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Updated: June 16, 2025
He constructed a series of batteries in various combinations, with which he attacked the "fixed alkalies," the composition of which was then unknown. Very shortly he was able to decompose potash into bright metallic globules, resembling quicksilver. This new substance he named "potassium." Then in rapid succession the elementary substances sodium, calcium, strontium, and magnesium were isolated.
The main quality needed for resisting mechanical injuries is toughness, and this is supplied both by the epidermis and by the connective tissue of the dermis. From chemical injuries caused by contact with various chemical agents, as acids, alkalies, and the oxygen of the air.
By the oxidation of other elements, sulphates of oxide of iron and alkalies result, which, by double decomposition, with carbonate of lime, give rise to the formation of gypsums which appears in the form of rosettes, festoons and various other imitative forms on the walls and ceilings of the caves.
We obtain daily, in the form of urea, all the nitrogen taken in the food both of the young and the adult; and further, in the urine, the whole amount of the alkalies, soluble phosphates and sulphates, contained in all the various aliments. Physiology teaches us, that the process of nutrition in animals, that is, their increase of bulk, or the restoration of wasted parts, proceeds from the blood.
The opinion that volcanoes are owing to this general and simple cause is, I think, likewise more agreeable to the analogies of things than to suppose them dependent upon partial chemical changes, such as the action of air and water upon the combustible bases of the earths and alkalies, though it is extremely probable that these substances may exist beneath the surface, and may occasion some results of volcanic fire; and on this subject my notion may, perhaps, be more trusted, as for a long while I thought volcanic eruptions were owing to chemical agencies of the newly discovered metals of the earths and alkalies, and I made many, and some dangerous, experiments in the hope of confirming this notion, but in vain."
Caustic alkalies form with it a solution even in the cold, from which the mineral acids precipitate it unchanged. It contains much azote: it dissolves in, and decomposes, sulphuric acid: it easily kindles at the flame of a candle: it has been found to succeed, as a pigment, in some respects better than China ink." Phil.
The means which have proved most efficacious in decomposing these bases are the action of oxidizing and reducing agents, of bromine, of organic iodides, of concentrated acids and alkalies, and of heat.
The phrase has long since been used, now in ridicule and now seriously, quite as much in discussions of the working of the human heart as to express the relations of acids and alkalies. It would be very hard to persuade the young people of to-day to read "The Sorrows of Werther."
We begin skirmishing with a few light ideas, testing for thoughts, as our electro-chemical friend, De Sauty, if there were such a person, would test for his current; trying a little litmus-paper for acids, and then a slip of turmeric-paper for alkalies, as chemists do with unknown compounds; flinging the lead, and looking at the shells and sands it brings up to find out whether we are like to keep in shallow water, or shall have to drop the deep-sea line; in short, seeing what we have to deal with.
Patients under iodid need not be seen so frequently; those under nitroglycerin or alkalies still less frequently. But all patients under the active management of hypertension should be seen at from one to three week intervals, and the urine should be repeatedly examined and the blood pressure carefully recorded.
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