Author: James Dwight Dana
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Published: 2017-12-21
Total Pages: 56
ISBN-13: 9780484282611
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Excerpt from Science and the Bible: A Review of "the Six Days of Creation" Of Prof. Tayler Lewis The chemist reads Nature in another of her departments he watches the changes going on around him, and the changes which Nature, in her. Work, passes through in his laboratory. He thence learns not merely the absurdity of the ancient fancy that water, air, earth, and fire are elements, and not only that these are true elements, and that water is made of two, oxygen and hydrogen, and so each substance has its elemental constitution; but he goes further: he discovers, as his facts accumulate, that there is a law in these combi nations that oxygen and hydrogen, for example, unite only in certain ratios; that they exist in water in the ratio of 8 to 1 by weight; that, in another compound containing oxygen and iron, the ratio is 8 to 28; in another, containing oxygen and nitrogen, the ratio is 8 (oxygen) to 14 (nitrogen), or else, 8 to 28, 8 to 42, 8 to 56, 8 to 70, equivalent, in parts, to parts; and so, throughout Nature, in compounds of all kinds, he ascertains that the elements have their definite combining ratios, and combining weights; and thence he learns to calculate, with the utmost precision, the constitutions of compounds. Here then is a fundamental law of attraction, at the basis of chemistry, and upon it the science rests. It is a law of numbers and harmonic relations - the ordained will of God, which the chemical student has been enabled to apprehend, and is, now endeavoring to follow out into all of its beauti ful developments. No future research can revoke that will. The supposed elements may be resolved into others; but all matter, organic and inorganic, is constituted upon this law; and the law must stand, until the Being who said, So let it be, reverses all Nature and his own enactment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
