File:A popular chemistry; (1887) (14592778850).jpg

Identifier: popularchemist00stee (find matches)
Title: A popular chemistry;
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Steele, J(oel) Dorman, 1836-1886. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Chemistry
Publisher: New York and Chicago, A. S. Barnes & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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d the stupendousmagnitude of the result. When standing before a grand conflagration, wit-nessing the display of mighty energies there in action, and seeing theelements rushing into combination with a force which no human agencycan withstand, does it seem as if any power could undo that work ofdestruction, and rebuild those beams and rafters which are disappearingin the flames ? Yet in a few years they will be rebuilt. This mighty forcewill be overcome; not, however, as we might expect, amidst the convul-sion of nature, or the clashing of the elements, but silently, in a delicateleaf waving in the sunshine.—Cooke. t From this statement it is evident that the foliage of house-plantsmust be healthful. Moreover, there is some reason to believe that the Owhich they exhale is highly ozonized, and therefore of great value indestroying miasmic germs. We should remember, however, that flowersexhale C02; and the odor of certain plants, and the pollen of others, are THE ATMOSPHERE. 89 Pig. 43.
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Apparatus arranged to catch the O change of office is so exactly balanced, that, as wehave seen, the proportion of C02 and of 0, in theopen air, never varies.* very injurious. Plants and flowers, which to one person are inocuous, areto another detrimental. Thus the fragrance of new-mown grass, which isso agreeable to some, produces in others what is termed the hay-fever; due,it is said, to the pollen of the grass. Each family, therefore, must deter-mine for itself what should be excluded from its collection. It is evidentthat flowerless plants, like the ivy, etc., are harmless, while the cheerful-ness given to an apartment by even a few pots of flowers on a window-bench, should induce one~to take some trouble in order to make a selectionwhich will not only beautify but purify the room. * Two hundred million tons of coal are now annually burned, pro-ducing six hundred million tons of COa. A century ago, hardly a fractionof that amount was burned, yet this enormous aggregate has not cha

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