en, how admirable and valuable are the properties of Cork! How
little do men reflect upon the inestimable worth of so common a
substance! How few rightly esteem the importance of it to the
progress of science, and the moral advancement of mankind!--There is
no production of nature or art equally adapted to the purposes to
which the chemist applies it. Cork consists of a soft, highly
elastic substance, as a basis, having diffused throughout a matter
with properties resembling wax, tallow, and resin, yet dissimilar to
all of these, and termed suberin. This renders it perfectly
impermeable to fluids, and, in a great measure, even to gases. It is
thus the fittest material we possess for closing our bottles, and
retaining their contents. By its means, and with the aid of
Caoutchouc, we connect our vessels and tubes of glass, and construct
the most complicated apparatus. We form joints and links of
connexion, adapt large apertures to small, and thus dispense
altogether with the aid of the brassfounder and the mechanist. Thus
the implements of the chemist are cheaply and easily procured,
immediately adapted to any purpose, and readily repaired or altered.

Again, in investigating the composition of solid bodies,--of
minerals,--we are under the necessity of bringing them into a liquid
state, either by solution or fusion. Now vessels of glass, of
porcelain, and of all non-metallic substances, are destroyed by the
means we employ for that purpose,--are acted upon by many acids, by
alkalies and the alkaline carbonates. Crucibles of gold and silver
would melt at high temperatures. But we have a combination of all
the qualities we can desire in Platinum. This metal was only first
adapted to these uses about fifty years since. It is cheaper than
gold, harder and more durable than silver, infusible at all
temperatures of our furnaces, and is left intact by acids and
alkaline carbonates. Platinum unites all the valuable properties of
gold and of porcelain, resisting the action of heat, and of almost
all chemical agents.

As no mineral analysis could be made perfectly without platinum
vessels, had we not possessed this metal, the composition of
minerals would have yet remained unknown; without cork and
caoutchouc we should have required the costly aid of the mechanician
at every step. Even without the latter of these adjuncts our
instruments would have been far more costly and fragile. Possessing
all these gifts of nature, we economi