Excerpt from Elements of Modern Chemistry In the forests, the leaves which fall and remain upon the moist soil are slowly consumed and disappear in the course of seasons. All of these changes, these phenomena, take place daily be fore our eyes, and are familiar to all of us. On comparison, striking differences are discovered between them. Some are but passing, and do not affect the proper nature of the body. They are the results of forces which act at sensible distances, and which leave the body in its primitive state as soon as their action has ceased. A piece of soft iron is attracted by the magnet before contact is established, and when under the mag netic influence, is capable of attracting other soft iron in its turn: the action of the magnet has made the iron itself mag netic, but it immediately loses this property when the magnet is withdrawn; and further, this momentary change in property has brought about no alteration in the intimate nature of the iron. It is found after the experiment in precisely the same condition as before. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.