plumbago. Iron ores. Abundance of the metal. The cause of colour in rocks, and gravity in stones. Its specific gravity. Belongs to the three divisions of matter. How obtained from the ores. Its properties when manufactured. Cohesive power, lustre, malleability, welding, inflammability. Steel. Its qualities. How made. Proper- ties when manufactured. Magnet or loadstone. Whence brought. Its colours and form. Properties and peculiar attraction for iron. Its attraction for other substances. Variation in power of magnets. Effect of appending a magnet to iron. This stone known to the ancients. Its polarity. Use as regards the universal fabric. Author’s opinion of the identity of iron with oxygeu. Its agency in the civiliza- tion of man, and general utility. Carbon. Meaning of the term. Identity of this substance with the diamond. It conducts electricity. In what manner it is formed. Plumbago. Where found, and its properties. Effect of burning charcoal. Its absorption of the gases. Carbonic acid gas. Carbonic oxyde. Olefiant gas. Carburetted hydrogen. Charcoal always contains hydrogen. Carbon, the fundamental element of all organization. Its abundance, particularly in the form of coals. Hydrogen. Origin of the term. Its lightness and abundance. Cannot be obtained in the solid or fluid form : when gaseous, always produced from water. Not absorbable by most substances. Dissolves certain bodies. Does not act on the earths. Capable of compres- sion. Inflammability. Destructive to animal life. Extinguishes a taper. Means of ascertaining the purity of hydrogen. Dis- covery of Dobereiner respecting it. Circumstances under which it produces water, whence it derives its name. Philosophical candle of Dr. Priestley. Production of sound. Its smell. Attraction for oxygen. Spontaneous combustion. Adaptation of hydrogen to the purposes of nature, and its relation to oxygen. Oxygen. Whence the term. Always found in a combined state. Oxygen gas, how