Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1857-04-25
For the Quasqueton Guardian
MEDICINES, THEIR USES, AND MODE
OF APPLICATION.
No. ".

has been proved" says DR.. KAYNE, in
his Chemistry by Prof. DRAPER, "that
gold may be divided into particles of at
least ne billion four hundred millionths
of a square inch, and yet possess the
color and all other charac teristics of the
largest mass"
If grain of copper be dissolved in
nitric acid, and then in water of ammo
MIA, it will give a decided violet color to
three hundred and ninety-two cubic
inches of water. Even supposing that
each portion of the liquor of the size of
a grain of sand, and of which there are
million in cubic inch, contains only a
particle of copper, the grain must have
been divided into 392 million of parts.
A single drop of indigo in strong tine
ture, wherein at least 500, 900 distinctly
visible portions can be shown, colors
1000 cubic inches of water, and as this
mass of water contains 500, 900 times the
bulk of the drop Of indigo solution, the
particles must be smaller than the $500
millionth of cubic inch.
A rather more distinct experiment is
the following If we dissolve particle
of silver one-hundredth of cubic line
in size, in nitric acid, it will render dis
tinctly milky 500 cubic inches of clear
solution of common salt Hence the
magnitude of each particle of silver can
not exceed, but must rather fall short of
a billionth of a cubic line, (one-twelfth
of an inch.
To render the idea of this degree of
division more distinct than the mere men
ton of so imperfectly conceivable num-
Der as Billion, it may be added that a
man to reckon with watch, counting
day and nighta single billion of seconds,
would require many years.
Each new improvement in our micros-
copical instruments, displays to us new
races of animals too minute to be OBJ
served before, and of which it would re-
quire the heaping together of millions to
be visible to the naked eye. And yet
these animals live and feed, and have
their organs for locomotion and prehen
sion, their appetites to crafty, their dan
gers to avoid. They possess circulating
systems often highly complex, and blood,
with globules bearing to them by analo-
gy the same proportion in size that our
blood globules do to us. And yet these
globules-themselves organised, possess
ed of definite structure-lead us merely
to point where all power of distinct
conception ceases. where we discover
that nothing is great or small but by
comparison-and that presented by ma
ture on the one hand with magnitude in
finitely great, and on the other with as in
conceivable minuteness-it only remains
to bow down before the Omnipotence of
Natures Lord, and own our inability to
comprehend Him.
The human mind is so constituted that
it is incapable of approaching whatever
is exceedingly great exceedingly small.
We can neither attach a precise idea to
the magnitudes and grander relations of
the universe, nor to the atomic constitu-
ton of grain of dust. When we are
told by the celebrated chemist Professor
KAYNE, that in the millionth part of a
second, wave of violet light pulsates or
trembles seven hundred and twenty-sey-
en- millions of times, and that if we di-
vide single inch into ten millions of
equal parts, this violet wave is only one
hundred and sixty-seyen of such parts in
length, we obtain glimpse of the scale
on which material bodies are composed,
and must confess the inability of the hui
man imagination to form proper concep-
ton of such results, though We may feel
a just pride in the intellectual power
which has ascertained them.
We might greatly multiply these illus
traGons, but do not deem it necessary.
Although Homeopathy keeps no Sc
cret remedies, but has freely invited in
vestigation, Offering every facility to car
ny out the same ;-ahoagh the truths which
she teaches, both as to the influence oil
divided doses and of that great and fun
damental principle, similia sinsaibus CO..
rantur, have been long triumphantly es-
tablished, still there are found men who,
entirely ignorant of its merits, spend
their time in sneering and ridicule, which
might better be employed in Investigate
ing its claims.
Yours Truly,
LEWIS DODGE, NJ. D.
TIouoIo,,J Ohio