The constitution of matter / by William A. Tilden.

  • Tilden, William Augustus, 1842-1926.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constitution of matter / by William A. Tilden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ted from the Phaemaceutical Journal/or January and February, 1870.] Repri} ) THE CONSTITUTION OF MATTER. BY WILLIAM A. TILDEN, B.8C. LOND,, F.C.8., DEMONSTKATOK OF PBAOTIOAL CHEMISTRY TO THE PHABMACBUTICAL BOOIETY. Since the human race first came into existence, men have been more or less :)ccupied with the study of natural philosophy; pursuing it either in the cha- •acter of professed philosophers, or more usually in the manner of simple wonder- 1 ng observers, like the shepherds of ancient story. Whilst contemplating natural ijhenoraena,—the progress of the seasons, the propagation and growth of herbs i tnd animals, or the properties of earths and metals,—the inclination, apparently DStinctive, has ever been to look for something behind the mask of nature; to rindeavour, in other words, to find reasons for the existence of things as they rire; to seek for other phenomena of a simpler and yet more general nature, ffhich are considered to be what are usually denominated the causes. To what extent this endeavour has been successful it is difficult to ascertain, onach more to express. According to all probability, in this search after causes, (re pursue a will-o'-the-wisp, which possesses no real existence,—a difficulty, in- i ieed, presenting itself at the outset, it having even been found impracticable to .'3xplain or define accurately what is meant by the term cause. The philoso- I phers who have through ages applied themselves to the study of effects and • causes, seem to have neglected this fundamental inquiry. In connection with inch, a study, it would be worth consideration whether the entire universe may not be the great proximate and ultimate cause of itself ; every fraction of it ex- ercising such an influence upon every other fraction, and, upon the whole, as to be indispensable to the existence and integrity of the natural order of things. However, this may be, the chemists and physicists, even before the departments of science which they respectively practise assumed independent existence, have ever been looking, like the rest of mankind, for what they suppose to be the causes of the phenomena which they specially study. As they occupy them- selves with matter and its associated qualities, it has arisen that they have de- votetl ail available ingenuity to the explanation of the sensible properties of matter by speculations as to its ultimate and final constitution. The oldest of the theories founded on such speculations is that which has held its ground the longest; not altogether because it is perfect and unassailable, but chiefly, as I shall endeavour to show, from its possessing this recommendation, that it makes ^ of things which we can see and touch, in order to represent and symbolize things which cannot be thus tried by the test of the senses. The mind constantly endeavours to account for unfamiliar phenomena, by drawing a parallel between them and others which are more perfectly under- stood. According to the view referred to, all kinds of matter are imagined as composed of massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles, of such sizes and ugtires as best conduced to the end for which they were formed. This atomic theory, in its physical phase, was known, literally, ages ago ; it was a subject ^hich occupied the discassions of the Greek, and oven the Hindoo philosophers ; >t 18 referred to by Newton in the often-quoted passage in his ' Opticks •,'