—putting a varnish, as it were, upon its surface, as we varnish a picture—absolutely forming a substance which prevents the natural chemical affinity between the bodies from acting.
I must now take you a little further in this kind of illustration, or consideration, I would rather call it, of chemical affinity. This attraction between different particles exists also most curiously in cases where they are previously combined with other substances. Here is a little chlorate of potash containing the oxygen which we found yesterday could be procured from it; it contains the oxygen there combined and held down by its chemical affinity with other things; but still it can combine with sugar, as you saw. This affinity can thus act across substances, and I want you to see how curiously what we call combustion acts with respect to this force of chemical affinity. If I take a piece of phosphorus and set fire to it, and then place a jar of air over the phosphorus, you see the combustion which we are having there on account of chemical affinity (combustion being in all cases the result of chemical affinity). The phosphorus is escaping in that vapour, which will condense into a
