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ible to one head, renders such an arrangement extremely difficult and
not very advantageous.
The case of chemistry is the only one in which, by its nature, the
phenomena are simple, uniform and determinate enough to allow of a
rational nomenclature at once clear rapid and complete, so as to con-
tribute to the general progress of the science. The idea of composition,
the great end of the science, is always preponderant. Thus, the system-
atic name of each body, expressing its composition, indicates first a
correct general view, and then, the sum of its chemical history; and, by
the nature of the science, the more it advances towards perfection, the
more must this double property of the nomenclature be developed. In
another view, dualism being the commonest constitution in chemistry,
and the most essential, and that to which all other modes of composition
are more and more referred by science, we see that the conditions of the
problem are as favourable as possible to a rapid and expressive nomen-
clature. Thus, there has always been some system of nomenclature, more
or less rough, though none to be compared to that so happily founded by
Guyton-Morveau. Though the art can manifest its excellence only in
294/Auguste Comte
proportion to the advance of chemistry, it is in such harmony with the
nature of the science that, in its present imperfect state, it upholds it, by
provisionally supplying, as it were, the almost absolute deficiency of
true rationality. Thus chemistry may be regarded as specially adapted to
develops one of the few fundamental means, the aggregate of which
constitutes the general power of the human mind. The formation of a
similar aid in the more complex sciences offers a real and strong inter-
est: and I have only desired to show that we must resort to chemistry for
the true principles and general spirit of the art of nomenclature, accord-
ing to the rules so often set forth in this work, that each great logical
artifice should be directly studied in the department of natural philoso-
phy where it is found in the greatest perfection, that it may be after-
wards applied in aid of the sciences to which it less specially belongs.
The high philosophical properties of Chemistry are more striking in
regard to doctrine chemical than to method. However imperfect our
chemical science is, its development has operated largely in the emanci-
pation of the human mind. Its opposition to all theological philosophy is
marked by the two general facts in which it has a share with all the rest
of positive philosophy, first, the prevision of phenomena, and next,
our voluntary modification of them. We have already seen that the more
the complexity of phenomena baffles our prevision, the greater becomes
our power of modifying them, through the variety of resources afforded
by the complexity itself; so that the anti-theological influence of science
is infallible, in the one way or the other. In chemistry, our modifying
power is so strong that the greater part of chemical phenomena owe
their existence to humble intervention, by which alone circumstances
could be suitably arranged for their production: and if the phenomena of
physiology and social science admit of modification in a yet greater
degree, chemistry will always, in this particular, hold the first rank,
since the highest order of modifications is that which we here find,
those which are most important for the amelioration of the condition of
Man. In the system of the action of man upon nature, chemistry must
ever be regarded as the chief source of power, though all the fundamen-
tal sciences participate in it more or less.
In this way, chemistry effectually discredits the notion of the rule of
a providential will among its phenomena. But there is another way in
which it acts no less strongly; by abolishing the idea of destruction and
creation in nature. Before anything was known of gaseous materials
and products, many striking appearances must inevitably have inspired
Positive Philosophy/295
the idea of the real annihilation or production of matter in the general
system of nature. These ideas could not yield to the true conception of
decomposition and composition till we had decomposed air and water,
and then analysed vegetable and animal substances, and then finished
with the analysis of alkalies and earths, thus exhibiting the fundamental
principle of the indefinite perpetuity of matter. In vital phenomena, the
chemical examination of not only the substances of living bodies, but
their functions, imperfect as it yet is, must cast a strong light upon the
economy of vital nature by showing that no organic matter radically
heterogeneous to inorganic matter can exist, and that vital transforma-
tions are subject, like all others, to the universal laws of chemical phe-
nomena. Chemical analysis seems to have fulfilled its function in this
direction: henceforth it must be by the more difficult, but more luminous
method of synthesis that this great philosophical revolution must be
completed: and attempts enough have been successfully made to prove
the possibility of it.
The divisions of the science have not been clearly and permanently
settled, partly because of its very recent origin, and partly on account of
its nature. In the first place, students have been more occupied in multi-
plying observations than in classifying them; and in the next, the homo-
geneous character of chemical phenomena causes essential differences
to be less profound, and therefore less marked, than in any other of the
fundamental sciences. In astronomy, there can be no question of a divi-
sion into geometrical and mechanical phenomena. Physics is less a unique
science than a group of almost isolated sciences; and they indicate their
own arrangement. We shall see hereafter that nearly the same thing hap-
pens, though from a different cause, in physiology. But in chemistry, the
conditions are less favourable, the distinctions being scarcely more
marked than those which exist in a single department of physics, as
thermology, and yet more, electrology. The imperfection and small im-
portance of its present divisions are easily explained: and there are strong
symptoms of an approaching discussion of this great subject; for the
majority of eminent chemists are more or less dissatisfied with the pro-
visional division which they have been hitherto obliged to accept as
guidance in their labours.
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