comte, auguste - the positive philosophy vol I (другой вариант)

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Whatever may be the issue of future labours, Berzelius has secured the eternal honour of having first exhibited the true nature of the problem, and the aggregate of its principal conditions, and perhaps the order of ideas in which its solution is to be sought. Whenever this solution is obtained, chemistry will have made a great stride towards a truly rational state: for, under a hierarchy of the elements, the systematic nomenclature of compound substances will almost suffice to give a first indication of the general issue proper to each chemical event; or, at least, to restrict the uncertainty within narrow limits. Yet, through this very connection of such a research with the whole of chemical studies, I do not think it can be efficaciously pursued while we separate it, as has hitherto been done, from the question about the establishment of a complete system of chemical classification for all bodies, simple and compound. Now, this great question seems to me at present premature. The preliminary conditions, both of method and of doctrine, are, as we have seen, far from being completed. As such a general system of classification must constitute both the summing up and the fundamental view of the whole of chemical philosophy, I shall further expand my idea about it in this place.

As for the method, it requires perfecting in two ways, for which chemists must resort to physiology. They must understand the fundamental theory of natural classifications, which can be obtained nowhere else: and they must, for the same reason, study in the same school the general spirit of the comparative method, of which chemists have very little idea, and without which they can never proceed properly in search of a rational classification. These two improvements must be derived from biological philosophy; the one to lay down the problem of chemical classification, and the other to undertake its solution. It will be by perceiving these harmonies and mutual applications among the sciences commonly treated as isolated and independent, that philosophers in all departments will at length become aware of the reality and utility of the fundamental conception of this work; the cultivation of the different branches of natural philosophy under the impulsion and direction of a general system of positive philosophy, as a common basis and uniform connection of all scientific labours. We have little idea what we lose by the narrow and irrational spirit in which the different sciences are cultivated, and especially with regard to method. When the great scientific relations of the future shall be regularly organized, men will scarcely he able to imagine, otherwise than historically, that the study of nature

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could ever have been conceived and directed in any other way.

As to the doctrine, we have seen that the desired classification cannot take place till we have settled the preponderance of the one or the other consideration,—the order of composition of the immediate principles, or their degree of plurality. Now, such a problem has not yet been rationally proposed. If we suppose it resolved, adopting the rule which I think almost incontestable, as I explained before, of treating the first point of view as necessarily superior to the second, we must still attend to two special conditions, before we can proceed to the rational construction of the system of chemical substances.

By the first of these conditions, we must dismiss the irrational distinction of substances into organic and inorganic. We shall see hereafter that organic chemistry must soon dissolve, parting with some of its questions to chemistry proper, and others to physiology. When any combination is susceptible of a chemical examination, it must be subjected to a fixed order of homogeneous considerations, whatever may have been its origin and mode of concrete existence, with which chemistry has nothing to do, unless as a source of information. As long as any classification must be adapted to the strange conception of a sort of double chemistry, established upon a false division of substances, it must be precarious and artificial in its details, because it is vitiated in principle. The evil is felt, as is shown more and more by the tendency to refer organic combinations to the general laws of inorganic combinations: but it would not be enough, as might be supposed, that a distinguished chemist should take the initiative, in a large and direct manner, to accomplish this important reform. Such a work demands a special and difficult operation, requiring a delicate combination of the chemical and physiological point of view, in order to make a true division of what should remain with chemistry, and what should return to physiology.

The second condition is closely connected with the first. It requires that all combinations should, if possible, be submitted to the law of dualism, erected into a constant and necessary principle of chemical philosophy. Great as would be such an improvement in the way of simplification of chemical conceptions, it must however be admitted that it is not so indispensable to classification as the preceding. Without the first condition, rational classification would be impossible: whereas, it might take place, with imperfection and difficulty, without the second. As for the prospects of the case, the tendency to improvement is as real and marked in the one case as the other; as any one may observe for

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himself.

It is of the more importance to set the consideration of the order of composition of immediate principles above that of their degree of plurality, as before proposed, because the first is, by its nature, clear and incontestable, while dualism the other is always more or less obscure and dubious. The one is, in fact, the simple appreciation of an analytical or synthetical fact: the second has always a certain hypothetical character, since we then pronounce upon the mode of agglomeration of elementary particles; which is a thing radically inaccessible to us. Thus, for example, a chemist may establish with certainty that such or such a salt is a compound of the second order, and that certain acids and alkalies are, on the contrary, of the first order; for analysis and synthesis can demonstrate that each of the last bodies is composed of two elementary substances, and that, on the contrary, the immediate principles of the salt are decomposable into two elements. But, in another view, when the analysis of any substance has established the existence is it of three or four elements, as in the case of vegetable or animal matters, we cannot, without resort to hypothesis pronounce that this combination is really ternary or quaternary, instead of being simply binary: for we call never assert that we could not, by a preliminary analysis less violent than this final one, resolve the proposed substance into two immediate principles of the first order, each of which should be further susceptible of a new binary decomposition.

If an unskilled chemist should at this day apply unduly strong means to the analysis of saltpetre, the results might authorize him, following our present erroneous procedure to conceive of this substance as a ternary combination of oxygen, azote, and potassium: and vet we know that such a conclusion would be false, as the substance may be easily reconstructed by a direct combination between nitric acid and potash, which might have been separated by a less disturbing analysis, without occasioning their decomposition. How do we know that it may not be so with every combination habitually classed as ternary or quaternary? Immediate analysis being as yet so imperfect in comparison with elementary analysis, especially with regard to theses substances, would it be rational to proclaim, for the time to come, its necessary and eternal impotence with regard to them? Such judgments seem to be founded on a confusion between these two kinds of analysis, so really different in themselves, and so characterized in their operations by delicacy in the one case and energy in the other.— One important consideration, relat-

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ing to the synthetical point of view, is evidence of this confusion between the two analyses: and that is, the extreme difficulty, if not impossibility, of verifying by synthesis the analytical results proper to these substances. We have seen that immediate synthesis is usually very easy, while elementary synthesis is scarcely practicable. Thus, reciprocally, it seems to me rational to suppose that when the recomposition cannot be effected, the analysis has not been immediate,—there being no other objection to such a conclusion. For example, we exhibit the impossibility of reproducing by synthesis vegetable and animal substances: and this has been even set up as a sort of empirical principle. But is not this impossibility owing to our persisting in an elementary synthesis when we ought to proceed by an immediate synthesis, the materials of which might in many cases be discovered beforehand? This remark is true with regard to a multitude of combinations the dualism of which is, however, very certain, with the sole difference that the immediate principles are better known. If we tried to recompose saltpetre by directly combining oxygen azote, and potassium, we should succeed no better than in reproducing organic substances by throwing together their three or four elements: the obstacles which we admit in the last case apply equally to the first. The most striking achievement is that of M. Woehler, in producing the animal substance urea. He could not have done this if he had tried, according to the common prejudice, to combine directly oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and azote, which concur in the elementary constitution of this substance, instead of uniting only its two immediate principles, till then un known in this quality. Is there any reason to suppose that it is otherwise in any other case?—It appears then that chemists will be safe in attributing an entire gene rarity to the fundamental principle of the dualism of all combinations, under the one easy condition of regarding as still very imperfect the analysis of substances exceeding the binary composition; and especially the substances called organic, the true immediate principles of which would thus remain to be discovered. These principles can be conceived of only by imagining a considerable number of new binary combinations, of the first and second orders, between oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and azote: and the realization of this may seem, in the present state of our knowledge, almost impossible. But we have no right to conclude it to be so, while our analytical procedures are what they are; and there is no scientific objection to our supposing that there may be many more direct and binary combinations among the elements of ternary or quaternary substances

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than chemistry has yet established.

It must be observed, however, that universal and indefinite dualism cannot be maintained unless chemists will scientifically determine the sense of the word substance; that is, restrict it to mean real combination for it would be easy to cite, and especially in physiological chemistry, very marked cases of the defect of dualism. But we cannot regard as a true chemical substance an accidental assemblage of heterogeneous substances, whose agglomeration is evidently mechanical, such as sap, blood, a biliary calculus, etc., unless we confound the notion of dissolution, and even of mixture, with that of combination. If we extend in this way the use of the term substance, so valuable in chemistry, we might as well treat, as so many ehemica1 substances, the waters of different seas, different mineral waters, soils, etc.: and even more. artificial mixtures of a variety of salts dissolved together in water or alcohol. We shall see hereafter that all difficulties in this subject may be disposed of by our learning that they proeeed from our not having clearly and rigorously separated the chemical from the physiological point of view. We may be assured that the most elementary notions of chemical philosophy cannot be rationally established, in their due clearness, generality, and stability, without being founded on a full comparison with biology; a comparison which can be organized only under a complete system of positive philosophy.

Meantime, there is a marked tendency in the present movement of chemical ideas, towards a complete dualism. The increasing assimilation attempted between organic and inorganic substances is an indirect advance in that road: but much more striking, in this view, are experiments dike those of M. Woehler, which refer the most refractory compounds to dualism, either by analysis or synthesis. A binary formula is adopted, too, to represent the proportion of elements proper to the most complex substances: and, though this is not a true dualism, it helps to prepare minds for the establishment of a real and general one. The sum of what has been said on this important subject of chemical dualism is this:—the real mode of agglomeration of elementary particles is, and ever must be, unknown to us, and therefore no proper object of our study:—our positive researches being thus circumscribed, we may rationally conceive of the immediate composition of any substance as binary, but so as to represent all the phenomena that chemistry can offer to us, in any future state of perfection. Thus, I do not propose universal dualism as a law of nature for this we could never establish: but I de-

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clare it to be a fundamental artifice of true chemical philosophy, destined to simplify our elementary conceptions, by using our optional intellectual liberty in accords anee with the true end and aim of positive chemistry.

These are the conditions necessary to the institution of a system of natural classification, answering in chemistry to the universal hierarchy of living bodies in biology, if the complication of phenomena would admit of our obtaining such a system. Up to this time, perhaps no one has formed an adequate idea of the nature and spirit of such an operation: but, in my view, chemical classification, thus conceived of, is the science itself, condensed into the most substantial summary. All I claim to have done is to have introduced into chemical science the special kind of philosophical spirit which is naturally developed by biological science, as it has been conceived of by all its great masters from Aristotle downwards.

It is because I have high expectations of what Chemistry will become, that I attach so much importance to the preceding discussion. The science is now weak and desultory, notwithstanding its rich collection of facts: but, extended and complex as it is, there is no fundamental science, except astronomy, whose phenomena are so homogeneous, and therefore so fit for a true systematization, in the positive spirit. Now, this future constitution of chemical science must, it seems to me, consist in a complete system of natural classification, which cannot be obtained till all combinations, whatever their origin, are subjected to a fixed order of homogeneous considerations, and, on the other hand, constantly referred to a fundamental dualism.

We cannot form any certain expectation of the future condition of Chemistry from its present state: but, before proceeding to examine the two doctrines which at this day approach nearest to positive rational- ity,—that of definite proportions and the electro-chemical theory,—I will indicate two points of doctrine which seem, by their nature, to indicate with precision the true dogmatic formation towards which the science, as a whole, must tend.

First, there is the great law of double saline decompositions, discovered by Berthollet, and completed by M. Dulong’s investigations on the reciprocal action of soluble and insoluble salts. The case of double solubility, considered by Berthollet, is this: two soluble salts, of any levied, mutually decompose each other whenever their reaction may produce an insoluble salt, or one less soluble than either of the two. This

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theorem stands first among general propositions in chemistry, and is the only one which can as yet have an exact idea of what, in chemistry, constitutes a true law. It has all the characters of a law: it relates to the proper subject of chemical science; it establishes a relation between two classes of phenomena before independent, and, above all, it admits of prevision of phenomena according to their positive relations. In establishing this law, Berthollet escaped some metaphysical snares, rejecting hypotheses of affinities; but he fell into one when he attempted to explain the law which he had just discovered. No law can be explained otherwise than by showily that it enters into another, more general than itself: but this law of Berthollet’s is alone of its kind; and it therefore admits of no explanation. It may hereafter be attached to a fundamental theory of the reciprocal action of all compounds of the second order; and such a relation will truly explain it: but at present it is simply a general fact which, inexplicable itself, serves to explain each of the particular facts which it comprehends.

The influence of air and water in the production of chemical phenomena is another of the most perfect doctrines of chemistry as it stands. The importance of the action of air and water in the terrestrial economy has induced some German philosophers irrationally to set up the system of these two fluids into a sort of third reign, between the inorganic and the organic: but abstract chemistry has nothing to do with natural history, and regards the study of air and water from a different point of view, while aware of its fundamental importance.

All chemical phenomena take place in the presence of air; and they almost invariably require the intervention of water: it is clear therefore that before we study any chemical reaction, we must be able to analyse the participation of these two fluids. Thus the chemical theory of air and water is a sort of necessary introduction to the system of chemistry, properly so called, as belonging more to method than to doctrine, and as immediately following the study of simple bodies. It is an historical fact thug the double analysis of air and water marked the first great advance in modern chemistry.

The influence of the air, not less important than that of water in chemical phenomena was less difficult to characterize: for the air is simply a mixture, and its chemical action is merely that of the gases which compose it, each of which acts as it were isolated allowing for the diminution of intensity from its diffusion and for the very few cases in which the accomplishment of the proposed phenomenon determines the

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combination of the gases in an accessory way. Chemistry has only to analyse it, leaving all other study of it to the department of natural history. This analysis was effected in the early days of modern chemistry, except that there is still some uncertainty about the proportion of carbonic acid gas, and perhaps of some other more considerable principles, as, for instance, hydrogen, the existence of which begins to be generally suspected. Though no appreciable change in the composition of the atmosphere has taken place within half a century, it is impossible to conceive that some alteration must not happen, in some direction, in course of time, among the many perturbing influences which act upon the mixture. Their antagonism, and that of vegetable and animal action, partly neutralizes them: but the equilibrium cannot be precise and continuous. Geological considerations and botanical fossils lead us to suppose that at some remote periods the composition of the air must have been sensibly different: and chemists themselves have actually established some slight periodical variations, dependent on the proportion of carbonic acid at different seasons. Our analytical resources are, however, very imperfect with regard to the accessory principles of the atmosphere for chemists can ascertain nothing of the distinctions which are proved to exist in the best-marked localities, by their influences on living beings. The study of these variations, all-important in its way,—even as possibly indicating the limits of human life in a remote future,—belongs to natural history; and that is probably the reason why chemists trouble themselves so little about it: and if there is neglect, it should be charged upon the naturalists. It is true that a preparation is required for their order of study, like all others,—a provision of knowledge, rising from physiology to astronomy itself: but the research is not especially a matter of Chemical duty.

The study of water requires much more extended and complex researches than that of the air; and it is indispensable to the general system of chemical science: for water being a real combination, and perhaps the most perfect known to us, may exercise chemical effects proper to itself, independently of those attributable to its elements, and apart from its importance as a solvent,—to say nothing of it as a simple mixture. Thus there are three aspects under which water must be considered by chemists, all distinct and all essential. and the appreciation of them has been slow and difficult, if even we may say that this fundamental examination is yet complete.

The analysis of water, represented by a quantity of hydrogen double

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in volume that of oxygen, and unquestionably confirmed by synthesis, is the finest of the early discoveries of modern chemistry, not only from the light it casts upon the whole of chemical phenomena and the general economy of nature, but also from its conquest of prodigious difficulties. In regard to the first view, chemical science leaves nothing to desire. Yet, a notion has arisen, in recent times, of the existence of a new and more highly oxygenated combination between the two elements of water, which may raise some interesting questions, not about the irreversible composition of water, but about the kind of chemical influence which is taken for granted in its decomposition and recomposition in a multitude of phenomena; and especially, about the true mode of union of oxygen and hydrogen in all substances, and above all in liquids, whirls cannot be obtained without water. Some doubts have lately been proposed about this, which seem to me to deserve mature examination.

The dissolving action of water has been the subject of a long series of laborious researches, much less difficult, and not tar from complete. Yet more attention ought to be paid than is paid to the first experiment of Vanquelin, in which it is shown that water, saturated with one salt remains capable of receiving another, and even acquired by that the singular property of dissolving a new quantity of the first. This experiment, which has been in a manner despised, seems to me of the first order in its way, and a fit basis of a series of interesting: researches about the apparently capricious laws of solubility, the study of which is yet essentially empirical.

Chemists were long in conceiving that water, besides being a solvent, might act in a really chemical manner, otherwise than by its elements. It seemed as if a combination so eminently neuter must be inoffensive, and inoperative, except by its decomposition. It was Proust who thought that this neutrality itself afforded a presumption of certain chemical affections, independently of its composition. This was the rational consideration which led him to create the important study of the hydrates, regarded as a sort of new salts, in which water plays the part, with regard to the alkalies, of a kind of hydric acid.

The examination of these combinations, and of all others that water can form with any substances without being decomposed, constitutes the third and last part of the fundamental study of water, regarded as an indispensable preliminary to the general system of chemical studies.

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Chapter III

Doctrine of Definite Proportions

Here are two general doctrines in chemistry, as it now exists, which present a systematic appearance, and invest the science with such rationality as it has attained. The first of these is the important doctrine of Definite Proportions.

Even if this doctrine were complete, it could exert only a secondary influence on the solution of the great problem of the science,—the study of the laws of the phenomena of composition and decomposition. The essential question is, what separations and new combinations must take place under determinate circumstances; and the theory of definite proportions affords no assistance to this kind of precision. It proceeds, indeed, on the supposition that the question is already solved; and that it is to be taken as the point of departure for the estimate of each of the new products,—of their quantity and the proportion of their elements. Thus, the theory of definite proportions presents the singular scientific character of rendering rational, in its numerical details, a solution which usually remains empirical in its most important aspect.

It was natural that the founders of modern chemistry should have attended to the laws of composition and decomposition, in preference to a study which they regarded as subordinate; and it was natural also that, as the advance of science disclosed to them the vast difficulties of the main problem, they should attend more and more to the secondary study, which promised an easier and more speedy success. But the most important office of this subordinate theory,—that of supplying the defect of immediate experiment,—can be but very imperfectly fulfilled, while it is regarded apart from the principal theory; and thus, the doctrine of definite proportions will never acquire its full scientific value till it is connected with an unquestionable basis of chemical laws, of which it will be the ill dispensable numerical complement.

Meanwhile, however, it affords a real, though secondary assistance to chemists, in rendering their analyses worse easy and more precise. Moreover, it restricts the number of cases of combination logically possible, by exhibiting the very small number of distinct proportions; and by thus diminishing the uncertainty in cases of chemical action, it is, in fact, a natural preliminary to the establishment of those chemical laws to which it will be, under another view, a necessary supplement.

In regard to doctrine, this theory offers a perfect type of the precise kind of rationality which must hereafter belong to Chemistry as a whole.