MATTER

(Lat. materies.) Substance. Of the intimate nature of matter the human faculties cannot take cognizance; nor can data be furnished, by observation or experiment, on which to found an investigation of it. All we know, or ever can know of matter, is its sensible properties. Some of these are the foundation of physical science; others of the dififerent subordinate sciences, as, for instance, of chemistry. Matter is divisible by abrasion and other means into small fragments, which, when the division is carried to any considerable extent, are called particles. It is supposed, however, and many reasons appear to justify the hypothesis, that it is capable of reduction into particles (called atoms) of particular forms, and each cla having its own proper magnitude and peculiar properties; that determinate numbers of atoms of one kind admit of combination with some determinate number of another kind, or of several kinds, and of thereby forming compounded atoms, having properties peculiar to that combination, and different from the known properties of their elemental atoms. These solutions and combinations result from properties inherent in the atoms themselves; but whether the simple cla es of atoms that are believed to exist are themselves really primary and elemental is not known, and probably never can be with certainty. In larger ma es, or in ma es of aggregated atoms, so cla ed that their peculiar properties are mutually neutralized, phenomena are exhibited which bear a great resemblance to one another through considerable cla es of such compounds, wliose elements we have reason to believe differ very considerabh'; and other properties are found to exist in all, and differing only in degree or intensity. These last are the subjects of physical investigation: they are called emphatically the properties of matter; and the laws of their mutual influences are the foundation of mechanical philosophy. These proper tie* [s. 735]