Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/608

592 for determining the composition of water, which is thus shown to contain in one hundred parts 11·11 per cent of hydrogen and 88·89 per cent of oxygen.

Another substance whose analysis can be very readily made by the student is carbonate of magnesia. By igniting pure carbonate of magnesia in a crucible (not of course the "magnesia alba" of the shops), the proportions of carbonic acid and magnesia can be readily determined. Then, by burning magnesium ribbon, and weighing the product, the student easily finds the relative weight of magnesium and oxygen in the oxide. And, lastly, the proportion of carbon and oxygen in carbonic dioxide is easily deduced from the burning of a weighed amount of carbon. Here the result may be expressed either in percents of oxide of magnesium and carbonic dioxide, or else in percents of the elementary substances, carbon, magnesium, and oxygen.

After making a few analyses like these, the student will be prepared to comprehend the actual position of the science. All known substances have been analyzed, and the results tabulated, so that it is unnecessary to repeat the work except in special cases.

The teacher is now prepared to take a very important step in the development of the subject. If the molecule is simply a small particle of a substance in which the qualities of the substance inhere, then it follows, of course, that the composition of the molecule is the same as the composition of the substance. The percentage results of the analysis of water, or of carbonate of magnesia, indicate the composition of a molecule of water or a molecule of carbonate of magnesia. Thus, 11·11 per cent of every molecule of water consists of hydrogen, while 88·89 per cent consists of oxygen. Hence it follows that, in a chemical process, the molecules must be divided, and these elementary parts of molecules which analysis reveals are the atoms of chemistry. Moreover, as we know the weights of the molecules, both by physical and chemical means, chemical analysis now gives us the weights of the atoms. We have no time to dwell on the details of this reasoning, but the general course to be followed will be evident, and it must be enforced by numerous examples.

Assuming that the student fully comprehends the distinction between molecules and atoms—that is, between the physically smallest particles and the chemically smallest particles—he is prepared to master the symbolical nomenclature of chemistry, with a very few words of explanation. The initial letters of the Latin names are selected to represent the atoms of the seventy known elementary substances, and these letters stand for the definite atomic weights which are tabulated in all chemical text-books. The symbols of the atoms are simply grouped together to form the symbols of the molecules of the various substances; the number of atoms of each kind entering into the composition of the molecule being indicated by a subscript numeral. Lastly, in order to represent chemical processes, the symbols of the