Ebook Chemistry and Toxicology for Nurses

Chemistry is the science that teaches of the ele ments and their compounds, and investigates the laws of their combinations. Elements are those particles of matter that, up to the present time, have not been reduced to simpler ones. For example, oxygen is said to be an element because, no matter how it may be treated, it cannot be reduced any further. The same is true Of iron and the other elements. Water, on the other hand, is a com pound because we are able to decompose it into two elements, viz., hydrogen and oxygen.