The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-20
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Abeoture Delivered ON Monday evening,
at the University of Pennsyivania, by
Professor Robert E. Rogers.

Rogers delivered a lecture before the Academy
of Natural Sciences, his subject being "Carbon
in its Relations to Life" The lecture was
given in the Hall of the University of Penn
sylvana, and was listened to with great interest
by a large audience, who were particularly
pleased with the numerous experiments with
which the lecturer illustrated his address.
Professor Rogers spoke as follows
Ladies and Gentlemen:-After the instruc-
tive and elaborate discourses to which you have
listened, under the auspices of the Academy
of Natural Sciences, embracing the versatility
of life the antiquity of man. and his power
and dominion over all inanimate creation |
had hoped that might have been exempted
from the necessity of attempting to add any to
that which has been given; but l have ap-
peared here under the command of the inexo-
rable committee, and present myself this even
ing to hold with you conversation upon one
of the themes with which you are familiar.
Trusting in the intrinsic interest which sur
rounds it, shall venture to lead you into a
few reflections connected with that which ex-
ercises, probably, the most powerful control
over the operations of that planet ON which we
lve-a substance without which man could
not exist, without which the arts could not
flourish, without which civilization could not
advance That substance is the simple one of
charcoal; carbon is its technical name.
The planet on which we dwell is a minute
particle of dust, floating in the grand and
boundless expanse of space.
This little spot-the abode of man-having,
holding, and covering within itself all that is
of interest to him, is about eight thousand
miles in diameter. 1t wheels upon its axis at
the rate of q thousand miles an hour, and it
speeds through space at the amazing velocity
of 5000 miles in that same interval of time.
In looking to the physical conditions exhibited
in this planet, while we cannot
dwell upon the steps of investigation
that have been pursued, it is III our power to
pursue the process of inverted reasoning, and
regard it as the discoverers have presented it to
us. We are, as it were, living upon a thin
crust, which, when compared with the entire
mass of its material, is but thin film of paper
upon an ordinary school globe. When we
attain a distance beneath the surface of the
earth of not more than single mile water will
boil; at ten miles iron would melt; at fifty miles
every rock would be fluid; and at the depth of
Or near the centre, everything would be con-
verted into vapor.
What are the constituents of this world
When we examine them, we shall find that in
all the rocks, minerals, irons, plants fruits;
in all the different kinds of animals, whether
they creep run, swim, or fly; in every organ
and every part of every organ of every animal
and vegetable, there are but sixty-six elements.
How remarkable is this When you advance
a step further you will find that we may elmi-
nate very large number of these, and arrive
at the fact that out of the sixty-sx there are
only about thirteen that fill an important part;
and when we come down still further we dis
cover that this number resolves itself into a
few, of which one occupies an entire half,
another an entire fourth, and the remaining
eleven one-fourth All of those substances
that we prize so highly, the metals--the pre-
Cious ones particularly-do not embrace more
than one-hundredth.
We are dwelling at the bottom of great
ethereal ocean, the atmosphere of which
towers above our head. 1t is the atmosphere
in which we Give, and move, and have our
being" The materials of it minister to our
comfort and supply our necessities. In the
atmosphere there is oxygen. In the atmo-
sphere there is a substance called nitrogen.
In the atmosphere there is a material familiar
to you as watery vapor. In the atmosphere
there floats the substance carbonic acid. In
the earth there are metallic bodies, but they
have undergone change, have been converted
during that change into new substances and
these are now materials for our study. Let
as advance carefully, that we may follow our
theme to its legitimate conclusion.
The material called oxygen is colorless,
tasteless, and without odor. You pass your
hand through it, but you feel it not; you walk
through it, and yet know it not; you breathe
it into your lungs, and scarcely recognize that
it is there; you drink it i'll the water which
you swallow; you tread upon it on the earth
which you walk. Oxygen constitutes One-hali
of the entire planet on which we dwell Taking
the air, the water, the vegetable and the
animal substances the rocks and the minerals,
all combined, yes, half of all that we know OF
material existence is called oxygen gas. What
are its uses? Stop for moment the function
of breathing and you sufOcate. Why! Be
cause you fail to obtain the oxygen in your
lungs. Stop its presence in the food that you
swallow, and you are not nourished. Remove
it from vegetables and animals, and you have
totally destroyed their organization.
Carbon is capable of combining with oxygen
oxygen recprocates the ability to combine
with carbon, and these two substances form a
combination which is one of the most import.
ant in the economy of living things. We find
il in variety of forms. The diamond is the
most simple and purest of these forms. Sin
Isaac Newton discovered, in his observations
upon refracting substances, that their proper
ties, in many cases, were due to the presence
of carbon, and from this he inferred thai
the diamond, so wonderful in its lustre, in Its
refractng capacity, must contain carbon. II
remained for later investigators to prove the
fact.
The lecturer then exhibited specimens o
large and brilliant diamonds, which have beer
on exhibition in Bailey q Co.'S window, anC
gave a short epitome OF the history of th'
largest. This beautiful jewel, said the lee
turer represented the material which coat
our lamp-shade, the smoke that floats over on
citv. the material that we gather from. tn
refuse of fuel when it is burned. Moreover
the anthracite and the bituminous coal
Toha npllVn