Introduction to general chemistry. A graded course of one hundred lectures

Introduction

TO

GENERAL CHEMISTRY.

A GRADED COURSE OF

ONE HUNDRED LECTURES

BY

GUSTAVUS DETLEF HINRICHS, M.D., LL.D.

HONORARY AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES IN FRANCE, GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES) PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY,

ST. LOUIS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY.

WITH AX

ATLAS OF EIGHTY

PLATES,

REPRESENTING CHEMISTS, INSTITUTIONS, PRIME MATERIALS, CRYSTALS, DIAGRAMS AND APPARATUS) AND ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.

ST. LOUIS, MO., U. S.

CARL GUSTAV HINRICHS, PUBLISHER.

NEW YORK AND LEIPZIG, LEMCKE AND BUECHNER. London, H. Grevel & Co. Paris, H. Le Soudier.

Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1897. by Gustavus Hinrichs,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY THE AETHOR.

PHOTO-ENGRAVINGS BY SANDERS ENGRAVING CO., ST. LOUIS, MO.

PRINTED BY R. P. STUDLEY & CO., ST. LOUIS, MO.

S'vt> p , , V

TO

Charles Friedel,

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE,

PROFESSOR OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCES.

CONSERVATOR OF THE M I N ER A LOGI C A L MUSEUM OF THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF MINES. OF PARIS.

THIS VOLUME

IS DEDICATED BY

The Author

MONSIEUR CHARLES FRIEDEL,

MEMBRE DE L’ INSTITUT,

Paris, France.

My Dear Sir :

The Introduction to General Chemistry herewith most respectfully dedicated to you, is intended to give the student a first view of the broad field of science that has been enriched by your researches, and to serve as a supplement to existing treatises of our science.

To you, the form of a crystal, the synthesis of a mineral and the formation of a new series of organic compounds have been chemical problems of equal importance. Hence the solution of every single problem by your hands has enriched chemistry with a new principle as broad as the horizon of your mind.

Thus, when you made the ancient dwarfs of the mountain speak, the crystal revealed to you its true composition. Upon this you built an organic chemistry of the deep, of which that of air and sun is like the spirit.

Your official trusts have been as broad as your

chemical work. The magnificent collection of /

minerals at the Ecole des Mines, and Organic Chemistry at the Sorbonne, have been equally benefitted by that breadth of mind which the specialist cannot even understand.

I

Your recent establishment of Les Actualites Chimiques makes all chemists of the world your debtors. The Great Chemist of the North first sacrificed his time to such a task, eighty years ago. For a while, his creation was continued in another country, by the kindred minds of a Liebig and a Woehler. But with modern Byzantinism, the Jahresberichte have depreciated in character even more than they have increased in bulk. You happily have found a form in which the thought of Berzelius arises to new life for the good of science.

That your Colleague, Professor Schuetzenberger of the College de France, under your presidency, has delivered a Lecture on work of mine to the chemists of Paris, at the Sorbonne, and that you have opened your new Review with a full report thereof, is acknowledged as a great distinction with gratitude by

THF AUTHOR.

St. Louis, Mo., U. S., March 15, 1897.

A

FRANCOIS ARAGO,

Preface

This work embodies the experience of nearly forty years behind the Lecture Table. I have addressed fully ten thousand students in the aggregate.

For a century, our chemical text- books have been modelled on one pattern. They all begin with general principles that require advanced knowledge to be understood. The student is first directed to observe that which he cannot see, and to comprehend that which it took old chemists centuries to learn. At the same time, that which is common and of great practical importance, is withheld till late in the course or entirely omitted. Many gases that were of special interest a century ago, are still made prominent, though of no significance at present, while the instructive and useful gasometric processes are given no place.

A reformation seems necessary. It has been attempted in this book. The entire science is presented in a strictly graded course. The principal points are determined in the order of their historic growth. The discovery of oxygen is not presented until its necessity can be understood ; it comes as the dramatic event that it actually was in history. The atomic theory comes last, and is here carried to completion.

The real authors of chemistry are the chemists that created the science. Hence the portraits of the makers precede their work. The other parts of the Atlas are equally essentfal. The pictorial representation of the prime materials we would like to have increased largely.

The present is the Lecture Course exclusively. It is supplemented by a Laboratory Course, the guide for which it is our intention to issue in another year. The lecture is not the place for details on processes and apparatus. It is as impossible to teach as it is to learn such details in the lecture hall. At the laboratory stand such knowledge is acquired almost without an effort.

The plates of apparatus are largely suggestive of what is presented at each lecture. The experiments are sufficiently indicated in the text. Neither apparatus, nor experiment, should ever be introduced simply for show or amusement. They are means to an end, namely the establishment of chemical facts and principles.

This book does not aim to be a systematic treatise on compounds. Of such books there are enough. The best by far is the Traite of Troost, (11th edit., Paris, 1895); it is a masterpiece of completeness and condensation ; it gives a maximum of chemistry in a minimum of space.

The selection of topics, and their order of succession, has been to me a matter of much study and consideration for many years. The text has also been most carefully written and re-written. It has been my constant aim to make the text concise and clear. Each lecture deals with a single, definite topic. It is treated as a subject by itself. The best French writers have been my models of style.

But the work is before the reader and the student, respectfully submit it to their consideration.

Si GCiESTiox: In a first course it is advisable to omit the more difficult quantitative inorganic part (Lectures 38 to 51) till Lecture 80 in organic chemistrv has been heard. After that, and perhaps a review, the more difficult quantative parts can be taken with greatest advantage.

Contents

TEXT OF ONE HUNDRED LECTURES.

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

I. Chemic.vl Agencies: