The Creation of God, Jacob Hartmann [e manga reader TXT] 📗
- Author: Jacob Hartmann
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All matter is made up of very small particles which are chemically indivisible and which are termed atoms, and the atom of each elementary substance differs essentially from that of every other. All the atoms of each element are alike, and chemical compounds are formed by the combination of unlike atoms. Hence the smallest particle of a compound consists of a group of atoms. This group, which can be divided by chemical but not by mechanical means, is termed a molecule. The smallest particle of an element in a free state is, however, not a single atom, but a group of atoms mechanically indivisible, or a molecule. This explains why elementary bodies act more energetically and enter more readily into combination at the moment of their liberation from a combination than when in the free state.
When chemical changes occur, it is the molecules which react upon one another, and the change consists in the change of position of certain atoms contained in the groups. When an element is set free from a compound, the liberated join together to form molecules, unless some body is present with which the element can combine.
By an atom we therefore understand the smallest portion of a chemical element which can enter into a chemical compound; by a molecule, the smallest portion of a simple compound body which can occur in the free state or which can take part in a chemical action.
All the elements, with the single exception of fluorine, combine with oxygen to form oxides. In this act of combination, which is termed oxidation, heat is always, and light is frequently, given off. When bodies unite with oxygen, evolving light and heat, they are said to burn, or undergo combustion. All bodies which burn in the air burn with increased brilliancy in oxygen gas; and many substances, such as iron, which do not readily burn in the air, may be made to do so in oxygen.
Oxygen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor smell.
Hydrogen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor smell. It is the lightest gas known, being 14.47 times lighter than air. It combines with oxygen to form water.
Nitrogen is a colorless, tasteless, inodorous gas, slightly lighter than air. It does not combine readily with bodies, and it is a very inert substance, neither supporting combustion or animal life, nor burning itself. It has, however, no poisonous qualities, and animals plunged into a jar of this gas die simply of suffocation from want of oxygen. Nitrogen exists in a free state in the air, of which it constitutes four-fifths by bulk. It occurs combined in the bodies of plants and animals, and in various chemical compounds, such as nitre, whence the gas derives its name.
Carbon is a solid element; it is not known in the free state, either as a liquid or as a gas. Carbon is remarkable as existing in three distinct forms, which in outward appearance or physical properties have nothing in common, whilst their chemical relations are identical. These three allotropic forms of carbon are (1) diamond, (2) graphite or plumbago, (3) charcoal. These substances differ in hardness, color, specific gravity, etc., but they each yield on combustion in the air or oxygen the same weight of the same substance, carbonic acid or carbon dioxide. Carbon is the element which is especially characteristic of animal and vegetable life, as every organized structure, from the simplest to the most complicated, contains carbon. If carbon were not present on the earth, no single vegetable or animal body such as we know could exist. In addition to the carbon which is found free in these three forms, and contained combined with hydrogen and oxygen in the bodies of plants and animals, it exists combined with oxygen as free carbon dioxide in the air, and with calcium and oxygen as calcium carbonate in limestone, chalk, marble, corals, shells, etc. Plants are able when exposed to sunlight to decompose the carbon dioxide in the air, liberating the oxygen, and taking the carbon for the formation of their vegetable structure, whilst all animals, living directly or indirectly upon vegetables, absorb oxygen, and evolve carbon dioxide. Thus the sun’s rays, through the medium of plants, effect deoxidation, or reduction, whilst animals act as oxidizing agents with respect to carbon.
Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon—these are the life-giving elements. They are the life-producing and life-sustaining elements. Neither animal nor vegetable life can exist without them. The entire activity of nature depends upon them. Every organic substance contains them.
No organic substance can exist without them.
The principle of life is due to them.
From a blade of grass to an insect, from an insect to an animal, including man, one cannot emerge into life without these elements.
The birth, growth, and development of plant and animal depend upon them, the sustenance and nurture.
All our food-substances are almost wholly made up of these elements.
No force, power, or energy can be produced without their presence.
Our muscular strength, our nervous force, our very thoughts, our imagination, as well as digestion, respiration, circulation of the blood, depend on these elements.
Our sensations, our pleasures, our pains, depend upon them. All the excitement and depression in life are dependent on them.
The beauties of vegetation, all the various shades and colors of flower and blossom, the tints and odors, are dependent on them.
No phenomenon in nature, no matter how terrible, delightful, or enchanting, can be manifested without these elements.
No earthquake, thunder, storm, lightning, wind, hail, rain, snow, or ice could exist without them.
No light, heat, or motion—in fact, none of the physical forces, could be evolved without them.
Our atmosphere, ocean, seas, rivers, forests, are composed of them.
No art, science, mechanics, architecture, nor indeed anything that we now enjoy, could exist without them.
Gunpowder, dynamite, electricity, and all else are dependent on these elements.
Why attempt to enumerate the extraordinary roles they play on earth and in the universe?
Every plant would wither, every life would perish, without Oxygen; this element may be truly called the breath of life.
The creation of God is dependent on these elements, because were it not for man God would never have been.
The ark, made of wood, was composed of them. The figure of Christ, and the Virgin Mary, as she is called, as well as all the saints, were and are composed of Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, etc. We know that these chemical elements enter into the composition of all things in nature—mineral, vegetable, animal.
We also may be absolutely certain that no more elements exist now, at this present time, than existed ten, twenty, or one thousand million of years ago.
Chemical elementary substances have no greater relative weight towards one another, nor a greater volume, at this present time than they had at any time since the existence of this earth. The total weight of all elements that enter into the formation of this terrestrial globe has never varied, whether they were in solid, fluid, or gaseous state.
The law of gravitation has always existed.
Elements that enter into the formation of organic beings, vegetable or animal, must in due time undergo decomposition and return to the same elements of which they were composed.
The chemical action has always been the same. All substances are subject to chemical action when exposed to the primary elements, oxygen and hydrogen especially.
An element can never be annihilated.
It may not be out of place to mention some of the substances in daily use. For example, water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen. Air is composed of oxygen and nitrogen. Bread, of starch, sugars—oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. Meats, of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, etc. Salt, of sodium and chlorine. Vegetables, fruits, etc., of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. Fats, of oil. alcohols, of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The tissues of the animal body are composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen.
The combination of five elements produces electricity, thus: Zinc (Zn) + copper (Cu) + sulphuric acid, which consists of hydrogen (H2), sulphur (S), and oxygen (O4), = electricity.
A few examples in the changes of the combination of oxygen and hydrogen are shown in water. Under conditions of heat and cold it becomes ice, steam, dew, rain, hail, snow, clouds, etc., etc. These phenomena are known.
We merely mention these facts to show how much has been discovered by human skill, but of how much more remains to be discovered we can not form the slightest notion. All that has been done in the field of science has been of actual benefit to humanity. For the discoveries are based on fact and truth. They are ushered into this world to alleviate and to lighten the struggle and the burden of men. They come without oppression, without crime, without bloodshed. They come as the great benefactors of mankind. Men would be much better off to-day if they received for their Sunday lessons instruction in the natural, instead of wasting their precious time in repeating the silly twaddle of supernatural extravagance, that tends to stupefy instead of clearing up the understanding.
Scientific research has advanced so far, that not only are we able to know, from the discoveries made, the elementary composition of this earth, and all that belongs thereto, but other far more difficult problems have been partially solved. That is, with the aid of newly discovered instruments, we can ascertain, to a considerable extent, the elementary composition of the sun, stars, and distant planets.
In 1802 Dr. Wollaston, and later Fraunhofer, discovered and perfected an instrument called the spectroscope. It consists of a prism, fixed upon an iron stand, and a tube carrying a slit. When light passes through a slit
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