The Elements of Chemistry (Muir) Quotes
Chemistry books
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“When sulphur is burnt in the air, a suffocating gas is produced in place of the sulphur, which gradually disappears.”
“Wikisource: Author:M. M. Pattison Muir”
“The composition of a compound is stated in terms of the elements which unite to form it, and can be obtained by its decomposition.”
“The laws of chemical combination may be accepted as veritable laws of nature they are the foundation of the science of chemistry.”
“Matthew Moncrieff Pattison Muir, The Elements of Chemistry (1904)”
“Chemistry is not directly concerned with heterogeneous substances. This branch of natural science examines the changes which happen when homogeneous substances interact.”
“When a diamond is very strongly heated in a stream of the gas [oxygen] obtained from red lead, it is changed into the gas [carbon dioxide] which is formed by heating chalk.”
“There are other substances which cannot be separated into unlike portions by any process that can justly be described as sifting; these are said to be homogeneous substances.”
“I hope I have not merely added one more illustrated catalogue of chemical odds and ends to the many which have already appeared under the title of A text book of Chemistry.”
“When calcined mercury is raised to a high temperature, it is changed into mercury and the gas [oxygen] which is formed by heating red lead.”
“When water is dropped on to an exceedingly hot [2500º C] surface, the water (or some of it) disappears and two gases are produced which are entirely different from water and from one another.”
“However different may be the properties of the products of a chemical reaction from the properties of the substances which reacted to form these products... the substances which are formed are formed by the union, or coalescence, or incorporation, of those which reacted.”
“When red lead is heated, it is changed into litharge, and a gas [oxygen] wherein a lighted taper burns rapidly and brilliantly.”
“Although homogeneous substances cannot be separated into unlike portions by any process of the nature of sifting or sorting, they can be changed into other homogeneous substances different from themselves.”
“The constituents of certain substances retain... the properties or most of the properties which they have when they are separated from one another. Such substances can be separated into their constituents by sifting, sorting, or picking; they are said to be heterogeneous substances, or mixtures.”
“Equal masses of iron and cheese weigh the same, although they differ in all their other properties: all the substances which we class as different would appear identical to a being who could compare the weights of substances, but was unable to recognise any other properties of them.”
“The "blue earth" of the diamond fields of South Africa is shaken with water, and the earthy matter, which sinks slowly, is poured off in the water; by repeating this process several times, the diamonds are obtained apart from the earth wherewith they were mixed in the material dug from the soil.”
“The law of chemical change... includes two statements which are generally known as the law of fixity, or constancy, of composition, and the law of conservation of mass. The former states that the composition of every compound is constant; the latter asserts that the sum of the masses of all the substances concerned in a chemical process is constant.”
“When salt is heated with oil of vitriol until the reaction is finished, one system of homogeneous substances is changed into another system; in place of salt (sodium chloride) and oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid), there are found a white solid (sodium sulphate) and a fuming, strongly acid-smelling gas (hydrochloric acid).”
“'''''The laws of chemical combination'' may be expressed in one statement, which asserts the fact that all homogeneous substances interact in the ratios of certain fixed masses, or in the ratios of whole multiples of these masses. We have agreed, provisionally, to call the smallest values which can be given to these fixed masses, in terms of hydrogen as unity, or of oxygen as eight times unity.'''”