BOOKII.
of
COMPOUND  BODIES.
COMPOUND  BODIES  are  substances  composed  of  two  or
more  simple  bodies  combined  together.  Now  as  the
simple  bodies  are  29  in  number,  if  they  were  all  capable
of  combining  together,  the  compounds  formed  by  them
would  amount  to  a  great  many  thousands:  But  all
the  simple  substances  are  not  capable  of  combining
with  each  other;  neither  hydrogen,  for  instance,  nor
azot,  have  ever  been  combined  with  metals.  This  diminishes ¬
  their  number  considerably.  Besides,  we  are
still  too  little  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  caloric  and
light  to  be  able  to  treat  separately  of  the  compounds
into  which  they  enter.  Several  numerous  classes  of
compounds  have  been  already  described  in  the  last
Book:  for  the  oxides,  sulphurets,  phosphurets,  and
alloys,  are  real  compounds.  All  these  circumstances
render  the  compounds  which  form  the  subject  of  this
Book  much  less  numerous  than  might  be  at  first  supposed. ¬

Bb.

Kock  u.