Familiar letters on chemistry. Second series, The philosophical principles and general laws of the science / By Justus Liebig ... Edited by John Gardner.

  • Liebig, Justus, Freiherr von, 1803-1873.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Familiar letters on chemistry. Second series, The philosophical principles and general laws of the science / By Justus Liebig ... Edited by John Gardner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    198/244 (page 182)
    This human fat was employed to the extent of many tons by the soap-boilers and tallow-chandlers of Paris, for the manufacture of soap and candles. If meat be suspended in running water, or buried in moist earth, nothing of it will remain after the lapse of some time, except the fat which it contains. All substances susceptible of decay, when in a moist state, and exposed to the air and light at the common temperature, undergo precisely the same change as they would if exposed to a red-heat, in a dry state, that is, they absorb oxygen,—they undergo combustion. Alcohol, one of the products of the fermentation of saccharine vegetable juices, is altogether inca- pable of undergoing the process of decay ; when exposed to the air, whether in its pure state or mixed with water, it evaporates without combining with oxygen. Alcohol is readily inflammable at a higher temperature, and in burning is resolved into carbonic acid and water. It is obvious that its elements have a powerful affinity for oxygen ; the high temperature is, however, a necessary condition of the manifestation of this affinity. Hydrogen gas and many other inflammable sub- stances, are, in this respect, precisely similar to