Ponderable bodies

In volume 2 of his series, Gmelin gives a classification system for the elements that had been identified at the time (figure 2.3). As he puts it, these are 61 unde-composable ponderable bodies, of which 12 are nonmetallic and 49 are metallic. 

Jacob Andreas Weber described many experiments with quicklime and alkalis, concluding that Black s and Meyer s theories are both false. The sun is a great electrified sphere, its electric matter sets the earth s atmosphere in motion, this gives heat to other bodies. Boyle s experiments showed that heat is a ponderable body, quicklime heats with water, and causticity is caused by electric matter in the form of phlogiston being removed from mild alkali by lime, etc. ... 

The arrangement of the System is first into imponderable bodies and ponderable bodies, the latter being divided into simple supporters of combustion and simple combustibles, the combustibles being acidifiable or alkalifiable then follow compounds of various classes, theoretical sections on affinity and states of aggregation, and accounts of meteorology, minerals, and vegetable and animal chemistry. The treatment is mostly historical, which Thomson says lends interest and assists the memory of the student. 

We are all familiar with forces between bodies on a macroscopic scale. If one sits at their desk on earth pondering the view and inadvertently lets go of their lunch sandwich it falls until it lands on your manuscript, your lap or the floor—right Better yet, a cannonball and a softball fall at the same rate. It is the definition of gravity . Long after the Tower of Pisa experiments, we discovered why the moon is in seemingly stable orbit around the earth and the earth around the sun is related to forces between bodies. We are also familiar with electrostatic forces and their effects. Dust from the air in the room is attracted to the screen of everyone s TV because of the electrostatic charge it develops. It would seem reasonable that attraction occurs on a smaller scale and even on a molecular scale that does not involve energies on the order of true chemical bonds. 

It is necessary to deprive matter of its qualities in order to draw out its soul. Copper is like a man it has a soul and a body. .. the soul is the most subtile part. .. that is to say, the tinctorial spirit. The body is the ponderable, material, terrestrial thing, endowed with a shadow. After a series of suitable treatments copper becomes without shadow and better than gold. The elements grow and are transmuted, because it is their qualities, not their substances which are contrary." (Stephanus of Alexandria, about 620 A.D.)... 

Commenting on this discovery, A.-F. de Fourcroy said that Barytes is less copious than either of the other two salino-terreous substances (lime or magnesia), but it is probably more copious than it is thought to be. Formerly it was not known to exist in any body but barytic sulfate or ponderous spar (98). 

The possible existence of Huxley s mysterious, timeless regions of reality has led professional and amateur researchers to ponder the extraordinary effects of the DMT molecule (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine). DMT is a psychoactive chemical that causes intense visions and coaxes users to quickly enter a completely different world that some have likened to an alien or parallel universe. DMT is a chemical produced in our own bodies and by many plants. Daniel Pinchbeck in Breaking Open the Head says, smoking DMT is like being shot from a cannon into another dimension and returning to this world in less than ten minutes. The transition from our world to the DMT universe ( DMTverse ) oc-... 

Once Lavoisier had established that oxygen is the breathable part of air, he began to ponder what happens inside the body... 

Yet science is more than a body of knowledge. Science is a method by which we can explore our natural environment and effectively discover its secrets. Consider, for example, a scientist who is puzzled by an observation that arises in the course of her daily work. She ponders the bizarre observation in light of what she already knows. After some struggle, which includes opening her mind to a myriad of possibilities, she makes a creative, imaginative leap and is struck by a new idea. If this new idea were true, she realizes, it would explain the bizarre observation. It would also give her insight into areas she has yet to explore. 

I would like the reader to stop and ponder something for a few minutes. If, in theory, an athlete controlled proportionately all anabolic, androgenic, and catabolic hormones and enzymes with dominance upon protein based tissue growth, then supplied a correct ratio of amino acids, carbohydrates, and fats, the athlete would increase in protein based mass at a rate of body weight x 1.818 g daily. So a 250 pound bodybuilder in theory could add 454.5g daily in lean tissue. Though some or most would not agree, I... 

Although Black imported thermometric techniques into chemistry from other physical sciences, to describe his view of heat as physical would be inaccurate. Rather as chemistry was understood in terms of heat, so heat was understood by Black in terms of chemistry. As Robison clarified, Black perceived the latent presence of heat in bodies in terms of its chemical combination with ponderable matter...23... 

Ointments are prepared from lard or oil rendered of the consistence of butter by the addition of suet, wax, or spermaceti, so as to suspend the dry powders and more ponderous articles, with which they are frequently incorporated As they are to be applied to the skin, they should be soft or fluid at the temperature of the body. The following formulae are calculated for a temperature not exceeding 60° Fahr. In a higher temperature more suet or wax may be added. 

Ether, which the occultist terms astral light, determines the constitution of bodies. Hardness and softness, solidity and liquidity, all depend on the relative proportion of ethereal and ponderable matter of which they are composed. 

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