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18
THE JAINA PHILOSOPHY
From the above discussion it is obvious that ancient concepts of the structure of matter and the nature of chemical transformations were basically correct Their error lay in the misconception of what was composite and what was the elementary substance In fact none of the four elements listed by Empedocles is really elementary Air is a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen earth has a very complex composition and fire atoms do not exist at all 7
Actually there exists in nature not four but 92 different chemical elements ie 92 different kinds of atoms While some of these elements such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, etc, are rather abundant others are very rare In addition to 92 natural elements modern science has succeeded in making several entirely new elements artificially Combining among themselves in various proportions, the atoms of these basic elements form the unlimited number of various substances, some simple and common such as water, others complex chemical materials such as sugar, starch, cellulose
93
7 As we have remarked earlier the word fire can be replaced by energy but the idea of fire atoms itself was also partially revived in Quantum theory of light. 8 The following elements have been artificially made by man Atomic No
Name
Symbol NEPTUNIUM PLUTONIUM
Pu AMERICIUM
Am CURIUM BERKELIUM
CALIFORNIUM 99
EINSTENIUM
Np
