Elements
Modern science considers matter as existing in four forms--imponderable, gaseous, liquid, and solid; while by elements are understood the simple component ingredients of bodies under whatever form they are recognized by the chemists. The number of these elements is about 64, some of which have been known from ancient times--gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, and mercury in particular; others are of more recent date. The elements are divided into two classes, the metallic and non-metallic--the former numbering 52, the latter 13. Below is given a table of the elementary substances now known, in alphabetical order:
METALLIC.
Aluminum Cerium Gold Manganese Antimony Chromium Indium Mercury Arsenic Cobalt Iridium Molybdenum Barium Copper Iron Nickel Bismuth Didymium Lanthanum Niobium Cadmium Erbium Lead Osmium Caesium Gallium Lithium Palladium Calcium Glucinum Magnesium Platinum Potassium Sodium Thorium Vanadium Rhodium Strontium Tin Yttrium Rubidium Tantalum Titanium Zinc Ruthenium Tellurium Tungsten Zirconium Silver Thallium Uranium NON-METALLIC.
Boron Fluorine Nitrogen Selenium Bromine Hydrogen Oxygen Silicon Carbon Iodine Phosphorus Sulphur Chlorine Four of these elements--chlorine, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen--are gases, and fluorine is probably a gas also. Two are liquids at ordinary atmospheric temperatures, viz., mercury and bromine. The element gallium recently found in certain zinc ores is also said to be a liquid, the remaining elements are all solids. A description of the chief elements will be found in their respective order throughout this work. See METALS.