Elements of Chemistry: The Author’s Preface

"We think only through the medium of words.—Languages are true analytical methods.—Algebra, which is adapted to its purpose in every species of expression, in the most simple, most exact, and best manner possible, is at the same time a language and an analytical method.—The art of reasoning is nothing more than a language well arranged."

“我们只有通过词语的媒介才能思维。——语言是真正的分析方法。——代数在每一种表达中都适合它的目的，以最简单、最准确、最好的方式表达，它既是一种语言，同时又是一种分析方法。——推理的艺术，不过是一种安排得很好的语言。”

Thus, while I thought myself employed only in forming a Nomenclature, and while I proposed to myself nothing more than to improve the chemical language, my work transformed itself by degrees, without my being able to prevent it, into a treatise upon the Elements of Chemistry.

就这样，当我以为自己只是在制定一套命名法，给自己定下的目标只不过是改进化学的语言时，我的著作却不知不觉地、我无法阻止地，一步一步变成了一部关于化学基础的论著。

The impossibility of separating the nomenclature of a science from the science itself, is owing to this, that every branch of physical science must consist of three things; the series of facts which are the objects of the science, the ideas which represent these facts, and the words by which these ideas are expressed. Like three impressions of the same seal, the word ought to produce the idea, and the idea to be a picture of the fact. And, as ideas are preserved and communicated by means of words, it necessarily follows that we cannot improve the language of any science without at the same time improving the science itself; neither can we, on the other hand, improve a science, without improving the language or nomenclature which belongs to it. However certain the facts of any science may be, and, however just the ideas we may have formed of these facts, we can only communicate false impressions to others, while we want words by which these may be properly expressed.

一门科学的命名法之所以不可能同这门科学本身分开，是因为每一门自然科学都必然由三样东西构成：作为这门科学对象的一系列事实，代表这些事实的观念，以及表达这些观念的词语。词语应当产生观念，观念应当是事实的图画，就像同一枚印章盖出的三个印记。既然观念是靠词语来保存和传达的，那么必然的结论就是：我们不能改进任何一门科学的语言，而不同时改进这门科学本身；另一方面，我们也不能改进一门科学，而不改进属于它的语言或命名法。无论一门科学的事实多么确实，无论我们对这些事实形成的观念多么正确，只要我们缺少能够恰当地表达它们的词语，我们就只能把错误的印象传达给别人。

To those who will consider it with attention, the first part of this treatise will afford frequent proofs of the truth of the above observations. But as, in the conduct of my work, I have been obliged to observe an order of arrangement essentially differing from what has been adopted in any other chemical work yet published, it is proper that I should explain the motives which have led me to do so.

对于那些愿意用心考虑的人，这部论著的第一部分将会经常提供上述看法正确的证据。但是，由于在写作这部著作时，我不得不遵循一种同迄今出版的任何化学著作所采用的都根本不同的编排次序，我应当说明一下促使我这样做的动机。

It is a maxim universally admitted in geometry, and indeed in every branch of knowledge, that, in the progress of investigation, we should proceed from known facts to what is unknown. In early infancy, our ideas spring from our wants; the sensation of want excites the idea of the object by which it is to be gratified. In this manner, from a series of sensations, observations, and analyses, a successive train of ideas arises, so linked together, that an attentive observer may trace back to a certain point the order and connection of the whole sum of human knowledge.

在几何学中，而且实际上在每一门知识中，都公认这样一条准则：在探究的进程中，我们应当从已知的事实走向未知的东西。在婴儿时期，我们的观念产生于我们的需要；需要的感觉，唤起能满足这种需要的对象的观念。就这样，从一系列的感觉、观察和分析中，产生出一连串前后相继的观念，它们彼此紧密相连，一个细心的观察者可以把人类全部知识的次序和联系追溯到某一点。

When we begin the study of any science, we are in a situation, respecting that science, similar to that of children; and the course by which we have to advance is precisely the same which Nature follows in the formation of their ideas. In a child, the idea is merely an effect produced by a sensation; and, in the same manner, in commencing the study of a physical science, we ought to form no idea but what is a necessary consequence, and immediate effect, of an experiment or observation. Besides, he that enters upon the career of science, is in a less advantageous situation than a child who is acquiring his first ideas. To the child, Nature gives various means of rectifying any mistakes he may commit respecting the salutary or hurtful qualities of the objects which surround him. On every occasion his judgments are corrected by experience; want and pain are the necessary consequences arising from false judgment; gratification and pleasure are produced by judging aright. Under such masters, we cannot fail to become well informed; and we soon learn to reason justly, when want and pain are the necessary consequences of a contrary conduct.

当我们开始研究任何一门科学的时候，我们在这门科学面前的处境，同儿童的处境相似；我们必须遵循的前进道路，正是自然在儿童形成观念时所遵循的道路。在儿童身上，观念只是感觉所产生的一个结果；同样，在开始研究一门自然科学时，我们也不应当形成任何观念，除非它是一次实验或观察的必然结果和直接效果。此外，走上科学道路的人，处境还不如一个正在获得最初观念的儿童有利。自然给了儿童种种手段，来纠正他对周围事物的有益或有害的性质可能犯的任何错误。在每一个场合，他的判断都受到经验的纠正；匮乏和痛苦是错误判断的必然后果，满足和快乐则来自正确的判断。在这样的老师手下，我们不会不变得见多识广；当匮乏和痛苦是相反行为的必然后果时，我们很快就学会了正确地推理。

In the study and practice of the sciences it is quite different; the false judgments we form neither affect our existence nor our welfare; and we are not forced by any physical necessity to correct them. Imagination, on the contrary, which is ever wandering beyond the bounds of truth, joined to self-love and that self-confidence we are so apt to indulge, prompt us to draw conclusions which are not immediately derived from facts; so that we become in some measure interested in deceiving ourselves. Hence it is by no means to be wondered, that, in the science of physics in general, men have often made suppositions, instead of forming conclusions. These suppositions, handed down from one age to another, acquire additional weight from the authorities by which they are supported, till at last they are received, even by men of genius, as fundamental truths.

在科学的研究和实践中，情况就完全不同了；我们形成的错误判断，既不影响我们的生存，也不影响我们的福祉；也没有任何物理的必然性迫使我们去纠正它们。相反，总是游荡在真理边界之外的想象力，加上我们那么容易放纵的自爱和自信，促使我们得出一些并非直接从事实推出的结论；结果我们在某种程度上变得乐于欺骗自己。因此，在一般的物理科学中，人们常常作出假设，而不是得出结论，这就一点也不奇怪了。这些假设一代一代传下去，又因为支持它们的权威而增加了分量，直到最后，连有天才的人也把它们当作基本真理接受下来。

The only method of preventing such errors from taking place, and of correcting them when formed, is to restrain and simplify our reasoning as much as possible. This depends entirely upon ourselves, and the neglect of it is the only source of our mistakes. We must trust to nothing but facts: These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation. Thus mathematicians obtain the solution of a problem by the mere arrangement of data, and by reducing their reasoning to such simple steps, to conclusions so very obvious, as never to lose sight of the evidence which guides them.

防止这类错误发生、并在它们形成后加以纠正的唯一方法，就是尽可能地约束和简化我们的推理。这完全取决于我们自己，忽视这一点，是我们犯错误的唯一根源。我们只能信赖事实：事实是自然呈现给我们的，不会欺骗人。在每一个场合，我们都应当让我们的推理接受实验的检验，除了实验和观察这条自然的道路以外，决不用别的方法去寻求真理。数学家们就是这样，仅仅通过安排已知条件，把推理化为非常简单的步骤，化为非常明显的结论，从而永远不会看不见引导他们的证据，求得问题的解答。

These inconveniencies are occasioned not so much by the nature of the subject, as by the method of teaching it; and, to avoid them, I was chiefly induced to adopt a new arrangement of chemistry, which appeared to me more consonant to the order of Nature. I acknowledge, however, that in thus endeavouring to avoid difficulties of one kind, I have found myself involved in others of a different species, some of which I have not been able to remove; but I am persuaded, that such as remain do not arise from the nature of the order I have adopted, but are rather consequences of the imperfection under which chemistry still labours. This science still has many chasms, which interrupt the series of facts, and often render it extremely difficult to reconcile them with each other: It has not, like the elements of geometry, the advantage of being a complete science, the parts of which are all closely connected together: Its actual progress, however, is so rapid, and the facts, under the modern doctrine, have assumed so happy an arrangement, that we have ground to hope, even in our own times, to see it approach near to the highest state of perfection of which it is susceptible.

这些不便，与其说是由题材的性质造成的，不如说是由教授它的方法造成的；正是为了避免它们，我才主要被引导去采用一种新的化学编排，它在我看来更符合自然的次序。不过我承认，在这样努力避免一种困难的时候，我发现自己陷入了另一类困难，其中有一些我还没能消除；但是我深信，那些剩下的困难，并不是由我所采用的次序的性质引起的，而毋宁说是化学至今仍然存在的不完善的结果。这门科学仍然有许多空白，打断了事实的系列，常常使它们极难互相协调：它不像几何原理那样，具有一门完整的科学的优点，各部分都紧密相连：然而它实际的进展是如此迅速，在新学说之下，事实已经有了如此美好的编排，所以我们有理由希望，甚至就在我们自己的时代，就能看到它接近于它所能达到的最高完善状态。

All that can be said upon the number and nature of elements is, in my opinion, confined to discussions entirely of a metaphysical nature. The subject only furnishes us with indefinite problems, which may be solved in a thousand different ways, not one of which, in all probability, is consistent with nature. I shall therefore only add upon this subject, that if, by the term elements, we mean to express those simple and indivisible atoms of which matter is composed, it is extremely probable we know nothing at all about them; but, if we apply the term elements, or principles of bodies, to express our idea of the last point which analysis is capable of reaching, we must admit, as elements, all the substances into which we are capable, by any means, to reduce bodies by decomposition. Not that we are entitled to affirm, that these substances we consider as simple may not be compounded of two, or even of a greater number of principles; but, since these principles cannot be separated, or rather since we have not hitherto discovered the means of separating them, they act with regard to us as simple substances, and we ought never to suppose them compounded until experiment and observation has proved them to be so.

在我看来，关于元素的数目和性质所能说的一切，都局限于完全是形而上学性质的讨论。这个题目只给我们提供一些不确定的问题，可以用一千种不同的方法去解答，而其中很可能没有一种是符合自然的。因此，关于这个题目，我只补充一点：如果我们用“元素”这个词来表示组成物质的那些简单而不可分的原子，那么极有可能，我们对它们一无所知；但是，如果我们用“元素”或“物体的要素”这个词，来表达我们关于分析所能达到的最后一点的观念，那么，凡是我们能用任何方法通过分解把物体还原成的物质，我们都必须承认它们是元素。这并不是说，我们有权断言，这些我们认为是简单的物质，就不可能是由两种甚至更多的要素化合而成的；而是说，既然这些要素不能被分离，或者毋宁说，既然我们迄今还没有发现分离它们的方法，那么对我们来说，它们的作用就和简单物质一样，在实验和观察证明它们是化合物之前，我们决不应当假定它们是化合物。

The foregoing reflections upon the progress of chemical ideas naturally apply to the words by which these ideas are to be expressed. Guided by the work which, in the year 1787, Messrs de Morveau, Berthollet, de Fourcroy, and I composed upon the Nomenclature of Chemistry, I have endeavoured, as much as possible, to denominate simple bodies by simple terms, and I was naturally led to name these first. It will be recollected, that we were obliged to retain that name of any substance by which it had been long known in the world, and that in two cases only we took the liberty of making alterations; first, in the case of those which were but newly discovered, and had not yet obtained names, or at least which had been known but for a short time, and the names of which had not yet received the sanction of the public; and, secondly, when the names which had been adopted, whether by the ancients or the moderns, appeared to us to express evidently false ideas, when they confounded the substances, to which they were applied, with others possessed of different, or perhaps opposite qualities. We made no scruple, in this case, of substituting other names in their room, and the greatest number of these were borrowed from the Greek language. We endeavoured to frame them in such a manner as to express the most general and the most characteristic quality of the substances; and this was attended with the additional advantage both of assisting the memory of beginners, who find it difficult to remember a new word which has no meaning, and of accustoming them early to admit no word without connecting with it some determinate idea.

上面关于化学观念进展的这些思考，自然也适用于表达这些观念的词语。在 1787 年德莫尔沃、贝托莱、德富尔克鲁瓦诸位先生和我共同撰写的关于化学命名法的那部著作的指导下，我尽可能地用简单的名称来称呼简单的物体，而且我自然而然地首先给它们命名。大家会记得，我们不得不保留任何一种物质久已为世人所知的名称，只有在两种情况下，我们才擅自作了改动：第一，是那些新近才发现、还没有得到名称的物质，或者至少是才知道不久、名称还没有得到公众认可的物质；第二，是当古人或今人所采用的名称，在我们看来显然表达了错误的观念，把它们所指的物质，同另一些具有不同的、甚至相反的性质的物质混淆起来的时候。在这种情况下，我们毫不犹豫地用别的名称来代替它们，其中大多数是从希腊语借来的。我们努力使这些名称能够表达物质最一般、最有特征的性质；这样做还有一个额外的好处：既有助于初学者的记忆，他们觉得一个没有意义的新词很难记住，又使他们早早习惯于不接受任何一个不同某种确定的观念相联系的词。

To those bodies which are formed by the union of several simple substances we gave new names, compounded in such a manner as the nature of the substances directed; but, as the number of double combinations is already very considerable, the only method by which we could avoid confusion, was to divide them into classes. In the natural order of ideas, the name of the class or genus is that which expresses a quality common to a great number of individuals: The name of the species, on the contrary, expresses a quality peculiar to certain individuals only.

对于那些由几种简单物质结合而成的物体，我们按照物质的性质所指示的方式，给了它们组合而成的新名称；但是，由于二元化合物的数目已经相当大，我们能够避免混乱的唯一方法，就是把它们分成类。按照观念的自然次序，类或属的名称，表达的是许多个体共有的一种性质；相反，种的名称，表达的是只有某些个体才有的一种性质。

These distinctions are not, as some may imagine, merely metaphysical, but are established by Nature. "A child," says the Abbé de Condillac, "is taught to give the name tree to the first one which is pointed out to him. The next one he sees presents the same idea, and he gives it the same name. This he does likewise to a third and a fourth, till at last the word tree, which he first applied to an individual, comes to be employed by him as the name of a class or a genus, an abstract idea, which comprehends all trees in general. But, when he learns that all trees serve not the same purpose, that they do not all produce the same kind of fruit, he will soon learn to distinguish them by specific and particular names." This is the logic of all the sciences, and is naturally applied to chemistry.

这些区分并不像有些人可能想象的那样，只是形而上学的，而是由自然确立的。孔狄亚克神父说：“教给孩子的，是把第一棵指给他看的树叫作‘树’。他看到的第二棵树呈现出同样的观念，他就给它同样的名称。对第三棵、第四棵，他也这样做，直到最后，他起初用于一个个体的‘树’这个词，被他用作一个类或一个属的名称，一个包括一切树木的抽象观念。但是，当他知道并不是所有的树都有同样的用途，并不是所有的树都结同样的果实时，他很快就会学会用种的、特殊的名称来区分它们。”这是一切科学的逻辑，自然也适用于化学。

The acids, for example, are compounded of two substances, of the order of those which we consider as simple; the one constitutes acidity, and is common to all acids, and, from this substance, the name of the class or the genus ought to be taken; the other is peculiar to each acid, and distinguishes it from the rest, and from this substance is to be taken the name of the species. But, in the greatest number of acids, the two constituent elements, the acidifying principle, and that which it acidifies, may exist in different proportions, constituting all the possible points of equilibrium or of saturation. This is the case in the sulphuric and the sulphurous acids; and these two states of the same acid we have marked by varying the termination of the specific name.

例如，酸是由两种物质组成的，这两种物质属于我们认为是简单的那一类；一种构成酸性，是一切酸所共有的，类或属的名称应当取自这种物质；另一种是每一种酸所特有的，使它同其余的酸区别开来，种的名称就应当取自这种物质。但是，在大多数酸里，两种组成元素，即致酸的要素和被它酸化的要素，可以以不同的比例存在，构成一切可能的平衡点或饱和点。硫酸和亚硫酸的情形就是这样；同一种酸的这两种状态，我们用改变种名的词尾来标明。

The nomenclature of bodies compounded of three simple substances was attended with still greater difficulty, not only on account of their number, but, particularly, because we cannot express the nature of their constituent principles without employing more compound names. In the bodies which form this class, such as the neutral salts, for instance, we had to consider, 1st, The acidifying principle, which is common to them all; 2d, The acidifiable principle which constitutes their peculiar acid; 3d, The saline, earthy, or metallic basis, which determines the particular species of salt. Here we derived the name of each class of salts from the name of the acidifiable principle common to all the individuals of that class; and distinguished each species by the name of the saline, earthy, or metallic basis, which is peculiar to it.

由三种简单物质组成的物体的命名，困难更大，不仅因为它们数目多，尤其是因为不使用更复杂的名称，我们就无法表达它们的组成要素的性质。在构成这一类的物体中，例如中性盐，我们必须考虑：第一，致酸的要素，它是一切中性盐所共有的；第二，可酸化的要素，它构成它们特有的酸；第三，盐性的、土性的或金属的基，它决定盐的具体的种。在这里，我们从这一类所有个体共有的可酸化要素的名称，得出每一类盐的名称；再用每一种所特有的盐性的、土性的或金属的基的名称来区分每一个种。

A salt, though compounded of the same three principles, may, nevertheless, by the mere difference of their proportion, be in three different states. The nomenclature we have adopted would have been defective, had it not expressed these different states; and this we attained chiefly by changes of termination uniformly applied to the same state of the different salts.

一种盐，虽然由同样的三种要素组成，却可以仅仅由于它们比例的不同而处于三种不同的状态。我们所采用的命名法，如果不能表达这些不同的状态，就是有缺陷的；我们主要是通过对不同的盐的同一状态一律改变词尾来做到这一点的。

In short, we have advanced so far, that from the name alone may be instantly found what the combustible substance is which enters into any combination; whether that combustible substance be combined with the acidifying principle, and in what proportion; what is the state of the acid; with what basis it is united; whether the saturation be exact, or whether the acid or the basis be in excess.

总之，我们已经做到了这样的地步：仅仅从名称，就能立刻看出进入任何一种化合物的可燃物质是什么；这种可燃物质是否同致酸的要素化合，比例如何；酸处于什么状态；它同什么基结合；饱和是否恰好，还是酸或基过量。

The remarks I have made on the order which I thought myself obliged to follow in the arrangement of proofs and ideas, are to be applied only to the first part of this work. It is the only one which contains the general sum of the doctrine I have adopted, and to which I wished to give a form completely elementary.

我关于证据和观念的编排所认为必须遵循的次序所作的说明，只适用于这部著作的第一部分。只有这一部分包含了我所采用的学说的总体，我希望给它一种完全基础性的形式。

The second part is composed chiefly of tables of the nomenclature of the neutral salts. To these I have only added general explanations, the object of which was to point out the most simple processes for obtaining the different kinds of known acids. This part contains nothing which I can call my own, and presents only a very short abridgment of the results of these processes, extracted from the works of different authors.

第二部分主要由中性盐的命名表组成。对这些表，我只加上了一些总的说明，目的是指出获得各种已知的酸的最简单的方法。这一部分没有什么可以称为我自己的东西，只是对这些方法的结果作了一个很简短的摘要，摘自不同作者的著作。

In the third part, I have given a description, in detail, of all the operations connected with modern chemistry. I have long thought that a work of this kind was much wanted, and I am convinced it will not be without use. The method of performing experiments, and particularly those of modern chemistry, is not so generally known as it ought to be; and had I, in the different memoirs which I have presented to the Academy, been more particular in the detail of the manipulations of my experiments, it is probable I should have made myself better understood, and the science might have made a more rapid progress. The order of the different matters contained in this third part appeared to me to be almost arbitrary; and the only one I have observed was to class together, in each of the chapters of which it is composed, those operations which are most connected with one another. I need hardly mention that this part could not be borrowed from any other work, and that, in the principal articles it contains, I could not derive assistance from any thing but the experiments which I have made myself.

在第三部分里，我详细描述了与现代化学有关的一切操作。我早就认为非常需要一部这样的著作，我也相信它不会没有用处。做实验的方法，特别是现代化学的实验方法，并不像它应当的那样广为人知；如果我在向科学院提交的各篇论文中，把我的实验操作的细节写得更详细一些，我大概会让别人更好地理解我，这门科学也许会进步得更快。这第三部分所包含的各种内容的次序，在我看来几乎是任意的；我所遵循的唯一次序，是在组成这一部分的每一章里，把那些彼此最有联系的操作归在一起。我几乎不必说，这一部分不可能从任何别的著作中借来，在它所包含的主要条目中，除了我自己做的实验以外，我不能从任何东西那里得到帮助。

I shall conclude this preface by transcribing, literally, some observations of the Abbé de Condillac, which I think describe, with a good deal of truth, the state of chemistry at a period not far distant from our own. These observations were made on a different subject; but they will not, on this account, have less force, if the application of them be thought just.

我要逐字抄录孔狄亚克神父的几段话来结束这篇序言，我认为这些话相当真实地描述了离我们不远的一个时期化学的状况。这些话本来是针对另一个题目说的；但是如果把它们这样应用被认为是恰当的，它们的力量也不会因此而减少。

'This remedy becomes the more difficult in proportion as we think ourselves more learned. Might it not be thought that works which treated of the sciences with the utmost perspicuity, with great precision and order, must be understood by every body? The fact is, those who have never studied any thing will understand them better than those who have studied a great deal, and especially than those who have written a great deal.'

“我们越是以为自己有学问，这个办法就越难实行。难道人们不会认为，那些以最大的明晰、极其准确而有条理地论述科学的著作，一定是每一个人都能理解的吗？事实是，从来没有学过任何东西的人，会比学过很多东西的人理解得更好，尤其是比写过很多东西的人理解得更好。”

At the end of the fifth chapter, the Abbé de Condillac adds: 'But, after all, the sciences have made progress, because philosophers have applied themselves with more attention to observe, and have communicated to their language that precision and accuracy which they have employed in their observations: In correcting their language they reason better.'

在第五章的末尾，孔狄亚克神父又说：“但是，毕竟各门科学已经进步了，因为哲学家们更加专心致志地去观察，并且把他们在观察中所用的那种精确和准确，传给了他们的语言：在纠正他们的语言的时候，他们推理得更好了。”