C55 
 
 
 LBEBTB. MAO 
 
 LIBBABY 
 C0RHIU.M. 
 
 
 
ALBERT R. MANN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 of 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 Cornell University 
 
S 585.C55 ° rne " Universi, V "Tars, 
 %lWMffl32a!^ °' The ear, 
 
 3 1924 000 899 98™ 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000899983 
 
CHEMISTRY OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
THE 
 
 <0^^ 
 
 CHEMISTET OF AGKICULTURE : 
 
 THE EARTH AND ATMOSPHERE AS RELATED 
 TO VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE. 
 
 WITH NEW AND EXTENSIVE ANALYTICAL TABLES. 
 
 By DAVID CHRISTY, 
 
 Author of Letters on Geology, etc. 
 
 » •»» » 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 WAKD & TAYL;OR. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 C. M. SAXTON. 
 
 1852. 
 
5 
 
 5?^ 
 
 -t 
 
 .55 
 
 309169 
 
 Entered according to act of CoDgress ia tlie year 1852, by 
 
 WARD & TAYLOR, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 
 District of Ohio. 
 
 SCOTT & BASCOM, 
 
 PRINTERS AND BINDERS, 
 COLUMBUS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author has often urged others, better qualified 
 than himself, to prepare a small tract, showing the re- 
 lation which Vegetables and Animals bear to each other, 
 and to the sources whence they derive the elements of 
 their growth. The task, however, remaining unexecu- 
 ted, he has undertaken its performance himself; but 
 with what success, the public must judge. 
 
 In the preparation of the work, free use has been 
 made of some ten or twelve authors, whose names 
 appear, occasionally, throughout its pages. One prin- 
 cipal aim has been, to state all that is known on each 
 point, from the investigations of chemists, up to the 
 present moment ; consequently, less use has been made 
 of Liebig, and the other pioneers in Agricultural and 
 Animal Chemistry, than of the more recent writers on 
 these sciences. 
 
 The Tables of Chemical Analyses have been pre- 
 pared with great care, from the best authorities, and 
 the hope is entertained that they will prove of great 
 value to the agriculturist, as well as to the student. 
 The temperature, in all cases, is according to Fahren- 
 heit. 
 
 Oxford, Ohio, January, 1853. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 rage. 
 
 Sources of Soils 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Organic and Inorganic Elements : — Oxygen — Hydrogen — Nitrogen — Ammonia 
 — Chlorine — Cyanogen — Carbon — Carbonic Acid — Sulphur — Sulphuric Acid 
 — Phosphorus — Silica — Boron 5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Inorganic Elements : — Potash — Soda — Lithia — Lime — Magnesia — Baryta 
 — Strontia — Alumina — Iron — Manganese 18 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Proximate Elements : — Starch — Albumen — Gluten — Casein — Legumin — 
 Emulsine — Protein — Gelatin — Chondrin 24 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Proximate Elements : — Dextrine — Glucose — Diastase — Cane Sugar — Gum 
 — Vegetable Mucus — Pectine 35 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Proximate Elements : — Woody Fibre — Hordein — Alcohol and Beer 46 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Proximate Elements : — Fixed Oils — Glycerin — Glyceryle — Stearin — Stearic 
 Acid — Margarin — Margaric Acid — Olein — Oleic Acid — Volatile Oils, etc 55 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Proximate Principles :t— Wax— Resins— Extractive Matter— Coloring Matter. . 49 
 
Vlii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Proximate Elements :— Organic Bases— Vegetable Bases, or Alkaloids— Organic 
 Acids— Acetic Acid— Lactic Acid— Butyric Acid— Bread 69 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Organogens— Nature of Combustion— Digestion — Decay — Humus : its 
 Production and Relations to Vegetable Life 76 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Structure of Plants — Their Appropriation of the Elements of their Growth — 
 Influence of Manures— Philosophy of the Rotation of Crops— Importance 
 of the Analysis of Soils 89 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Animal Kingdom :— Its Relation to the Vegetable Kingdom — Digestion — 
 Chyme — Chyle — Elements of Respiration — Elements of Nutrition — Circula- 
 tion of the Blood — Exhalation of Carbonic Acid and Water — Production of 
 Animal Heat — Alcohol — Oxygen : its Office in the Animal Economy — Star- 
 vation : its Effects— Death 97 
 
 Conclusion 112 
 
 Tables 115 
 
THE 
 
 EARTH AND ATMOSPHERE, 
 
 A3 RELATED TO 
 
 VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SOURCES OF SOILS. 
 
 A few simple elements, entering into combination with 
 each other, in an almost infinite variety of forms and propor- 
 tions, serve to make up the great mass of the mineral, vege- 
 table and animal kingdoms. This fact has been revealed to 
 us by the patient and laborious researches of the chemist. 
 But why the same elements are taken up from the earth and 
 atmosphere, by one plant, in such proportions as to be nutri- 
 tious, and essential to the sustenance of animal life ; while 
 another plant, growing in the same locality, absorbs these 
 elements from the same soil and air, in proportions that ren- 
 der it poisonous, and destructive of animal life, is a ques- 
 tion that cannot be answered by the most profound chemical 
 research. Such mysteries are known only to that Infinite 
 Wisdom which has ordained the laws of life, and given to 
 each herb and tree the power, only, of "yielding seed after 
 its kind." For this reason, the investigations in Agricul- 
 tural Chemistry must, necessarily, be limited to the determi- 
 nation of the results of the action of vegetable life upon the 
 elements that come within its control. 
 
 To present to the student of Agricultural and Animal 
 Chemistry, in as brief a space as possible, such facts as may 
 best serve to exhibit the earth and atmosphere in their rela- 
 1 
 
2 SOURCES OF SOILS. 
 
 tions to vegetable and animal life, is the object of this little 
 volume. This task, it has been found, can be most easily 
 accomplished, by condensing, into a series of Tables, the 
 results of the labors of chemists, in their analyses of the 
 atmosphere, and of mineral, vegetable, and animal substan- 
 ces. The compilation of these tables leaves little else to be 
 done, than to give definitions of the terms used, and expla- 
 nations of the leading characteristics of the elements named. 
 All soils being derived from the disintegration and decom- 
 position of rocks, some explanatory remarks, in relation to 
 them, are demanded at the outset of our investigations. The 
 rocks of the globe consist of three prominent classes: Pri- 
 mary, Volcanic, and Secondary. These terms are not 
 used in their strictly geological sense. The Primary rocks 
 are those which do not contain any vegetable or animal 
 remains, and are supposed to have been formed before the 
 creation of any living things upon the earth. For conve- 
 nience of description, they are subdivided into the following 
 orders: Granite, Gneiss, Syenite, Mica Slate, Horn- 
 blende Slate, Talcose Slate, Chlorite Slate, and Ar- 
 gillaceous Slate, with some additional varieties. The 
 first three orders, however, constitute the great bulk of the 
 earth's crust, and must be noticed particularly, because of 
 the connection that exists between the chemical elements of 
 the minerals of which they are composed, and the inorganic 
 elements of plants. The mineral characteristics of these 
 rocks may be readily understood by the following statement 
 of their composition. The elements of each one of the min- 
 erals may be learned from Table No. I, at the close of the 
 volume. 
 
 ( Feldspar, ~\ 
 Granith is composed of •< Quartz, >- Unstratified. 
 
 ( Mica. ) 
 
 ( Feldspar, S 
 Gneiss " " < Quartz, V Stratified. 
 
 ( Mica. ) 
 
 f Feldspar, ~) 
 Syenite " " -^Quartz, [-Unstratified. 
 
 ( Hornblende. ) 
 
SOURCES OF SOILS. 3 
 
 Mica Slate is mainly composed, of Mica and Quartz, 
 Hornblende Slate of Hornblende and Quartz, Talcose 
 Slate of Talc and Silica or Quartz, Chlorite Slate of 
 Chlorite and Silica or Quartz, and Argillaceous Slate 
 of Alumina and Silica or Quartz. 
 
 A large number of other minerals, including the precious 
 stones, are found intermingled in these formations, but they 
 are of so little consequence, as to bulk, that they exert no 
 appreciable influence, and are not taken into account by the 
 chemist, in his investigations of the origin of soils. Quartz, 
 Feldspar, Mica, and Hornblende, are, then, the principal 
 minerals in the Primary rocks. Each one of these minerals, 
 excepting Quartz, exists in several varieties, depending, 
 mostly, upon the kind of alkali that enters into its composi- 
 tion. The three principal varieties of these minerals, Feld- 
 spar, Mica, and Hornblende, are given in Table No. I, 
 where their chemical elements are stated. When Talc and 
 Chlorite, which have a much less extensive range, are 
 added to these four, we have but six minerals as the chief 
 constituents of the Primary rocks. Steatite, or Soapstone, 
 and Serpentine, are rocks limited in extent, and closely 
 allied, it will be noticed, to Talc and Chlorite. 
 
 The Volcanic Rocks constitute an order that has been 
 protruded through the other formations, by volcanic action. 
 Basalt, Trap, Greenstone, and Lava, are the principal 
 rocks in this order. Their mineral constituents are nearly 
 identical with those of the Primary rocks — the three varie- 
 ties of Hornblende and Feldspar named in Table No. I, 
 forming the greater part of their bulk. They also include a 
 class of minerals and precious stones, like the other forma- 
 tions, but so limited in extent as not to affect the soils. 
 
 The Secondary Rocks are also composed of elements 
 identical with those of the Primary ; and are, therefore, sup- 
 posed to have been derived from the disintegration and 
 decomposition of the older formations. They are regularly 
 stratified, and often abound in the petrified remains of veg- 
 etables and animals ; many of which are similar to those now 
 existing in the sea, and others of them bearing indications of 
 having been drifted in from the land. For this reason, it 
 
4 SOURCES OF SOILS. 
 
 is believed that the Secondary Eocks, excepting a few lim- 
 ited deposits in the beds of fresh water lakes, have been 
 formed in the ancient oceans, from the sedimentary matter 
 carried in from the lands, by the agency of rains, rivers, 
 tides, and ocean currents. 
 
 Soils have no elements in their composition, with the 
 exception of a portion of decomposing vegetable and animal 
 substances usually intermingled in them, but such as are 
 found in the rocks of the several geological formations, and 
 are, therefore, supposed to be derived wholly from the decom- 
 position and disintegration of rocks. 
 
 In localities where the soils have been formed from rocks 
 in place, it will be an easy task to determine their chemical 
 qualities, when those of the rocks themselves are known ; 
 but where the soils are composed of transported materials, 
 as is the case over large areas of nearly all the continents of 
 the globe, they will be found to vary greatly in different 
 situations, and even on the same farm or field : hence the 
 importance of a knowledge of the principles of Agricultural 
 Chemistry, to those who are employed in the cultivation of 
 the earth. 
 
 With these explanations, in reference to the origin of 
 soils, &c, we shall proceed, in the next chapter, to notice 
 the relations of the earth and atmosphere to the vegetable 
 kingdom, and then commence the description of the elemen- 
 tary bodies which enter into the composition of organic and 
 inorganic substances. The relation and dependence of the 
 animal kingdom upon that of the vegetable, and upon the 
 atmosphere, will be considered in the close of the volume. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORGANIC AND INORGANIC ELEMENTS : — OXYGEN — HYDROGEN — NITROGEN — AMMONIA — 
 CHLORINE — CYANOGEN — CARBON — CARBONIC ACID— SULPHUR— SULPHURIC ACLD— 
 PHOSPHORUS— SILICA— BOSON. 
 
 The elements entering into the composition of vegetable 
 matter, are of two kinds — organic and inorganic. The 
 former class of elements, comprising by far the larger por- 
 tion of the bulk of vegetable bodies, consists of those parts 
 which, during combustion, disappear in the state of gases, 
 and the latter, of those that remain in the form of ashes. 
 Combustion, therefore, in effect, is merely a separation of the 
 organic from the inorganic elements of the substance which 
 is burned. The same may be said, also, of the process of 
 digestion. Vegetables, eaten as food by animals, undergo 
 a process, in digestion, similar in its effects with that which 
 takes place in their combustion : a separation of the organic 
 and inorganic parts being effected, by which the former are 
 converted into flesh and blood, while the latter pass off as 
 excrement. 
 
 The process of decay, or decomposition, which dead trees 
 and plants undergo, produces the same results as those of 
 combustion and digestion : it being only a much slower one, 
 and requiring years to accomplish that which, in the other 
 cases, is done in an hour or a day. 
 
 By careful analysis, chemists have also discovered that 
 the ashes of plants, left by burning, do not contain a single 
 inorganic element that did not belong to the soils in which 
 they grew; and repeated experiments have demonstrated, 
 that a plant will not come to perfection in soils lacking any 
 one of the elements found in the ashes of the mature plant 
 of the same kind or species, except that one of the alkalis is 
 sometimes substituted for another. It is inferred from this, 
 that all the inorganic parts of vegetables are derived from 
 the soils : that is to say, all that portion of vegetable matter 
 which remains in the ashes after combustion, is taken up 
 from the earth during the period of the growth of vegetables. 
 
b OXYGEN. 
 
 An examination of the Tables, at the close of the volume, 
 ■will show how fully the chemical constituents of the ashes of 
 vegetables correspond with those of the soils, and these, 
 again, with those of the rocks from which the soils have been 
 derived. Such an investigation will enable the reader to 
 see, very clearly, the relations existing between the earth 
 and the vegetable kingdom. A comparison of the organic 
 elements of vegetables, (Table VII,) with the elements of 
 the atmosphere, (Table VI,) will also show that, with a 
 single exception, they are all derived from the atmosphere. 
 The relation, then, that the earth and atmosphere bear to 
 the vegetable kingdom, is this: the earth supplies to all 
 vegetables the inorganic elements of their growth, while the 
 atmosphere affords to them their organic elements. 
 
 In proceeding to describe the chemical elements to which 
 reference has been made, the gases claim the precedence, 
 as occupying the most important position ; and these being 
 disposed of, the remaining part of the chapter will embrace 
 a notice of the non-metallic elements, exisiting as solids at 
 the common temperature. 
 
 Oxygen is a permanent gas, when uncombined, and is the 
 most extensively diffused element in nature. It forms more 
 than one-fifth part of the atmosphere, and nearly eight-ninths, 
 by weight, of the waters of the globe ; enters as a constitu- 
 ent into nearly all the earths and rocks, and, with a few 
 exceptions, into all organic products. Oxygen gas is pre- 
 pared by disengaging it from some substance with which it 
 has entered into combination. By means of the galvanic 
 battery, it may be obtained in large quantities from water, 
 and, by the action of heat, from the oxyd of mercury, oxyd 
 of manganese, or chlorate of potash. Oxygen may be made 
 to unite with all the other elements except fluorine, and 
 forms what are called oxyds, of which the rust of iron is an 
 example. With the same element oxygen often unites in 
 several proportions, forming a series of oxyds, which are 
 distinguished from each other by the different prefixes enu- 
 merated in chemical nomenclature. Many of its compounds 
 are acids, particularly those which contain more than one 
 equivalent of oxygen to one of the other element, and com- 
 
OXYGEN. 7 
 
 pounds of this nature are those which it most readily forms 
 with the non-metallic elements : such as carbonic acid with 
 carbon, sulphuric acid with sulphur, and phosphoric acid 
 with phosphorus. But oxygen unites in preference with 
 single equivalents of a large proportion of the metallic class 
 of elements, and forms bodies which are called bases : such 
 as potash with potassium, soda with sodium, lime with cal- 
 cium, magnesia with magnesium, and protoxyd of iron with 
 iron, &c. A certain number of its compounds are neither 
 acid nor alkaline, and are therefore called neutral bodies : 
 such as the oxyd of hydrogen, or water, &c. The presence 
 of oxygen is essential to the support of respiration in ani- 
 mals, to the combustion of vegetable or animal substances, 
 and to the growth of plants. 
 
 "The combinations of oxygen, like those of all other 
 bodies, are attended with the evolution of heat. This result, 
 which is often overlooked in other combinations, in which 
 the proportions of the bodies uniting, and the properties of 
 their compound, receive most attention, assumes an unusual 
 degree of importance in the combinations of oxygen. The 
 economical applications of the light and heat evolved in 
 these combinations, are of the highest consequence and 
 value, and oxidation alone, of all chemical actions, is prac- 
 ticed, not for the value of the products which it affords, and, 
 indeed, without reference to them, but for the sake of the 
 incidental phenomena attending it. Of the chemical combi- 
 nations, too, which we habitually witness, those of oxygen 
 are infinitely the most frequent, which arises from its con- 
 stant presence and interference as a constituent of the atmos- 
 phere. Hence, when a body combines with oxygen, it is 
 said to be burned; and instead of undergoing oxidation, it 
 is said to suffer combustion; and a body which can combine 
 with oxygen and emit heat, is termed combustible. Oxy- 
 gen, in which the body burns, is then said to support com- 
 bustion, and called a supporter of combustion."* But 
 every case of combustion, however familiar to us, is only a 
 process of oxidation, in which the oxygen of the air com- 
 
 * Graham. 
 
8 OXYGEN. 
 
 bines with the particles of the burning material. This is as 
 true of the rapid burning of wood as it is of the rusting of 
 iron. Both are the results of the combination of oxygen 
 with these substances. But the oxidation of iron proceeds 
 so slowly, that the heat evolved is dissipated as fast as pro- 
 duced, and never accumulates, while the more rapid oxida- 
 tion of wood evolves heat in abundance. The oxidation of 
 iron, however, can be made to progress with such rapidity 
 as to produce a sensible evolution of heat, by introducing an 
 iron rod, at a red heat, into oxygen gas. But iron is not the 
 only substance that has its power of combining with oxygen 
 increased by an increase of temperature. The affinity which 
 all ordinary combustibles have for oxygen, is greatly promo- 
 ted by heating them, and is rarely developed at all, except 
 at a high temperature. For this reason, to insure the com- 
 mencement of combustion, it is commonly necessary that the 
 combustible be heated to a certain point. But the degree 
 of heat necessary to inflame the combustible is, in general, 
 greatly inferior to what is evolved during the progress of the 
 combustion ; so that a combustible, once inflamed, maintains 
 itself sufficiently hot to continue burning until it is entirely 
 consumed. Here the difference may be observed between 
 combustion and simple ignition. A brick heated in a fur- 
 nace till it is red hot, and taken out, exhibits ignition, but 
 has no means within itself of sustaining a high temperature, 
 and soon loses the heat which it had acquired in the fire, 
 and, on cooling, is found unchanged. Combustion does not 
 take place, as the brick includes no combustible matter to 
 support it. 
 
 The oxidable or combustible constituents of wood, coal, 
 oils, tallow, wax, and all ordinary combustibles, are the 
 same, namely: carbon and hydrogen, which, in combining 
 with oxygen, at a high temperature, always produce carbonic 
 acid and water; the volatile bodies which disappear, forming 
 part of the smoky column that rises from the burning body. 
 In combustion, no loss whatever of ponderable matter occurs ; 
 nothing is annihilated. The matter formed may always be 
 collected without difficulty, and is found to have exactly the 
 weight of the oxygen and combustible together, which have 
 disappeared. 
 
HYDROGEN— NITROGEN. 9 
 
 The discovery that heat is evolved in the combination of 
 chemical elements with each other, serves to explain the 
 principle upon which the consumption of food by animals 
 tends to keep up the heat of their bodies. The degree of 
 heat evolved, depending upon the rapidity with which com- 
 bustion proceeds, and the rapidity of combustion upon the 
 degree of temperature at which the combustible comes into 
 contact with oxygen, it follows that the heat evolved in the 
 combustion, digestion, and decomposition of vegetable or 
 animal subtances, must be very different in degree in these 
 several cases. The evolution of heat during decomposition, 
 with a few exceptions, is generally imperceptible to the 
 senses. 
 
 Hydrogen. — This gas does not exist, uncombined, in 
 nature ; at least the atmosphere does not contain any appre- 
 ciable proportion of hydrogen. But it is one of the elements 
 of water, and thus enters into nearly every organic substance. 
 This gas is obtained pure by decomposing water, or some 
 other substance with which hydrogen has combined. The 
 Tables exhibit hydrogen as everywhere present, in all ani- 
 mal and vegetable substances, and in some minerals. It is 
 indispensable to the vegetable and animal kingdoms. It is 
 eminently combustible, and burns when kindled in the air, 
 with a yellow flame of little intensity, which moistens a dry 
 glass jar held over it; the gas combining with the oxygen of 
 the air in burning, and producing water. 
 
 Nitrogen, besides constituting a portion of the air, enters 
 into the composition of most animal, and many vegetable 
 substances. This gas is usually procured by allowing a 
 combustible body to combine with the oxygen of a certain 
 quantity of air confined in a vessel, by which process the 
 nitrogen is left free. It is a singularly inert substance, and 
 does not unite directly with any other single element, under 
 the influence of light or of a high temperature, unless, per- 
 haps with oxygen and carbon. To combine it with another 
 body, requires the adoption of a circuitous method. A 
 burning taper is instantly extinguished in this gas, and an 
 animal soon dies in it, not because the gas is injurious, but 
 from the privation of oxygen, which is required in the respi- 
 
10 AMMONIA— CHLOBINE. 
 
 ration of animals. Nitrogen appears to be chiefly useful in 
 the atmosphere as a diluent of the oxygen, thereby repress- 
 ing, to a certain degree, the activity of combustion and other 
 oxidating processes. By reference to the Tables of organic 
 analyses, it will be seen that nitrogen is a constituent of the 
 nutritious articles of food, both animal and vegetable. 
 
 Ammonia.— This gas 'is a compound of hydrogen and 
 nitrogen, in the proportion of one atom of nitrogen to three 
 of hydrogen. It is produced in the destructive distillation 
 of all organic matters containing nitrogen, which has given 
 rise to one of its popular names — the spirits of hartshorn : 
 there being a large per cent, of nitrogen in deer's horns. It 
 is also produced during the putrefaction of the same mat- 
 ters, and finds its way into the atmosphere. 
 
 Ammonia is a colorless gas, of a strong and pungent odor. 
 It is inflammable in air in a low degree, burning in contact 
 with the flame of a taper. Water is capable of dissolving 
 about 500 times its volume of ammoniacal gas in the cold, 
 and the solution is always specifically lighter, and has a lower 
 boiling point than pure water. Ammonia, in solution, is 
 decomposed by chlorine. It is distinguished as the volatile 
 alkali, as it restores the blue color of litmus paper reddened 
 by an acid, and exhibits, in other respects, the properties of 
 an alkali. Ammonia forms several classes of compounds 
 with acids and salts, and exhibits highly curious reactions 
 with many other substances. It will be seen, as we pro- 
 ceed, that it is a highly important agent in agriculture. 
 
 Chlorine. — This is one of the simple gaseous elements, 
 is of a pale yellowish green color, has a peculiarly suffocating 
 odor, is capable of being condensed into a limpid liquid of a 
 bright yellow color, has not been consolidated by freezing, 
 and is easily combined with water. It exists abundantly in 
 sea-water, and combines with sodium to form common salt. 
 It destroys all vegetable and animal coloring matters, and 
 hence is invaluable for bleaching linens and muslins. In 
 combination with lime, it acts as a powerful disinfecting 
 agent, in freeing the atmosphere of hospitals, close rooms, 
 and cellars, from impurities generated by the decomposition 
 of vegetable and animal substances. It combines with all 
 
CHLORINE. 11 
 
 the metals, and in the same proportions as oxygen; and, 
 with three or four exceptions, these compounds afe soluble 
 and sapid.* It is also absorbed by alkaline -solutions. It 
 does not, under any circumstances, unite directly with 
 oxygen, although several compounds of these elements can 
 be formed ; nor is it known to combine directly with nitro- 
 gen or carbon. It is "the leading member of a well marked 
 natural family, to which also bromine, iodine, and fluorine 
 belong. Phosphorus, carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, and most 
 of the bodies of this class, have little or no action upon each 
 other, or upon the mass of hydrogenous, carbonaceous, and 
 metallic bodies to which they are exposed in the material 
 world ; all these substances being too similar in nature to 
 have much affinity for each other. But the class to which 
 chlorine belongs ranks apart, and, with a mutual indifference 
 for each other, they exhibit an intense affinity for the mem- 
 bers of the other great and prevailing class — an affinity so 
 general as to give the chlorine family the character of extra- 
 ordinary chemical activity, and to preclude the possibility of 
 any member of the class existing in a free and uncombined 
 state in nature. The compounds, again, of the chlorine 
 class, with the exception of those of fluorine, are remarkable 
 for solubility, and, consequently, find a place among the 
 saline constituents of sea-water, and are of comparatively 
 rare occurrence in the mineral kingdom; with the single 
 exception of chloride of sodium, (common salt,) which, 
 besides being present in large quantities in sea-water, forms 
 extensive beds of rock salt in certain geological formations."t 
 Although chlorine, as has been stated, does not combine 
 directly with oxygen, nitrogen, or carbon, and may be mixed 
 with hydrogen and preserved in the dark without uniting, 
 yet a combination of these two elements is produced, with 
 explosion, by the introduction of spongy platinum, or the 
 electric spark, or by exposure to the direct rays of the sun. 
 Even under the diffuse light of day, combination of these 
 two gases takes place rapidly, but without explosion. Chlo- 
 rine has such a strong affinity for hydrogen, as to decompose 
 
 * Having a taste. t Graham's Elements of Chemistry, p. 329. 
 
12 CYANOGEN— FLTJ0B1NE— CARBON. 
 
 most bodies containing that element, and in this process 
 hydrochloric acid is always formed. This is the muriatic 
 acid of commerce. The affinity of chlorine for most metals 
 is equally great: antimony, arsenic, and several others, 
 showered in powder into this gas, take fire, and produce a 
 brilliant combustion. 
 
 Chlorine, in some of its combinations, exists in all produc- 
 tive soils, and, from its active properties, in producing chem- 
 ical changes upon nearly all animal, vegetable, and mineral 
 substances, it is a most important agent in agriculture. 
 
 Cyanogen. — This gas, though a compound of carbon and 
 nitrogen, unites with other elements exactly in the same 
 manner as though it were itself an element, and forms an 
 exception to the rule, that simple bodies can only combine 
 with simple, and compound only with compound bodies. It 
 comports towards other bodies in a manner similar to that of 
 chlorine, iodine, and fluorine. With iron it forms prussian 
 blue, and with hydrogen the prussic acid. Under pressure 
 this gas is condensed into a limpid liquid, which evaporates 
 again on removal of the pressure. Cyanogen is a salt-radi- 
 cal, and unites with all the metals as chlorine and iodine do, 
 forming a class of cyanides. It may be obtained pure from 
 the cyanide of mercury. 
 
 Fluorine. — This substance has not hitherto been isolated, 
 by the utmost skill of the chemist, as its powers of combina- 
 tion are such that no simple body has been found capable of 
 resisting its action. It is found as a component of a few 
 mineral substances only; one of these, fiuor spar, is very 
 abundant, and is noticed under the head of Lime and its 
 compounds. 
 
 This closes our notice of the simple gaseous bodies. Those 
 named hereafter are formed by the union of one of these 
 gases with some one of the solid elements. 
 
 Carbon is found in great abundance in the mineral king- 
 dom, united with other substances, as in coal, of whieh it is 
 the basis, and in the acid of carbonates. It is also the most 
 abundant element of the solid parts of both animals and 
 vegetables. It exists in nature, or may be obtained by art, 
 under a variety of appearances, possessed of very different 
 
CARBONIC ACID- SULPHUR. 13 
 
 physical properties. It occurs crystallized in the diamond 
 and graphite, or black lead, uncrystallized in wood charcoal, 
 anthracite coal, &c. Carbon may be said to surpass all 
 other bodies whatever, in its affinity for oxygen at a high 
 temperature ; and being infusible, easily got rid of by com- 
 bustion, and forming compounds with oxygen which escape 
 as a gas, this body is more suitable than any other substance 
 to effect the reduction of metallic oxyds : that is, to deprive 
 them of their oxygen, and to produce from them the metal, 
 with the properties which characterize it. When heated to 
 low redness, it burns readily in air or oxygen, forming car- 
 bonic acid by its union with oxygen. The prominent posi- 
 tion which carbon occupies in the composition of vegetable 
 and animal substances, may be seen in the Tables. 
 
 Carbonic Acid. — This gas is formed by the union of oxy- 
 gen and carbon, in the proportion of one equivalent of car- 
 bon to two of oxygen. It is easily prepared from fragments 
 of marble, limestone, or chalk, by pouring upon them sul- 
 phuric acid, or muriatic acid. It is thrown off from the 
 lungs of all air-breathing animals. It is also a product of 
 vinous fermentation, and is largely produced in the burning 
 of wood or coal. It is discharged from the earth by active 
 volcanoes, and from fissures in their neighborhood, long 
 after they are extinct. It is evolved in the decomposition 
 of animal and vegetable matter, and accumulates in vaults 
 and wells as the choke-damp, occasionally so fatal to those 
 who descend incautiously into such places. Although enor- 
 mous quantities of carbon are constantly abstracted from the 
 atmosphere, in the growth of plants, yet the supplies from 
 the above named sources, and a few others, seem amply 
 sufficient to prevent any sensible diminution of its carbonic 
 acid. It would seem that the decomposition of the vegeta- 
 tion of one period supplies the necessary elements for the 
 productions of the succeeding one, and that thus the amount 
 of carbon in the atmosphere, is kept constantly equalized. 
 
 Sulphite, is distributed very generally throughout the 
 earth by means of its combinations with minerals and metals, 
 which, in their decomposition, supply this element to the 
 soils. It is furnished abundantly from many volcanoes no 
 
14 PHOSPHORUS. 
 
 longer in a state of much activity, where it is collected for 
 the supply of commerce. It is supposed to be the strongest 
 chemical body, next to oxygen, and has, like it, a powerful 
 affinity for all other elements. Sulphur, or its acids, unites 
 with iron, lead, copper, zinc, lithia; with oxygen, hydro- 
 gen, nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, ammonia; with silicon, 
 alumina, potash, soda, lime, magnesia, manganese; with 
 fibrin, gluten, starch, albumen, blood, cartilage, &c. Its 
 other combinations, which are numerous, have little connec- 
 tion with agriculture, and need not be noticed. Sulphur 
 burns readily at a very moderate heat, and is used in con- 
 nection with phosphorus in the manufacture of friction 
 matches. Possessing such active properties, sulphur is ever 
 ready to perform its offices in the vegetable and animal king- 
 doms. Sulphuric acid, one of its most powerful products, 
 in combination with oxygen, consists of one equivalent of 
 sulphur and three of oxygen. 
 
 Phosphorus is essential to the organization of the higher 
 orders of animals, being found in their fluids, and forming, 
 in combination with lime, the basis of the solid structure of 
 their bones. It is also found in most plants and minerals. 
 Phosphorus, in its properties, is very closely allied to sul- 
 phur, but melts, boils, burns, and evaporates far more easily 
 than that element. So readily does the oxygen of the atmos- 
 phere act upon it, and produce combustion, that it must be 
 kept, and also cut, under water, especially when the atmos- 
 phere is at the temperature of summer heat. It is on this 
 account that it is so valuable in the composition of friction 
 matches, the temperature being sufficiently raised by a very 
 little friction, to ignite it. It is soluble in ether, alcohol, 
 sulphuret of carbou, and oils. It is an exceedingly violent 
 poison, and is used to extirpate rats and mice. Phosphorus 
 is susceptible of four different degrees of oxidation — the 
 highest of which is a powerful acid, and the acid character 
 is not absent even in the lowest. Phosphorus, or its acids, 
 has the power of combining with hydrogen, oxygen, nitro- 
 gen, chlorine, sulphur, ammonia, alumina, potash, soda, 
 magnesia, lime, iron, manganese, lithia, and a large range 
 of other elements, not connected with the growth of vegeta- 
 
SILICA. 15 
 
 tion. With such extensive affinities, phosphorus must he 
 an important element in soils. Phosphoric acid, which is 
 so often named in the Tables, consists of one equivalent of 
 phosphorus and Jive of oxygen. 
 
 Silica, Silex, or Quaetz, which occurs so abundantly 
 in the inorganic parts of vegetables, is a compound of oxygen 
 and silicon, in the proportion of about one part of the latter 
 to three of the former. It constitutes a number of minerals, 
 nearly in a state of purity ; such as common quartz, rook 
 crystal, flints, sandstone, chalcedony, carnelian, agate, opal, 
 common sand, and the water-worn, white pebbles met with 
 almost everywhere. It also enters largely into combination 
 with other substances, to form the rocks of the globe.* It 
 exists in two states in soils, soluble and insoluble. In its 
 soluble state, it is taken.up by plants during their growth, 
 and constitutes a part of their mass, entering largely into the 
 composition of the stalks of reeds and grasses, which have 
 often a thick crust of silica on their bark. It is a very abun- 
 dant mineral, and is estimated to constitute one-sixth of the 
 crust of the globe. 
 
 But it is not in the bark of plants alone, that silica is met 
 with by the chemist. It is diffused generally throughout 
 the structures in which it occurs, says QuEKETT,t the latest 
 writer on the subject, and in this connection is so intimate 
 and equable, that it forms a complete skeleton of the tissues 
 after the soft vegetable matters have been destroyed; in 
 fact the part it plays in reference to the organized tissues in 
 which it is deposited, is precisely analogous to that existing 
 between the animal and earthy elements of shell. Silica 
 exists in such great abundance in the cuticle of a plant known 
 as equisetum hyemale, or Dutch rush, that on this account 
 the stems are employed by carvers in wood and modelers in 
 clay, as a substitute for sand paper. It is also very abun- 
 dant in the canes, but is by no means limited to this order 
 of plants. It is contained principally in the cuticle, or outer 
 bark, and in the various structures that are developed from 
 it, such as hairs, spines, &c; but in some instances layers 
 
 * See Table I. t London, 1852. 
 
16 BORON. 
 
 of cells lying much deeper than those of the cuticle, also 
 abound in silica; and it may also be met with in woody fibres 
 and in spiral vessels. In the burning of a haystack, masses 
 of perfectly formed glass are always to be found among the 
 ashes. This glass is produced by the combination of the 
 silica of the cuticle of the hay with the potash of the woody 
 fibre — glass being a silicate of potash. 
 
 In order to display effectually the siliceous matter in 
 plants, it is necessary to expose the tissue under examination, 
 to the flame of the blow-pipe, or, better still, to boil it for 
 some days in nitric acid. By these means, the organic por- 
 tion is entirely destroyed, and the silica, withstanding these 
 destructive agents, remains as a perfect model, or cast of the 
 original tissue. In the husk of a grain of wheat, not only 
 the cells of the cuticle, and layers of cells beneath, but also 
 the fibres of the spiral vessels are silicified. Of all the 
 grasses or grains used as food by man, rice contains the 
 largest proportion of silica. In the husk of the rice, the 
 woody fibres are also coated with silica ; and in wheat, oats, 
 and other grains, not only the stalks, but the hairs which 
 stud the surface of their husk, partake largely of the siliceous 
 deposit. 
 
 It will now be apparent that a vast amount of silica is 
 yearly removed from our soils by the cultivation of the ordi- 
 nary grains and grasses, and that a supply of this substance 
 may be necessary to many soils, in order to insure good 
 crops. 
 
 Boron is an element sparingly diffused in nature, and 
 having some analogy to carbon. It is never found except 
 in combination with oxygen as boeactc acid. It is a con- 
 stituent of several minerals, but the main supply of borax 
 to commerce is from certain hot lagoons in Tuscany, and 
 likewise from the hot springs of Lipari, and a few other 
 places. It communicates fusibility to many substances in 
 uniting with them, and generally forms a glass. On this 
 account borax is much used as a flux. With the assistance 
 of the vapor of water, it is slightly volatile, but alone it is 
 more fixed, and fuses, under a red heat, into a transparent 
 glass. Boracic acid is remarkable for the variety of propor- 
 tions in which it unites with the alkalies. 
 
REVIEW. 17 
 
 All the foregoing elements are non-metallic. A brief 
 review of their peculiar properties will close our remarks 
 upon them. 
 
 Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, form the chief 
 elements of plants and animals, and are, for this reason, 
 called organogens, or generators of organic bodies. 
 
 Sulphur and phosphorus, with some of their compounds, 
 are characterized by such great inflammability, that they 
 have been called pyrogens, or fire generators. 
 
 Chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine, and cyanogen, on 
 account of their power of producing salts in combination 
 with the metals, have been called halogens, or salt producers. 
 Their compounds are called haloid salts, to distinguish them 
 from the oxygen salts, which consist of an acid and a base. 
 
 Silicon and boron occur in nature only in combination 
 with oxygen, as silica and boracic acid. These substances 
 are oxyds, and form amorphous salts with many bases, such 
 as glass, slag, glazing, &c, and for this reason they have 
 been called hyalogens, or glass producers. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 INORGANIC ELEMENTS : — POTASS — SODA — LITHIA — LIME — MAGNESIA — BARYTA — 
 STROHTIA— ALUMINA— IRON— MANGANESE. 
 
 Hating disposed of the gases and non-metallic elements, 
 the light metals may be next considered. They are called 
 light metals, because they are specifically lighter than other 
 metals. These metals, so far as they are connected with 
 agriculture, may be noticed in the following order : 
 
 1. Potassium, sodium, and lithium, the metallic bases of 
 the alkalies. 
 
 2. Calcium, magnesium, barium, and strontium, the me- 
 tallic bases of the alkaline earths. 
 
 3. Aluminum, and several kindred but rare metals, the 
 metallic bases of the earths. 
 
 All these metals have such a strong affinity for oxygen, 
 that they are usually met with only as oxyds, and it is to 
 their properties in this form, that attention will be directed. 
 The processes by which the pure metals are obtained, can 
 be learned from the common chemical works. 
 
 Potash, or Potassa, is an alkali, formed from its metallic 
 base, potassium, by the chemical union of oxygen with this 
 metal. This element is capable of forming several com- 
 pounds with oxygen, and also enters into chemical combina- 
 tion, in various proportions, either as potassium or potash, 
 with sulphur, chlorine, iodine, iron, cyanogen, carbon, 
 hydrogen, nitrogen, silica, acetic acid, tartaric acid, oxalic 
 acid, &c. The extent of its presence in minerals and veg- 
 etables, can be learned from the Tables. Its capacity for 
 combining with so many of the elements existing in soils, 
 and its almost constant presence in plants and trees, render 
 it indispensable to the growth of vegetables. 
 
 Soda is an alkali, formed from its metallic base, sodium, 
 by the chemical union of oxygen with this metal. Soda and 
 sodium are capable of forming compounds with sulphur, 
 chlorine, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, iodine, silica, boracic 
 
LITHIA— LIME. 19 
 
 acid, &c. Like potash, it is of much importance in soils, 
 as it enters largely into the composition of certain vegetables. 
 In combination with chlorine, it forms common salt, which 
 is the chloride of sodium, and with sulphur it produces the 
 glauber salts, or sulphate of soda. "As potassium is in 
 some degree characteristic of the vegetable kingdom, so 
 sodium is the alkaline metal of the animal kingdom, its salts 
 being found in all animal fluids."* 
 
 Lithia, which is an oxyd of lithium, is not an abundant 
 element. It exists in small quantities in a few minerals, 
 and is met with in a few vegetables. It is a constituent of 
 unhealthy urine, where it occurs as lithic acid. Lithia and 
 lithium enter into combination with chlorine, hydrogen, car- 
 bon, sulphur, soda, phosphorus, fluorine, &c. It is an 
 alkali, like potash and soda. 
 
 Limb is an alkaline earth, having calcium, for its base, 
 and is formed by the chemical union of oxygen with that 
 metal. Lime and calcium form chemical combinations with 
 carbon, sulphur, chlorine, phosphorus, nitrogen, hydrogen, 
 fluoric acid, &c. Uncombined lime, or quick lime, which 
 is the pure oxyd of calcium, can be obtained by heating 
 common limestone to redness. This rock is a carbonate of 
 lime, consisting of 43.71 parts of carbonic acid and 56.29 
 of lime, in 100 parts. Marble, calcareous spar, chalk, marl, 
 coral, the shells of molluscous animals, &c, are all carbon- 
 ates of lime, more or less pure. In burning any of the mar- 
 bles or limestones, the heat drives off the carbonic acid, and 
 leaves the pure oxyd of calcium, or common lime. 
 
 Lime, in combination with sulphur, forms sulphate of 
 lime, or gypsum, which is composed of sulphuric acid 46.31 
 parts, lime 32.90, and water 20.79, in 100 parts. Heated 
 to a proper temperature, the water is driven off, and plaster 
 of Paris produced. Gypsum possesses highly beneficial 
 properties as a fertilizer of soils. Phosphate of lime is com- 
 posed of phosphoric acid 48.45 parts and lime 51.55, in 
 100 parts. This mineral enters largely into the composition 
 of the bones of animals. Thefluate of lime, or fluor spar, 
 
 * Graham. 
 
20 MAGNESIA, ETC. 
 
 is composed of fluorine 47.73 parts and lime 52.27, in 100 
 parts. This mineral forms a very small portion of the earth 
 of hones, hut a somewhat larger proportion of the enamel of 
 teeth. The chloride of lime has heen noticed under the head 
 of chlorine. Lime, in its various combinations in soils, per- 
 forms the most important offices to vegetation, while at the 
 same time it supplies a portion of the materials of the growth 
 of plants. 
 
 Magnesia is an alkaline earth, having magnesium for its 
 base, and is formed by the chemical union of oxygen with 
 that metal. Magnesium has the color and lustre of silver. 
 It is very ductile, and capable of being beaten into thin 
 leaves, fuses at a gentle heat, and crystallizes in octahedrons. 
 It undergoes no change in dry air or oxygen, but is oxydized 
 superficially by moist air. Magnesium, when heated to red- 
 ness, burns with great brilliancy, forming magnesia, or the 
 oxyd of magnesium. Magnesia is extensively diffused in 
 the mineral kingdom, forming a large per cent, of the chlo- 
 ride, talcose, and serpentine rocks, and is also a constituent 
 of hornblende and one variety of mica.* Carbonate of mag- 
 nesia occurs native as a hard, compact mineral, in the pro- 
 portion of magnesia 48 parts, carbonic acid 49, and water 8, 
 in 100 parts. Magnesia is also extensively diffused in com- 
 bination with lime, as a rock, called, dolomite or magnesian 
 limestone, which is composed of carbonate of lime 54.18 
 parts and carbonate of magnesia 45.82 parts, in 100. Mag- 
 nesia, or its base, combines with silica, boron, carbon, hydro- 
 gen, chlorine, sulphur, phosphorus, nitric acid, and ammonia. 
 The extent of the diffusion of magnesia in the vegetable king- 
 dom, can he learned from the Tables. 
 
 Baryta and Steontia are also alkaline earths, and have 
 a great similarity to lime in their properties and combina- 
 tions, but need not be noticed in detail in a work on agricul- 
 tural chemistry. 
 
 Alumina is an oxyd of aluminum, formed by the union of 
 three parts of oxygen to two parts of this metal. It is the 
 only one of the earths proper that occurs in abundance. It 
 
 * See Table No. I. 
 
ALUMINA. 21 
 
 exists in its pure state, with the exception of a trace of col- 
 oring matter, in the sapphire, of which the oriental ruby and 
 topaz are varieties. Emery is nearly pure alumina. All 
 these substances are extremely hard, being, in that respect, 
 second only to the diamond. Like silex, alumina is an 
 abundant ingredient in many minerals and slaty rocks, and 
 is the principal constituent in clays. In combination with 
 sulphuric acid and potash, it forms alum, and may be 
 obtained in its metallic state from this salt. Its great capa- 
 bility of absorbing water, renders it of vast importance in 
 soils, as a means of supplying moisture to the roots of veg- 
 etables. Its affinity for vegetable and mineral coloring 
 matters, and its power of retaining and rendering them 
 insoluble,, connected with its equally powerful affinity for 
 ligneous fibre, makes alumina indispensable in the arts and 
 in manufactures. It also absorbs carbonic acid and ammo- 
 nia, and supplies these two elements to vegetables. In 
 combination with silica, it supplies the clays for bricks, 
 porcelain, earthen-ware, stone-ware, &c. Alumina, or its 
 base, enters into combination with hydrogen, chlorine, 
 iodine, bromine, fluorine, nitrogen, sulphur, potash, soda, 
 lithia, magnesia, manganese, iron, selenium, phosphorus, 
 cyanogen, borax, &c. 
 
 ' ' Next to silica, alumina occurs most frequently in nature, 
 and, indeed, not only in clay and loam, but also in rocks 
 and minerals ; for instance, the well known gray colored 
 clay-slate, porphyry, &c. Feldspar must be regarded as 
 the most important of the alumina minerals, and is found in 
 greater or less quantity in granite, gneiss, mica slate, and 
 other rocks. Feldspar, like other stones, is finally disinte- 
 grated by the influence of air and water, and by heat and 
 cold ; it weathers, as the miners say, or is dissolved, and 
 the silicate of potassa is thereby gradually removed by the 
 water, so that, as the result of this decomposition, clay or 
 loam remains behind. When the farmer lets his plowed 
 land lie fallow — that is, remain uncultivated for some time — 
 he by this means accelerates the weathering ; soluble salts 
 of potassa, soda, lime, and other salts, are thereby formed 
 from the constituents of the soil, and to these salts especially, 
 
22 GLVCINUM—BEVIEW. 
 
 is to be attributed the greater fertility of fallow land over 
 that which has been exhausted by cultivation."* The same 
 process of decomposition takes place in the other minerals of 
 the rocks composing the earth's crust, and by this means 
 soils are produced. The proportions in which their several 
 elements are supplied to soils, can be ascertained by refer- 
 ence to the Tables. i 
 
 Glucinum, and the several other metallic bases of the 
 earths, closely allied to aluminum, occur so very rarely as 
 not to demand a notice. 
 
 This closes what is considered necessary to be said in expla- 
 nation of the properties of the light metals, which constitute 
 the bases of the alkalies proper, the alkaline earths, and the 
 earths proper. A few remarks in relation to each of these 
 classes, however, by way of retrospect, will be useful to the 
 reader. 
 
 Of all bodies, the alkali metals, potassium and sodium, 
 have the greatest affinity for oxygen ; and their oxyds, pot- 
 ash and soda, are the most powerful bases, f with which other 
 elements unite to form compounds. Ammonia is also classed 
 with the alkalies. These three alkalies are easily soluble 
 in water, exert a strong caustic action on animal and veg- 
 etable substances, and have a great affinity for carbonic acid, 
 which they absorb eagerly from the atmosphere, thereby 
 becoming converted into alkaline carbonates. The carbonic 
 acid in combination with these alkalies, cannot be expelled 
 by heating, but it escapes immediately, with effervescence, 
 on the addition of other acids. These carbonates are also 
 easily soluble in water, and have a basic reaction. Potash 
 and soda, combined with sand at a high temperature, yield 
 melted glass; and when dissolved in water and mixed with 
 fat, on being boiled together, they yield soap. Most of the 
 salts which the alkalies form with acids, are soluble in water, 
 and thus the moisture in soils affords them the opportunity 
 of performing their part in the chemical preparation of the 
 food of plants. 
 
 * Stockhardt. 
 
 t In the language of chemistry, any alkaline or earthy substance, combining 
 with an acid, forms a compound or salt, of which it is the base. 
 
IRON— MANGANESE. 23 
 
 The metals of the alkaline earths, calcium, magnesium, 
 &c, have also such a very strong affinity for oxygen, that 
 the preparation of them is very difficult. The oxyds of these 
 metals, lime, magnesia, &c, though alkaline, are called 
 alkaline earths, because they are sparingly soluble, while 
 the alkalies are easily soluble. They are also less caustic 
 than the alkalies, and, like them, eagerly absorb carbonic 
 acid from the air, and form carbonates which are solid, and 
 insoluble in water, while the carbonates of the alkalies are 
 easily soluble. The carbonates of the alkaline earths, on 
 the other hand, lose their carbonic acid by exposure to a 
 powerful heat, while the alkalies do not. 
 
 The earths, alumina, &c. , unlike the alkalies and alkaline 
 earths, are entirely insoluble in water, which they absorb 
 largely, like a sponge. But alumina, it has generally been 
 supposed, does not combine chemically with carbonic acid, 
 but only absorbs it freely, as it does water, and retains both 
 as agents to aid in the preparation of the other elements in 
 the soil as food for plants. A part of the carbon of plants 
 is now supposed to be derived from the soil, though their 
 whole supply of this element had long been considered as 
 derived from the atmosphere. 
 
 Iron and Manganese. — Of the heavy metals, these two 
 only need be noticed, as they alone, of this class, enter into 
 the composition of the common vegetables cultivated by the 
 farmer. 
 
 The extent to which iron is appropriated in the growth of 
 animals and vegetables, can be seen in the Tables. Being 
 always present, in quantities larger and smaller, in the rocks, 
 and entering into combination with many of the elements of 
 the soils, the agriculturist need have little fear that his lands 
 will become deficient in this element. 
 
 Iron combines with oxygen, carbon, chlorine, sulphur, 
 phosphorus, cyanogen, potash, acetic acid, &c. 
 
 Manganese, in some of its forms of combination with 
 oxygen or chlorine, enters sparingly into the composition of 
 minerals and vegetables. It is never found as a metal in 
 nature, but may be produced from its black oxyd by a high 
 heat with charcoal. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PROXIMATE ELEMENTS :— BTAROH— ALBUMEN— GLUTEN— OABELN— LEGUMIN— EHULSINE— 
 PROTEIN — GELATIN — CHONDRIN. 
 
 The organic and inorganic elements obtained from the 
 earth and atmosphere, by vegetables and animals, during 
 their growth, have now been sufficiently described, we trust, 
 to enable the reader to gain a competent knowledge of their 
 chief properties. We may, therefore, proceed to notice the 
 proximate constituents of which the products of the veg- 
 etable and animal kingdoms are composed. 
 
 On turning to Table VII, which embraces the organic 
 analyses of the grains, straws, and roots, used as food, and 
 to Table VIII, which includes the muscular fibre, skin, 
 tendons, fat, &c, of animals, it will be seen that they are 
 all composed of nearly the same simple elements ; the only 
 difference being in the proportions that these elements have 
 entered into combination in the several articles named. 
 These vegetable and animal substances are the ultimate pro- 
 ducts of the action of vegetable and animal life upon the 
 simple elements constituting the soils and atmosphere. It 
 is unnecessary to make any other notice of these articles than 
 that embraced in their chemical analyses. 
 
 But these ultimate products are capable of being subdivi- 
 ded into several distinct and very dissimilar substances or 
 elements, called their proximate elements or constituents, 
 which do not appear to the eye in their ordinary state. Take 
 the common grains, and peas and beans as an example : 
 they contain ten substances, besides the woody fibre of their 
 husks, that differ from each other in the proportions or mode 
 in which their elements are combined. These are starch, 
 sugar, gluten, casein, fibrin, albumen, protein, legumin, 
 hordein, and fatty matter. With two or three exceptions, 
 the analyses of these articles are given in Table X. This 
 Table also embraces the analyses of the corresponding prox- 
 imate constituents obtained from the solid parts of animals. 
 
STARCH. 25 
 
 The fibrin, albumen, casein, and protein, found in the ulti- 
 mate products of vegetables and animals, are so nearly iden- 
 tical in their chemical composition, as to be considered the 
 same elements in both kingdoms. The difference in the 
 albumen from wheat, and from the serum of blood, for 
 instance, is not greater than between the former and that 
 from some one of the other grains. For this reason, it is 
 considered that it is the province of plants to draw the ele- 
 ments of these compounds from Nature's great store-house, 
 and to elaborate them into the forms in which they are 
 yielded by them to the agriculturist and the chemist ; while 
 it only remains for the graminivorous animals to appropri- 
 ate the aliments thus prepared, unchanged, into their sys- 
 tems, the process of digestion and assimilation being merely 
 a provision of nature to separate these elements from their 
 union with each other in the vegetable state, and to recom- 
 bine them in the animal tissues. The office of vegetables, 
 therefore, is to elaborate the elements of the atmosphere and 
 soils, into suitable substances for the support of animal life. 
 But as certain orders of animals can only subsist upon flesh, 
 it would seem that the plant-eating animals, with their large 
 stomachs, are designed to perform the task of concentrating 
 the elements of vegetables into smaller compass, for the use 
 of the carnivorous animals and of man. 
 
 The study of the Tables, it is thought, may tend to change 
 the opinions of some who reject the use of animal diet as 
 pernicious, seeing that it contains nothing but what is found 
 in the very vegetables recommended as substitutes ; the only 
 difference being, that to secure an equal amount of nutriment 
 from vegetables, requires the stomach to receive and digest 
 a bulk five or ten times greater than is supplied by animal 
 food. "With these remarks, we shall proceed to notice the 
 proximate elements of vegetable and. animal substances 
 named in the Tables. 
 
 Stabch. — This substance, so well known to every house- 
 wife, is deposited in most vegetables, particularly at the 
 period of ripening, from the juices with which the cells of 
 the plants are filled. To the naked eye it appears like par- 
 ticles of meal, but under a powerful microscope, it is found 
 
26 ALBUMEN. 
 
 to consist of small grains or globules. The form of these 
 grains differs in different plants, those from wheat being 
 flattened. The process of its separation from the other 
 elements with which it is combined, is well understood. 
 When obtained from potatoes, they are rasped on a grater, 
 the pulp kneaded with water, and the liquid then squeezed 
 out through a linen cloth. The woody fibre of the cells 
 remains behind, but the juice, together with the starch, runs 
 through, into the vessel prepared for its reception. _ The 
 starch settles to the bottom, and is secured by pouring off 
 the liquid. The process of obtaining starch from the com- 
 mon grains, varies but little from that adopted to extract it 
 from potatoes, except that the grains are crushed by grind- 
 ing, or softened by maceration in water, and mashed. 
 
 Starch does not dissolve in cold water, and only swells up 
 on boiling. In this process the grains of the starch absorb 
 water, and swell up, so that the single membranes which 
 coat them, break open. The substance thus produced, is 
 called starch paste, and is used in various ways for stiffening, 
 or starching muslin and linen. When this paste is allowed 
 to remain in a warm place for a length of time, it gradually 
 becomes thin and sour. The peculiar acid thus formed, is 
 called lactic acid, being the same with that produced in the 
 souring of milk. Starch does not contain any nitrogen, and 
 is not ranked among the elements of nutrition, but, like 
 sugar, fat, &c, is supposed to be only an element of respi- 
 ration. This point will be noticed more fully hereafter. 
 
 Albumen. — The clear liquid decanted from the starch, 
 when heated in a flask, becomes turbid as the fluid approaches 
 the boiling point. After boiling for a few moments, it depos- 
 its a flaky grayish-white substance, which can be collected 
 on a filter. This is vegetable albumen. It readily dissolves 
 in cold and in warm water, but, like the albumen of the 
 whites of eggs, and of the serum of blood, with which it is 
 identical, it coagulates in boiling water. It contains nitro- 
 gen, and is classed with the elements of nutrition. It also 
 contains a small per cent, of sulphur and phosphorus. It 
 will be noticed that starch is destitute of these elements. 
 By referring to the Tables of analyses, it will be found that 
 
GLUTEN— FIBBIN. 27 
 
 albumen has a very extensive range as a proximate element 
 in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. 
 
 Gluten. — When wheat flour is mixed with water, so as 
 to form a stiff paste, and enclosed in a piece of thick linen, 
 all its starch, albumen, gum, and sugar, may be pressed out 
 by kneading the mass, and occasionally adding more water, 
 or by placing it beneath a spout of running water. The 
 cloth will then contain woody fibre and a viscous, tough, 
 gray substance, called gluten. In this crude state, when 
 separated from the woody fibre, it has been called vegetable 
 fibrin. It only swells up in water, without being completely 
 dissolved. The gluten thus obtained, according to Brande, 
 consists chiefly of four distinct substances, which may be 
 separated from each other in the following manner : The 
 crude gluten is boiled in alcohol, strong at first, and after- 
 wards weaker ; there remains a gray fibrous substance, which 
 is the pure vegetable fibrin, and the alcoholic solution, as it 
 cools, deposits casein. If, after this, the liquid be poured 
 off and carefully evaporated, a pultaceous substance is 
 obtained, which is gluten mixed with fat. To free it from 
 the latter, it is dried, pulverized, and digested in anhydrous 
 ether as long as it imparts anything to that solvent; the 
 residue is then washed with alcohol, afterward with water, 
 and ultimately dried, and thus the pure gluten is secured. 
 It appears, therefore, that the crude, or original gluten, as 
 obtained/rom the wheat flour, is a mixture of fibrin, casein, 
 gluten, and oily or fatty matter. It is gluten that gives to 
 wheat flour its peculiar tenacity when formed into dough. 
 This element is exclusively a vegetable product, and does 
 not occur in the animal kingdom. As far as the relative 
 proportions of its ultimate elements are concerned, it is 
 almost identical with albumen. It contains nitrogen, sul- 
 phur, and phosphorus, but the proportions of the two latter 
 elements, entering into its composition, have not been deter- 
 mined. For the extent of its range in the common vegetables, 
 see Tables. 
 
 Fibrin. — This element, like albumen, is common to both 
 vegetable and animal substances. The process of its separa- 
 tion from wheat flour, is given under the head of gluten. 
 
28 FIBBIN. 
 
 To obtain fibrin from animal substances, is not a difficult 
 process. Fresh drawn blood, when left in a vessel to cool, 
 separates into two parts : the one a red jelly, or coagulum, 
 and the other a yellowish liquid, or serum : When the 
 coagulum is long agitated in water, the coloring matter of 
 the blijod is washed out, and a soft white fibrous mass 
 remains. This is animal fibrin. When the serum of blood 
 is heated to boiling, it coagulates to a white jelly ; because 
 it consists of a solution of animal albumen. Fibrin may 
 also be obtained by agitating blood as it flows from the ves- 
 sels, with a rod, to the twigs of which it adheres in the form 
 of fibrous filaments, which may be cleansed of coloring and 
 other soluble matters, by repeated washings in fresh portions 
 of water. Fibrin may also be obtained from muscle. In 
 its humid state, fibrin retains about 75 per cent, of water, 
 and requires to bo further purified, to free it from fatty mat- 
 ters. Dry fibrin absorbs about thrice its weight of water, 
 when immersed in that fluid, and regains much of its original 
 appearance before having been dried. "It is insoluble in 
 cold and in hot water, but when subjected to protracted 
 boiling, it shrinks, and becomes friable, traces of ammonia 
 are evolved, and a liquor is obtained which, when filtered 
 and evaporated, leaves a brittle yellowish substance, having 
 the smell of boiled meat, and soluble in water ; it does not 
 gelatinize, but it yields a peculiar flocculent precipitate with 
 infusion of galls. The residuary portion of the fibrin has 
 lost the original properties of that substance, and has acquired 
 those of coagulated albumen. Dumas observes, that this 
 experiment establishes a well-marked line of demarcation 
 between fibrin and albumen, or casein, which two last sub- 
 stances do not yield these products of fibrin."* Fibrin is 
 not altered by heat, till it begins to decompose ; it then 
 fuses, swells up, and burns with a yellow sooty flame, leav- 
 ing a porous and brilliant charcoal, that is difficult to burn 
 to ashes. The ash amounts to near one per cent, of the dry 
 fibrin, and consists chiefly of phosphate of lime, a little phos- 
 phate of magnesia, and traces of silica. It contains nitro- 
 gen, and is preeminently an element of nutrition. 
 
CASEIN— LEGUMIN. 29 
 
 Casein. — This term has been chiefly applied to the pecu- 
 liar coagulable principle of milk. A similar substance is 
 occasionally found in the blood, in the pancreatic juice of the 
 ox and sheep, and in some vegetables. Though our Tables 
 of the proximate analyses of the grains and fruits, with a 
 few exceptions, include no casein, yet many of them embrace 
 it in their composition. It can be obtained pure from the 
 curd of milk, by separating it from the butter which is com- 
 bined with it. Vegetable casein was obtained from the crude 
 gluten of wheat, by Dumas and Cahours, by boiling it in 
 weak alcohol, as noticed above. They found its properties 
 to correspond with those of the casein of milk. 
 
 For obtaining casein from peas, Stockhakdt directs that, 
 after the starch and albumen have been extracted, as in the 
 case of wheat flour, before mentioned, a few drops of some 
 acid be added to the remaining liquid. This process at once 
 precipitates the casein. Vegetable casein, like vegetable 
 albumen, gluten, and fibrin, contains nitrogen ; but it is dis- 
 tinguished from albumen by its not being coagulated by 
 boiling, though it is by acids. Its coagulability by runnet, 
 as in the process of curd and cheese making, is also one of 
 its distinctive characteristics. It contains sulphur, but no 
 phosphorus, not at least in the peculiar state of combination 
 in which these two substances are found in albumen and 
 fibrin. It is, however, intimately combined with a certain 
 proportion of phosphate of lime. Casein ranks with the 
 elements of nutrition. It is very abundant in peas, beans, 
 lentils, &c. 
 
 Legumin is the nitrogenized principle of peas, beans, and 
 many similar seeds. It is considered by Liebig and 
 Wohlee as identical with casein, and by Dumas and Ca- 
 hours as the same with emulsine. It may be obtained by 
 steeping ground peas in warm water for a few hours, so as 
 to soften them, and then macerating them in cold water for 
 an hour, and pressing out the liquor, which is left to deposit 
 its suspended starch, and filtered. Dilute acetic acid is then 
 carefully dropped into the liquid so as to precipitate the 
 legumin. It falls in the form of white flakes, and may be 
 dried and freed from fatty matters by the same process used 
 
30 EMTJLSINE— PROTEIN. 
 
 for gluten. Legumin differs from the other nitrogenized 
 elements in several particulars. It is a very nutritious 
 element. 
 
 Emulsine. — This element, which closely resembles legu- 
 min, is contained in certain oil-producing seeds and kernels, 
 but especially in almonds, from which it is most easily 
 obtained, by a process similar to that pursued in the pro- 
 duction of legumin. Dumas and Cahouks, as already sta- 
 ted, consider emulsine and legumin as identical, and the result 
 of their ultimate analysis seems to justify such a conclusion ; 
 so also legumin and casein are regarded, by Liebig, as one 
 and the same principle. It will be seen, however, in the 
 notice of protein, that, as far as concerns the quantitative 
 proportions of the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen 
 contained in the substances now under consideration, they 
 may all be regarded as derived from one radical, yet there 
 are peculiarities belonging to each sufficient to characterize 
 them as distinct, or perhaps isomeric* proximate principles, t 
 
 Protein. — " Although, as has been remarked, [in rela- 
 tion to albumen, gluten, fibrin, casein, legumin, and emul- 
 sine,] there are certain distinctive peculiarities apparently 
 belonging to each of the preceding substances, sufficient to 
 establish them as separate proximate principles, yet the 
 general resemblances which pervade them, long ago induced 
 chemists to regard them as of common origin, and as deriv- 
 ing their peculiarities from small quantities of superadded 
 substances, especially sulphur, phosphorus, and certain salts, 
 rather than from any original and essential difference of 
 quantitative ultimate composition. These views have been 
 amply sanctioned by the discovery of the identity of the 
 above compounds as derived from animals and vegetables, 
 and more especially by the researches -of Mulder, establish- 
 ing the existence in all of them of a common base, which 
 appears to derive its origin from the vital powers of plants, 
 and to be transmitted from them to animals, as an essential 
 part of their food ; he has accordingly termed it protein, 
 (from wpursuw,' to hold a chief place.) 
 
 * Compounds consisting of the same elements in the same proportions, but 
 with different properties, are said to be isomeric. — Webster. 
 t Brande. 
 
GELATIN— CHONDRIN. 31 
 
 " Protein is obtained from albumen, fibrin, or casein, or 
 from horn, by digesting them successively in water, alcohol, 
 and ether, so as to extract all soluble matters ; the residue 
 is then digested in dilute hydrochloric acid, [muriatic acid,'] 
 by which the earthy salts are removed, and lastly, it is dis- 
 solved in a moderately strong solution of potassa or soda, 
 which abstracts sulphur and phosphorus ; this solution is 
 then heated to 120°, and cold acetic acid is added in very 
 slight excess, which throws down the protein in the form of 
 a gelatinous precipitate, which is to be thoroughly washed 
 with water upon a filter. Thus obtained, protein is a trans- 
 lucent, gelatinous, inodorous, and insipid substance, insolu- 
 ble in cold and in warm water, and in alcohol, ether, and 
 volatile oils ; when dry, it is brownish, hard, brittle, and 
 yields a yellow powder; it is very hygrometric, [that is, it 
 retains a large portion of water,] but becomes perfectly 
 anhydrous [free from water] when dried at 212°. When 
 it is in this state digested in water, [soaked or softened,] it 
 reassumes its original gelatinous appearance. When gradu- 
 ally heated to redness in close vessels, protein affords the 
 usual results of the decomposition of nitrogenized organic 
 substances, and leaves a bulky carbonaceous residue."* 
 
 Gelatin and Chondkin. — These substances are charac- 
 terized as containing a large relative proportion of nitrogen ; 
 but, unlike the compounds containing protein, their produc- 
 tion is limited to the animal creation ; they are, however, 
 not found in the blood, but are exclusively products of secre- 
 tion : they are nutritive ; and are, in all probability, pro- 
 ducts of the change of protein on the one hand, and on the 
 other, reconvertible into protein, by vital processes. When 
 the skin and cellular and other membranes of animals, are 
 boiled in water, the liquor cools into a gelatinous mass. A 
 similar jelly may be obtained from bones, cartilages, ten- 
 dons, and ligaments. The term gelatin was long indiscrimi- 
 nately applied to all the substances thus obtained, until 
 M/olleb pointed out the peculiarities of the product derived 
 from cartilage, and appropriated to it the term chondrin. 
 
 * Brande. 
 
32 BE VIEW. 
 
 It is generally assumed, though not perhaps on very suffi- 
 cient grounds, says Bkande, that the animal substances from 
 which it is derived do not contain ready formed gelatin, but 
 that it is generated by the action of hot water upon the mem- 
 braneous tissues. 
 
 Common glue is dried gelatin, in its crude state, as deri- 
 ved, by boiling, from the above named substances. The 
 purest form of gelatin is the isinglass, so largely consumed 
 in the preparation of jellies for the table. It is prepared 
 from certain fishes, as the sturgeon, &c. Pure gelatin is 
 colorless, transparent, inodorous, and insipid. It gradually 
 softens and swells in cold water, but scarcely dissolves till 
 gently heated, and on again cooling, the solution forms a 
 more or less firm jelly. The most delicate test of the pres- 
 ence of gelatin, is tannin. It is the action of tannin upon 
 the gelatin of the skins of animals, that renders them water- 
 proof and indestructible by putrefaction. The solution of 
 gelatin is not acted upon so as to precipitate it, by either 
 sulphate of alumina or alum. Chondrin, however, is thrown 
 down from its solutions by both alum and sulphate of alu- 
 mina. Pure chondrin is obtained, by boiling, from the car- 
 tilages of the ribs, larynx, and joints of animals. A sugar 
 called glycocoll, or sugar of gelatin, is prepared from 
 gelatin. 
 
 Many elements, organic and inorganic, act upon these 
 two substances, and also upon all those noticed in this chap- 
 ter ; but it has not been considered necessary to enter into 
 the details, as those wishing to pursue the study more 
 minutely, may easily refer to the chemical works which 
 treat upon these subjects. 
 
 We may now close this chapter with a few remarks upon 
 that class of the proximate principles of which it embraces 
 a notice. Starch has the first place in it, only because the 
 means by which it is procured, when stated, serves as a key 
 to the processes for separating the other elements from the 
 substances with which they are associated. But starch more 
 properly belongs to the class of proximate elements included 
 in the next chapter, which embraces those destitute of nitro- 
 gen, and is passed by for the present. The other proximate 
 
REVIEW. 00 
 
 elements already named, with the exception of protein, are 
 called albuminous substances, to distinguish them from 
 starch, sugar, gum, &c; because, like albumen, they con- 
 tain not only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but also nitro- 
 gen, sulphur, and phosphorus. On account of this complex 
 nature, the albuminous elements are very easily decomposed, 
 it being impossible to preventJermentation, putrefaction, or 
 decay, if they are left exposep to the atmosphere. And if, 
 while they are decomposing, they come in contact with other 
 organic substances, they cause these also to enter into fer- 
 mentation, decay, putrefaction, &c. As all vegetables con- 
 tain more or less of these albuminous compounds, it follows 
 that ample provision has been made, in their liability to 
 decomposition, for the restoration of the constituents of 
 decaying plants back again to the earth and atmosphere, 
 that they may serve as elements for the production of a new 
 growth of vegetation. 
 
 On the putrefaction of albuminous substances, their nitro- 
 gen, sulphur, and phosphorus, combine with hydrogen, form- 
 ing ammonia, sulphureted hydrogen, and phosphureted 
 hydrogen. The products of the decomposition of substances 
 destitute of nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, are very 
 different from these, as will be seen when they are noticed. 
 The above named gases are the chief cause of the very disa- 
 greeable odor which is given off during the decay, or putre- 
 faction, of substances containing nitrogen, and especially of 
 eggs, and other animal substances. During the progress 
 of this decomposition, and escape of gaseous elements, there 
 is also formed, as in the decay of woody fibre, a brown sub- 
 stance resembling humus. 
 
 However disgusting may be the products of putrefaction 
 and decay, says Stockhardt, from whom we condense the 
 foregoing remarks, they nevertheless contain within them- 
 selves the germ of the most beautiful compounds ; the most 
 beautiful plants arise from such products of decay. Indeed, 
 the most nauseous-smelling decaying nitrogenized substances, 
 are the best manures and the most powerful means of ren- 
 dering our fields and gardens fertile. 
 
 But the above elements are not the only ones produced 
 3 
 
34 REVIEW. 
 
 by the decomposition of nitrogenized vegetable and animal 
 ■substances. Salt petre, nitre, or the nitrate of potassa, is 
 thus produced in the soils. To comprehend this point fully, 
 take an example : 
 
 "Mix some flax seed meal with wood ashes, sand, and 
 lime, and let this mixture remain exposed to the air for sev- 
 eral months in the summer season, frequently moistening it 
 with water, and stirring it. M the mixture is then treated 
 with hot water, and the solution evaporated, prismatic crys- 
 tals will be formed from the latter on cooling, which will 
 detonate smartly when thrown upon glowing coals; they 
 consist of nitre. 
 
 " Here, also, ammonia is, in the first place, formed from 
 the nitrogen of the vegetable albumen, present in great abun- 
 dance in the flax seed meal ; but it is induced by the pre- 
 disposing influence of the strong base, to undergo still further 
 putrefaction : that is, to attract oxygen from the air, whereby 
 water is formed from its hydrogen, and nitric acid from its 
 nitrogen, the latter of whiqh combines with its potash and 
 lime. 
 
 " In a similar manner mire is often generated in arable 
 land, whence it passes into the juice of certain plants ; thus 
 it is known that beets and tobacco, growing upon very 
 strongly manured soil, and also those rank plants growing 
 on manure heaps, such as henbane, thorn-apples, &c, are 
 frequently so rich in nitre, that when dried they emit sparks, 
 if burnt on charcoal."* 
 
 The reader will now be able to understand how ammonia 
 is supplied to the atmosphere and soils, and to comprehend 
 some of the uses of manures as fertilizers. 
 
 * StocUiardt. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROXIMATE ELEMENTS : — DEXTRINE — GLUCOSE — DIASTASE — CAKE SUGAR — GUM — VEG- 
 ETABLE MUCUS — PECTINE. 
 
 Starch having been already described, it is only neces- 
 sary, in noticing the non-nitrogenized constituents of plants, 
 to describe the substances into which it can be changed. 
 
 Dextrine. — In its ordinary state, starch is insoluble in 
 cold water, alcohol and ether, and only swells up in hot 
 water. But when carefully heated till vapor rises from it, 
 starch becomes soluble in cold and in hot water, and loses 
 its gelatinous character. When thus altered by heat, it is 
 known in commerce under the names of British gum and 
 dextrine, and is used as a substitute for gum arabic, in the 
 process of calico printing, and for stiffening different kinds 
 of goods. A purer article than that obtained by the process 
 of heating, is prepared by a method discovered by Payen. 
 It consists in moistening 1000 parts of dry starch, (from 
 potatoes generally) with a very dilute nitric acid, consisting 
 of 2 parts of concentrated acid and 300 of water ; the mix- 
 ture is divided into small blocks, which, when dried in the 
 air, are rubbed down, and exposed in a proper drying stove 
 to a current of air heated to about 150° or 160° ; the pow- 
 der is ultimately well dried at a temperature not exceeding 
 230°. When well made, it dissolves in cold, or slightly 
 warmed water, with the same facility as gum. This form of 
 dextrine is called seiocome. 
 
 Dextrine may be prepared on a smaller scale, as follows : 
 Mix thoroughly, in a small dish, half an ounce of starch 
 with one dram of water and four drops of nitric acid; let 
 the mixture dry in the air, and then place it on the hearth 
 of a heated oven, which is just hot enough to hiss feebly 
 when touched with the moistened finger. After some hours, 
 all the nitric acid will be expelled, and the starch will dis- 
 solve almost entirely in cold water, and completely in hot 
 water. Dextrine thus made is white, or has only a slight 
 yellowish tinge. 
 
36 GLUCOSE. 
 
 But dextrine may be prepared by a still more speedy and 
 simple process. Make a paste of starch by boiling potato 
 starch with water, and, while yet hot, add to it, in a saucer, 
 some drops of sulphuric acid, with constant stirring. That 
 this acid effects a change is evident, for the viscid mass soon 
 becomes a thin liquid. Now place the saucer on a jar, in 
 which some water is simmering, which will serve as a steam- 
 bath, and let it remain over the hot steam, the contents of 
 the saucer not being heated quite to the boiling point, until 
 the liquid has become semi-transparent. When this is the 
 case, add prepared chalk, by small portions at a time, to 
 the liquid, until it ceases to effervesce. The sulphuric acid 
 will then have combined with the chalk, forming gypsum. 
 The liquid must now be filtered from the gypsum, and left 
 to evaporate in a warm place, when pure dextrine is the 
 result. 
 
 Glucose, or Starch Sugar. — When dextrine has been 
 properly prepared from starch, if it be dissolved in water, 
 and boiled a sufficient length of time, with the addition of a 
 little sulphuric acid, it is converted into a syrup, which, on 
 being freed from the acid, and further evaporated, forms 
 sugar of a granular structure. This product is called starch 
 sugar, grape sugar, or glucose. It may also be obtained 
 from honey, and the juice of several fruits, and forms the 
 saccharine concretions found in raisins, and the efflores- 
 cence upon dried figs, plums, &c. In good seasons the 
 expressed juice of grapes contains from 30 to 40 per cent, 
 of solid matter, the greater part of which is glucose. 
 
 It will be noticed, in the process for preparing dextrine 
 from starch, by adding sulphuric acid, that the liquid was 
 not made to boil. To prepare sugar from starch, repeat the 
 experiment, with the following deviation: Bring to brisk 
 boiling two ounces and a half of water, to which twenty 
 drops of sulphuric acid have been added, and then add one 
 ounce of starch mixed with a little water, forming a paste, 
 but only in small quantities at once, that the boiling may 
 not be interrupted. When all the starch is stirred in, let the 
 mixture boil for some minutes, then neutralize the acid by 
 chalk, and evaporate the filtered liquid to the consistency of 
 
GLUCOSE. 37 
 
 a thick syrup. It possesses a sweet taste, and oonsists of a 
 solution of sugar in water. The starch syrup thus made, 
 as well as the white, solid starch sugar, easily prepared from 
 it, are now both articles of commerce.* 
 
 Starch, as shown by these experiments, is converted by 
 sulphuric acid, on moderate heating, into gum or dextrine, 
 and on stronger heating, into glucose. In the latter case, 
 also, dextrine is first formed, but this soon passes over into 
 sugar. Accordingly, sulphuric acid exerts two different 
 actions : by the first of which the starch is converted into 
 gum, and by the second into grape sugar, or glucose. 
 
 Glucose is largely manufactured, especially in France, 
 where it is sold as an article of commerce. Its usual source 
 is potato starch, and for its extensive manufacture the follow- 
 ing process is adopted : To 1000 parts of water there is 
 added 10 parts of sulphuric acid, and 500 of starch. The 
 dilute acid is heated by steam to between 212° and 220°; 
 and the starch, previously mixed to about the consistency of 
 thin cream, with water of a temperature between 112° and 
 130°, is then suffered gradually to dribble in under constant 
 stirring ; its conversion into dextrine is immediate ; in about 
 two hours and a half the whole of the starch is added, and 
 in from 15 to 25 minutes afterwards, the process is com- 
 plete ; the steam is then shut off, and the liquor transferred 
 to another vat, so that the first may receive a new charge. 
 In this second vat the acid of the liquor is carefully satura- 
 ted with powdered chalk, thrown in by little at a time to 
 prevent inconvenient effervesence. When the sulphate of 
 lime has subsided, the clear liquid is drawn off and rapidly 
 evaporated. To deprive it of coloring matter, and to improve 
 its flavor, the syrup is passed, while hot, through filters of 
 coarsely powdered animal charcoal, and farther concentrated 
 by evaporation in a steam vat, when it is poured into shal- 
 low coolers and allowed to Concrete. f 
 
 It has not yet been explained how this effect of the action 
 of sulphuric acid upon starch, is produced. Starch, starch 
 dextrine, and starch sugar, are also isomeric bodies, each 
 
 * Stockhardt. t Brandc. 
 
38 DIASTASE. 
 
 having the same constitution ; so that their difference 
 undoubtedly depends upon a different arrangement of the 
 atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen contained in them, 
 and it is undoubtedly the sulphuric acid which effects this 
 change in the position of the atoms. No portion of the sul- 
 phuric acid has been decomposed in the process, neither has 
 any of it combined with the organic substance ; for we find 
 again, in the gypsum formed, exactly the same quantity of 
 sulphuric acid that had been originally employed. Accord- 
 ingly, in this case it exerts an action quite different from the 
 usual action ; it is an action like that of spongy platinum, 
 which can excite a chemical activity in another substance, 
 without itself undergoing any change. This peculiar mode 
 of action of sulphuric acid and of platinum, is often designa- 
 ted by the name of " action of presence," (contact,) or 
 action by catalysis, (power of conversion).* 
 
 Considered as an article of food, as a part of the diet of 
 children and invalids, and as a component of our most nutri- 
 tious vegetables, starch is very important, and several of its 
 varieties are often resorted to medicinally. But, although 
 eminently adapted to form part of our food, it is not fitted 
 for exclusive nutriment, and this is the case with all those 
 proximate principles of vegetables which are deficient in 
 nitrogen : it is an aliment of respiration, rather than of nutri- 
 tion.! 
 
 Diastase. — This element, though belonging to the class 
 of nitrogenized substances, already noticed, is introduced 
 here, because of its peculiar relation to starch. The singular 
 manner in which starch is metamorphosed into other sub- 
 stances, as above noticed, is both curious and interesting. 
 But the most remarkable conversion of starch into dextrine, 
 and ultimately into sugar, is that which is effected by dias- 
 tase. This element is produced in germinating seeds, and 
 in buds during the period of their development ; it is to the 
 presence of this substance that the change of the starchy part 
 of the seed into gum and sugar, during a certain part of its 
 growth, is owing; and it is in consequence of the presence 
 
 * Stockhardt. -f Brande. 
 
DIASTASE. 39 
 
 of diastase in malt that the brewer's sweet worts are pro- 
 duced, and that the addition of an infusion of malt to one of 
 unmalted grain, is capable of converting a large portion of* 
 its starch into fermentable matter. Diastase was first obtained 
 from barley malt by Paybn and Persoz. It may be pro- 
 cured from brewer's malt, but in greater quantity from ger- 
 minated barley, carefully prepared for the purpose, in which 
 the germ has been allowed, to attain about the length of the 
 seed. As its ultimate composition is not known, with cer- 
 tainty, it has not been placed in our Tables, and the process 
 by which it is obtained from the germinating barley and 
 other seeds, need not be described. It is white, soluble in 
 water, and in dilute alcohol, but insoluble in strong alcohol : 
 its aqueous solution is tasteless, and soon becomes sour and 
 decomposed. In this great tendency to decomposition, it 
 resembles the albuminous compounds before noticed. Its 
 effect upon starch is entirely destroyed by boiling. 
 
 Although diastase, as now prepared, cannot be regarded 
 as perfectly pure, like that generated in germinating seeds, 
 yet it nevertheless possesses a remarkable power of convert- 
 ing starch into dextrine and sugar : to such a remarkable 
 degree, indeed, does it possess this power, that 1 part of it 
 is capable of thus modifying 2000 parts of starch. The 
 experiments made by Gubein, to determine the influence of 
 temperature upon the action of diastase, are very interesting. 
 He found that at 68° there was produced fron 100 parts of 
 starch paste, by 12.25 of diastase, 77.64 parts of sugar. 
 At 32° the paste was liquified, and 12 per cent, of sugar 
 produced in it; and even at lower temperatures, namely, 
 between 15° and 20°, starch paste was liquified by diastase, 
 but dextrine only, and no sugar, was the result. This 
 explains the reason why vegetables cannot grow at a low 
 temperature — the starch of the seed cannot be converted into 
 sugar, and the plant is thus left destitute of the aliment of 
 growth. 
 
 If 1 part of starch be previously gelatinized by hot water, 
 and added to 8 or 10 parts of water, containing a minute 
 portion of diastase, and then gradually heated to between 
 160° and 180°, all the texture of the starch will be com- 
 
40 DIASTASE. 
 
 pletely destroyed, its chemical peculiarities will disappear, 
 the liquor contain dextrine and sugar, and the only residuary 
 •matter be a little woody fibre, traces of albumen, and of car- 
 bonate and phosphate of lime, and silica: of these the pro- 
 portions vary with the kinds of starch, from about a hun- 
 dredth to a thousandth part of its weight. 
 
 We have dwelt thus long upon starch, and the changes 
 produced upon it by the action of other elements, because of 
 its great importance in the vegetable and animal economy. 
 On turning to Table XIV, it will be seen that the proportion 
 of starch in the several grains, ranges from 32 to nearly 90 
 per cent, of their weight. By deducting the water from 
 potatoes, which constitutes 75 per cent, of their weight, as 
 stated in the Table, it will be seen that their solid parts are 
 equally as rich in starch as the average of the grains. A 
 notice of the agency which diastase has in promoting the 
 growth of plants, will close our review of starch and its rela- 
 tions to other bodies. 
 
 But first, we must again refer to malt, as supplying a key 
 to the understanding of this point. The remarkable change 
 which malt communicates to starch, is to be ascribed to the 
 diastase contained in the malt. Its power of converting 
 starch into sugar, is of great importance to the brewer and 
 brandy-distiller, as, in the manufacture of beer from barley 
 or wheat, or brandy from rye and potatoes, the starch of 
 these substances must always be converted into sugar, before 
 fermentation and the consequent formation of alcohol can 
 take place. In both cases, it is the diastase of the malt, 
 indispensable in brewing and in the distillation of brandy, 
 which effects this change in the so-called mashing process. 
 The taste of malt is sweet and mucilaginous, and. very dif- 
 ferent from that of the fresh grains of barley, because the 
 conversion of the starch they contain into dextrine and 
 sugar, commences during their germination, the further pro- 
 gress of which is arrested in this case by drying. But if 
 the germinated barley is allowed to continue growing, as it 
 does in the open fields, all the starch gradually vanishes 
 from the grain, and passes, in the form of dextrine and 
 sugar, into the juice of the young plant, as is obvious from 
 
DIASTASE. 41 
 
 the sweet taste of the latter, and from its mucilaginous feel- 
 ing when rubbed between the fingers. 
 
 A similar metamorphosis is also clearly to be perceived 
 in potatoes. The quantity of starch contained in 100 pounds 
 of the same kind of potatoes, (the proportion of water being 
 about 75 per cent.,) has been found to be, in August 10 
 pounds, in September 14, in October 15, in November 16, 
 in December 17, in January 17, in February 16, in March 
 15, in April 13, in May 10. Accordingly, the quantity of 
 starch in potatoes increases during the autumn, remains 
 stationary during the winter, and in the spring, after the 
 germinating principle is excited, it diminishes. It is a well 
 known fact, that on germination potatoes become soft, mucil- 
 aginous, and afterwards sweet ; the dextrine forming from 
 the starch renders them mucilaginous, and the sugar forming 
 from the dextrine renders them sweet. The process of 
 transformation advances still further in the earth, the pota- 
 toes becoming constantly softer and more watery, and when 
 the starch is completely consumed in the growth of the 
 young plant, the process of decay commences in the potato, 
 and its products, carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, may 
 be regarded as food for the somewhat older plant.* 
 
 Now, what is true of barley and potatoes, is true also of 
 the other grains and roots. When they are fully ripe, and 
 subjected to the action of moisture, at a proper temperature, 
 germination commences, and diastase is elaborated in the 
 swelling germ or bud. The starch of the* seed or root is 
 converted by the diastase, into dextrine and sugar, as food 
 for the young plant, and when this office is performed, the 
 diastase itself disappears. 
 
 One remark more, and we have done. Unripe apples 
 and pears contain some starch, but when completely ripe 
 the starch has disappeared, by being transformed into dex- 
 trine and sugar, imparting to them their sweetness of 
 taste. It appears, also, that frost is capable of exerting 
 a similar influence with that of diastase, upon the vegetable 
 substances which are rich in starch and abundant in water, 
 
 *Stockhardt. 
 
42 CANE SXJGAB. 
 
 as frozen potatoes, apples, &c, have a sweet taste after 
 being thawed. 
 
 Cane Sugar. — This variety of sugar differs from glucose, 
 or starch sugar, by the facility with which it crystallizes, and 
 its pure and powerful sweetness ; it is hence distinguished 
 by the generic term crystalline, or cane sugar. It may be 
 extracted from many vegetables, and is, in fact, contained 
 in all those having a sweet taste. But it more particularly 
 abounds in the sugar cane, the sugar maple, beet roots, and 
 the stalks of Indian corn. The process of procuring the sap 
 from cane by grinding and pressing, and from the maple by 
 tapping, and the manufacture of sugar therefrom by rapid 
 evaporation in boiling, need not be described. As to beet 
 sugar, the process for its manufacture is briefly this : The 
 roots, having been softened in water, are sliced, and the 
 juice is expressed and boiled down to about two-thirds its 
 bulk, with the addition of a little lime, when it is strained, 
 again evaporated, and purified in the same way as cane 
 sugar. Between 4 and 5 pounds of purified white sugar, 
 besides a quantity of syrup, are obtained from 100 pounds 
 of the root. The average expense, in France, of producing 
 beet sugar, is between three and four pence the pound. 
 
 The action of acids upon cane sugar is complicated, and 
 varies with their state of concentration and the facility with 
 which they are decomposed, and impart oxygen. When 
 cane sugar is dissolved in very dilute sulphuric acid and 
 boiled, it is gradually altered and converted into that modi- 
 fication of sugar which is obtained by the action of the same 
 acid upon starch, namely, glucose, or granular sugar. The 
 same effect is produced by muriatic, and also by nitric acid, 
 under certain modifications of the process. 
 
 In addition to the change of cane sugar into glucose, by 
 the presence of sulphuric acid, it is also affected by the 
 vegetable acids. If a few drops of citric acid, or tartaric 
 acid, be added to a thick boiling solution of sugar, it imme- 
 diately becomes a thin liquid, which does not crystallize on 
 evaporation. This result explains the reason why the sweet 
 juices of fruits, in which organic acids are always present, 
 do not yield, on being boiled down, a solid sugar, but only 
 
SUGAR OF MILK, ETC. 43 
 
 / 
 
 a thick syrup. Sugar combines, in fixed proportions, with 
 oxyd of lead, lime, and many other bases, which need not 
 be noticed. 
 
 One ounce of cane sugar has the same sweetening capacity 
 as two ounces and a half of starch sugar. The solubility of 
 these two varieties of sugar in water, is likewise very differ- 
 ent — starch sugar dissolving in it much less readily and 
 more slowly than cane sugar. "While one ounce of cold 
 water can dissolve three ounces of cane sugar, it is able to 
 take up only two-thirds of an ounce of starch sugar. 
 
 Sugar of Milk is that particular kind of sugar which 
 occurs in milk, and imparts to it its agreeable sweetish taste. 
 It is obtained in hard, white, crystalline masses, by evapo- 
 rating the sweet whey. Sugar of milk is much less sweet 
 to the taste than grape sugar, and requires six parts of cold 
 water for its solution. It is well known that milk becomes 
 sour by standing for some days; this is owing to its sugar 
 being gradually converted into a peculiar acid, called lactic 
 acid. It is composed of carbon 44.90, hydrogen 6.11, and 
 oxygen 48.99, in 100 parts. 
 
 Gum Arabic. — In many plants certain sorts of gum exist, 
 and sometimes in such abundance that they exude from the 
 bark as a viscid liquid, and harden upon it in transparent 
 globular masses, such as we see on our peach and cherry 
 trees. The name resin, by which these dried vegetable 
 juices are frequently designated, is erroneous, because by 
 resins are meant those vegetable juices which do not dissolve 
 in water, but are soluble in alcohol. The action of gum is 
 different, as it is insoluble in alcohol, but is softened and 
 dissolved by water. The best known of these peculiar sorts 
 of gum is gum Arabic, which exudes spontaneously from 
 several species of acacia in Africa. In a chemical sense, 
 only those sorts of gum are designated by the name of gum 
 which dissolve completely in cold water, and thus form a 
 clear transparent liquid. This is particularly true of gum 
 Arabic. Dextrine, which has been already noticed as a 
 product of the metamorphosis of starch, ranks as a gum, and 
 is an intermediate substance between starch and sugar. Gum 
 is one of the most widely diffused substances in the vegetable 
 
44 VEGETABLE MUCUS— PECTINE. 
 
 kingdom, as it exists in greater or less quantities in the 
 juice of every plant. 
 
 Vegetable Mucus. — There is an exudation from the 
 tragacantha, a shrub that grows in Greece and Turkey, 
 which is called gum tragacanih. It will swell and soften 
 into a stiff, viscid jelly, in cold water, but does not dissolve 
 like dextrine and gum Arabic. It only swells up like 
 starch, and if the mucilage is boiled, the mass becomes more 
 uniform, but a complete solution is not effected. This kind 
 of gum is called vegetable mucus, to distinguish it from the 
 former ; it occurs in many other plants, as, for instance, in 
 the leaves of the mallows, and the coltsfoot, in the roots of 
 the althea and salep, in flax and quince seeds, &c. This 
 mucilage abounds in the cores of the quince, surrounding 
 the seeds as a whitish transparent substance. Such is its 
 abundance in this fruit, that one dram of quince cores is 
 sufficient to convert half a pound of water into a thick mucil- 
 age. The gum of cherry and plum trees, being only par- 
 tially soluble in water, is regarded as a mixture of gum and 
 vegetable mucus. 
 
 Gum Arabic can be converted into glucose, like dextrine, 
 by the presence of sulphuric acid. The process of its con- 
 version into sugar, is the same as for changing dextrine into 
 sugar. 
 
 Pectine. — Currants, gooseberries, cherries, apples, car- 
 rots, &c, contain in their juices a peculiar kind of jelly, 
 which is now known by the name of pectine. When boiled 
 with sugar, it has the property of hardening into a gelatinous 
 mass after cooling. It is prepared by carefully expressing 
 the juice of the fruits named, and evaporating it more or 
 less, at a temperature not exceeding 212°. It may also be 
 obtained by the addition of alcohol to the recently expressed 
 juice of ripe currants or gooseberries ; when, in the course 
 of a few hours, a gelatinous substance separates, which must 
 be washed with weak alcohol and dried. It then resembles 
 isinglass in appearance, and, when soaked in cold water, 
 swells into a soft pulp somewhat like starch. It may also 
 be procured from the rasped roots of carrots and turnips. 
 Deposited from a mixture of one-fourth of the juice of cher- 
 
PECTINE. 45 
 
 ries and three-fourths of the juice of gooseberries, and washed 
 carefully, first with dilute alcohol, and then with cold distilled 
 water, it is pure, with the exception of a little coloring mat- 
 ter. The chemical analysis of pectine will be found in Table 
 X, and its combinations with other elements may be learned 
 from works on Organic Chemistry. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PROXIMATE ELEMENTS : — WOODY FIBRE — HORDED? — ALCOHOL AND BEER. 
 
 Woody Fibre. — The cells and vessels of plants are com- 
 posed of a substance termed woody fibre, lignin, vegetable 
 fibre, Sfc. It forms what may be called the skeleton of 
 plants, being, as it were, the fundamental material of their 
 structure, and of the fabrics in which their various secre- 
 tions and proximate principles are contained. It is to plants 
 what bones, flesh, and skin are to the animal body, and 
 imparts to plants their shape and firmness, forming the ducts 
 and veins through which their sap circulates. It may be 
 compared to the honey-comb, the wax composing the cells 
 representing the woody fibre of the cells of plants, and the 
 honey that fills the cells of the comb representing the sap of 
 the plants. It is found very finely ramified, tender, soft, 
 and easily digestible in the young leaves, flowers, and stems 
 of plants, and in the pulp of fruits, and roots ; hard and 
 indigestible in straw, wood, and the husks of grain; solid 
 like bone in the stones of plums, cherries, peaches, and the 
 shells of nuts ; light, porous, and elastic in the pith of the 
 elder, and in cork; and lengthened and pliant in hemp, 
 flax, and cotton. 
 
 The structure of plants may be thus stated : On the exte- 
 rior lies the outer bark or epidermis. Inside this, lies the 
 inner fibrous bark, consisting of lengthened tubes, which 
 supply the place of veins for the circulation of the sap. From 
 the inner bark of trees, towards the exterior, is deposited 
 every year a new layer of bark, and towards the centre a 
 new layer of wood. The light and whiter wood, lying next 
 the inner bark, is called the sap-wood; but this, by the 
 annually increasing compressure, becomes denser and more 
 solid, and is then called heart-wood. This heart-wood is 
 usually darker colored than the sap-wood, and is generally 
 impregnated with coloring matter. The tannin, so useful 
 in dressing leather, &c, is obtained from both the inner 
 and outer bark of most plants. 
 
WOODY FIBBE. 47 
 
 To obtain pure woody fibre, common wood, usually in the 
 form of saw-clust, is steeped in lukewarm water for a day or 
 two. The liquid is then squeezed out through a cloth, and 
 when subjected to the chemical tests formerly described as 
 employed in the preparation of albumen, &c, it is found to 
 contain vegetable albumen, gum, mucus, tannin, &c. These 
 proximate elements are embraced in the sap which ascends 
 in the cells of the woody fibre, or have been deposited from 
 it within them, and are dissolved out by the water, while the 
 woody fibre itself remains unaffected by that fluid. If the 
 wood, or saw-dust, used in this first experiment, be next 
 subjected to the action of alcohol, ether, lye, dilute muriatic 
 acid, &c, additional substances, such as pitch, &c, will be 
 extracted from it, and there will then remain the pure woody 
 fibre. 
 
 As the* substances removed from the wood during these 
 processes, contain different proportions of organic elements, 
 this fact will serve to explain the cause of the difference in 
 the organic constituents of common wood and woody fibre, 
 as is shown by their chemical analyses in Table II. 
 
 There are a number of forms in which woody fibre pre- 
 sents itself in a state approaching purity, as in linen, cotton, 
 paper, &c, the bleaching processes having removed all 
 soluble and foreign matter. Pure woody fibre is tasteless, 
 white, and insoluble in water, alcohol, ether, and the oils. It 
 is identical in its chemical constitution, with starch, sugar, 
 gum, and mucus; being, like them, composed of carbon, 
 hydrogen, and oxygen, the two last named elements occur- 
 ring in all of them, in the same proportions as in water. 
 This fact being stated, it will, of course, be expected that 
 woody fibre may be subjected to changes, by chemical action, 
 such as starch and gum are made to undergo. Accordingly, 
 it is found that, on boiling paper, linen, or any other form 
 of woody fibre, in dilute sulphuric acid, it is first converted 
 into gum, and finally into sugar.* Of course the longer 
 that linen and cotton goods are worn and washed, the nearer 
 do they approach to pure woody fibre, and the more easily 
 
 * Stockhardt. 
 
48 WOODY FIBRE. 
 
 may the rags upon the children in the streets be converted, 
 by the chemist, into sugars to please them and gratify then- 
 taste for confectionaries. 
 
 There are, however, other changes that can be produced 
 upon woody fibre. When wood is carefully baked, .so as to 
 become of a pale brown color, it yields a brown infusion 
 with water, which, when carefully prepared, tastes and 
 smells like toast and water; and, indeed, woody fibre has 
 been represented as convertible into a palatable and nutri- 
 tious bread. Something of this kind is said to be used by 
 the peasantry of Norway and Sweden, says Brande, and 
 the following directions are given for the purpose by Profes- 
 sor Autenreith of Lubingen : he employed beech and simi- 
 lar woods destitute of turpentine : "In the first place, 
 everything that was soluble in water was removed by fre- 
 quent maceration and boiling. The wood was then reduced 
 to a minute state of division, that is to say, not merely into 
 fine fibres, but actual powder; and after being repeatedly 
 subjected to the heat of an oven, was ground in the usual 
 manner of corn. Wood thus prepared, according to the 
 author, acquires the smell and taste of corn flour. It is, 
 however, never quite white, but always of a yellowish color. 
 It also agrees with corn flour in this respect : that it does 
 not ferment without the addition of leaven, and in this, case 
 sour leaven of corn flour is found to answer best. With 
 this it makes a perfectly uniform and spongy bread; and 
 when it is thoroughly baked, and has much crust, it has a 
 much better taste of bread than what, in time of scarcity, is 
 prepared from the bran and husks of corn. Wood flour 
 also, boiled in water, forms a thick, tough, trembling jelly, 
 like that of wheat starch, and which is very nutritious."* 
 
 In the process above named, for converting woody fibre 
 into dextrine and sugar, it is effected by dilute sulphuric 
 acid and boiling. But Brands gives another process by 
 which concentrated sulphuric acid, without the aid of heat, 
 converts wood in the first instance into gum or dextrine, 
 which may afterwards be changed into glucose. " Thus, if 
 
 * Prout, aa quoted by Brakde. 
 
WOODY FIBBE. 49 
 
 about 100 parts of cotton, or shreds of linen, be gradually 
 moistened with about 140 parts of concentrated sulphuric 
 acid, so as to avoid evolution of heat and charring, they 
 soon admit of being triturated into a mucilaginous magma, 
 (or paste,) which is soluble in water; this solution, satura- 
 ted with chalk and strained, yields a liquor from which alco- 
 hol throws down a gummy precipitate, and if this be washed 
 with alcohol, redissolved in acidulated water, and boiled for 
 several hours, it gradually passes into grape sugar. So that 
 it might be inferred from these results, that woody fibre is con- 
 vertible, by the agency of cold sulphuric acid, into amidine* 
 and dextrine, and afterwards into glucose. The evidence of 
 the formation of starchy matter or amidine, in this case,' is 
 not very distinct ; but if on the first action of the sulphuric 
 acid on the cotton or linen, an aqueous solution of iodine be 
 added, a deep blue tint is often obtained.! According to 
 Schleiden, this apparent formation of starch is best effected 
 by wetting clean cotton wool with water, squeezing it dry, 
 and then spreading it in a flat dish and moistening it with a 
 mixture of three parts of sulphuric acid and one of water; 
 after about half a minute, add an aqueous solution of iodine, 
 and the blue iodide of starch will appear." 
 
 Any farther notices of the changes which woody fibre 
 undergoes, by the action of other chemical elements, will be 
 deferred until the subject of manures is discussed. Its ulti- 
 mate organic analysis is given in Table XI. 
 
 In the foregoing description of woody fibre, we have fol- 
 lowed the common and more recent authorities. By the 
 term woody fibre We include all that portion of vegetables 
 which is insoluble by the chemical agents above named. 
 For a more minute description of the microscopic structure 
 of the membraneous and. fibrous tissues of wood, as combined 
 in the formation of the cells of plants, and the relations they 
 sustain to each other, the reader is referred to Quekett's 
 Histology. 
 
 * Starch, on boiling and being diluted, separates into two parts, a transparent 
 solution and an opalescent deposit ; the first named is called amidine. 
 
 t Iodine is the reagent for testing the presence of starch : it always changes the 
 solutions of starch to a blue color. 
 
50 HOBDJBIN. 
 
 Hordein. — According to Prout, barley contains a pecu- 
 liar substance, insoluble in hot water, which he calls hor- 
 dein, and which, during the process of malting, is dimin- 
 ished in quantity, and converted into sugar or starch. Hith- 
 erto hordein appears to have been confounded with starch. 
 Its organic analysis is not given by Brande, from whom we 
 quote. The proportion which hordein bears to the other 
 proximate constituents of barley, is given in Table XIV. 
 
 This chapter may now be closed, by a few general remarks 
 on the proximate elements which have been described within 
 its limits, and by a notice of the production of alcohol. 
 
 Woody fibre, starch, gum, mucus, and sugar, are among 
 the most widely diffused proximate elements occurring in 
 the vegetable kingdom. They are present in all plants, says 
 Stockhardt. Having neither acid nor basic properties, 
 they are called indifferent vegetable bodies. There is *a 
 very great similarity in their constitution. They all belong 
 to the non-nitrogenized substances, and, as before stated, 
 contain only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen : the two last 
 elements always existing, in the whole of them, in the same 
 proportion as in water, namely, in equal atoms ; they are, 
 therefore, composed of only carbon and water. They form 
 a principal ingredient of all our vegetable food, and, accor- 
 dingly, perform a very important part in the process of ani- 
 mal life. 
 
 On comparing cane sugar and glucose, it will be seen that 
 they do not differ from each other, except that the latter 
 contains a larger quantity of water than the former. Botjs- 
 singauxt represents the composition of glucose in this way, 
 to show its relation to cane sugar : 
 
 Carbon 42.2"} 
 
 Hydrogen 6.2 V 100 of cane sugar. 
 
 Oxygen 51.6 ) 
 
 Water i Hy^S 611 1 - 8 l ko 
 
 w ater j 0xygen u Q j 15.8 
 
 115.8 of glucose. 
 It will be evident, then, that as cane sugar, as well as 
 starch and gum, can be converted into glucose, all these 
 
ALCOBOL AND BEER 51 
 
 substances may be used for the same practical purposes, by 
 their reduction to glucose. Now, as one of the purposes to 
 which they are applied, in common, is to the manufacture of 
 alcohol, it will be proper here to refer to the chemical pro- 
 cess by which this important article is obtained. 
 
 Alcohol and Beer are produced by inducing vinous 
 fermentation in the solutions, in water, of the substances 
 from which they are derived. The term vinous, or alco- 
 holic fermentation, is employed to signify the spontaneous 
 changes which these solutions undergo, when placed under 
 certain circumstances, and which terminate in the production 
 of an intoxicating liquor. The principal substance concerned 
 in vinous fermentation is sugar ; and no vegetable juice can 
 be made to undergo the process, which does not either orig- 
 inally contain it, or some other principle, such as starch or 
 dextrine, capable of being converted into sugar. In the 
 production of heer, the sugar is derived from the malt, and 
 in that of wine, from the juice of the grape. The grape 
 juice has the properties of glucose, and the starch of the 
 barley is converted into glucose, by its diastase, before the 
 vinous fermentation can be induced, or any alcohol genera- 
 ted. The sugar of honey, being identical with glucose, 
 undergoes the vinous fermentation at once, when yeast is 
 added to it, while at the proper temperature. As grape 
 juice contains albuminous substances, along with its sugar, 
 no yeast is needed to produce the vinous fermentation : it 
 occurs spontaneously. 
 
 But if" cane sugar be employed, the fermentation will not 
 take place so soon, since it must pass into glucose before its 
 decomposition into alcohol and carbonic acid can commence. 
 This transition, it will be seen, takes place simply by the 
 cane sugar receiving into combination with it an additional 
 portion of water; and this result, it will be remembered, 
 always takes place when a solution of cane sugar is placed 
 in contact with certain acids. The acid in this case is sup- 
 plied by the yeast employed. But to produce the vinous 
 fermentation in cane sugar, requires a greater quantity of 
 yeast than for glucose, as a portion of the yeast is first de- 
 manded to convert the former into the latter kind of sugar. 
 
52 ALCOHOL AND BEER. 
 
 The change which the sugar experiences during this pro- 
 cess, says Stockhaedt, may he rendered very intelligible 
 by comparing together the formulas of sugar, alcohol, and 
 carhonic acid. It stands thus : 1 atom of glucose consists 
 of 6 atomsof carbon, 6 of oxygen, and 6 of hydrogen. From 
 this is formed: first, 1 atom of alcohol, consisting of 4 atoms 
 of carbon, 2 of oxygen, and 6 of hydrogen ; second, 2 atoms 
 of carbonic acid, consisting of 2 atoms of carbon and 4 of 
 oxygen. 
 
 Now, add the constituents of this alcohol and carbonie 
 acid together, and they yield again the constituents of sugar. 
 Thus sugar is resolved, by fermentation, into alcohol and 
 carbonic acid. Both substances did not previously exist in 
 the sugar, but they are new products of a peculiar decompo- 
 sition of the sugar — peculiar for this reason, that they are 
 exclusively made up of the elements of the sugar, without 
 any thing being either subtracted from it or added to it. 
 The yeast, or ferment, works also in the same peculiar man- 
 ner; it induces a decomposition of the sugar, yet without 
 combining with the sugar, taking anything from it, or giving 
 anything to it ; its mode of operation is analogous to that of 
 sulphuric acid, when the latter converts starch into sugar. 
 The action of the ferment, however, differs from that of sul- 
 phuric acid, justalluded to, since the ferment itself does not 
 remain unchanged, but is also decomposed during the fer- 
 mentation. Accordingly, two sorts of changes are going on 
 by the side of each other, in the fermenting liquid : first, 
 that of the nitrogenized ferment ; second, that of the non-ni- 
 trogenized sugar. The ferment always commences the 
 change, which is continued in the sugar, as if the latter 
 were infected. 
 
 The best ferment is obtained from brewers' malt, and is 
 composed of the gluten of the barley, which is dissolved 
 during the mashing process, but in the course of fermenta- 
 tion is again precipitated as insoluble yeast. The quantity 
 obtained from half an ounce of bruised malt, is sufficient to 
 bring to complete fermentation the wort of a whole pound of 
 malt. Its power of exciting fermentation is destroyed when 
 it is rendered quite dry, or when it is boiled, finely tritura- 
 ted, or saturated with alcohol, &c. 
 
ALCOHOL AND BEER. 53 
 
 When examined through the microscope, this yeast has 
 exactly the form of simple vegetable cells ; and their increase 
 in the fermenting fluid takes place in the same manner as in 
 the most simple plants, new cells or buds developing them- 
 selves on each globule of the old yeast. These globules are 
 hollow, and filled with a nitrogenized liquid, to which is to 
 be ascribed the power of the yeast to excite fermentation. 
 
 When yeast is used, its particles are seen to, become cov- 
 ered with small bubbles of carbonic acid, which cause them 
 to rise to the surface of the liquor, where they discharge it ; 
 and as they again sink, they gradually acquire a fresh coat- 
 ing of bubbles, which they carry up as before ; and in this 
 way that motion of the whole mass of liquor is produced 
 which is so characteristic of active fermentation, and which, , 
 provided a sufficiency of ferment be present, is maintained as 
 long as any sugar remains to be decomposed. The process 
 is also attended by a considerable elevation of temperature, 
 and, when complete, the liquor clears, the yeast falls to the 
 bottom, and the sugar has vanished, and is, as it were, 
 replaced by alcohol. A trace of ammonia also, at the same 
 time makes its appearance. 
 
 We shall not describe the process of distillation, by means 
 of which the alcohol is separated from the watery fluid in 
 which it is included; but, with another reference to the 
 properties of yeast, shall close our remarks on the class of 
 vegetable products noticed in the present chapter. 
 
 It has been shown by several distinguished chemists, says 
 Beandb, that the active part of yeast is composed of minute 
 vesicles, containing globules, and that these germinate in the 
 solution of sugar, and produce a microscopic plant, of the 
 order fungi, named torula cerevisiae. According to these 
 authorities, the plant grows at the expense of the sugar, 
 giving out carbonic acid and leaving alcohol. According to 
 some, there are two species of vegetable seeds contained in 
 yeast, which may be separated by diluting it with water; in 
 a few days globules fall to the bottom of the vessel, forming 
 a gray pulverulent deposit which is extremely active in pro- 
 ducing alcoholic fermentation when added to solutions of 
 sugar ; but at the same time a film forms upon the surface 
 
54 ALCOHOL AND BEER. 
 
 of the liquid, which consists of germs of another genus, the 
 penicillium glaucum, having no power of exciting fermenta- 
 tion. These latter germs make their appearance in all acid 
 albuminous liquids, and become filamentous, while the true 
 producer of alcoholic fermentation always retains its distinct 
 globular form. Quekbtt, however, speaks of the penicil- 
 lium glaucum as being the fully developed plant, of which 
 torula cerevisiae is but the early condition or germinating 
 state, and says that Turpin has demonstrated this to be true. 
 From 2 to 3 parts of pure yeast are required for the 
 decomposition of 100 parts of sugar ; and if there be excess 
 of sugar, it remains unchanged after fermentation ; so, also, 
 if more yeast be present than is required for the decomposi- 
 tion of the sugar in solution, the deposit which ensues, when 
 fermentation ceases, consists partly of broken and partly of 
 entire cells. The broken, or ruptured cells, are no longer 
 susceptible of vegetation or of inducing fermentation, but 
 seem to have lost their vitality ; while the unbroken ones 
 retain those powers in full vigor, and afford evidence of it 
 whenever they are brought into contact with solutions of 
 sugar at a proper temperature. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PROXIMATE ELEMENTS : — FIXED OILS — GLYCERIN — GLYCERYLS — BTEABIN — STEARIC ACID 
 — MARGARIN— MARGARIO ACID — OLEIN— OLEIC ACID — VOLATILE OILS, ETC. 
 
 Fats and Pat Oils. — Under the head of fixed oils, Pe- 
 ebiea includes all fatty substances employed as food, whether 
 obtained from animals or vegetables. The fats of vegetables 
 are mostly liquid, and termed oils, those of the carniverous 
 mammalia and of birds are soft, and called lard, and those 
 of the ruminating mammalia are hard, and named tallow. 
 Animal fats, says Stookhabdt, agree in their properties so 
 exactly with the vegetable fats, that the subject will be ren- 
 dered more intelligible by considering them together under 
 the same head. 
 
 In vegetables, the oil is deposited principally in small 
 cells in the seeds, and in animals it is lodged in the cells of 
 the adipose tissue, which lie beneath the skin, and in the 
 neighborhood of the kidneys, &c. The proportions of fatty 
 matter range from one to nine per cent, in the common 
 grains, and from twenty-two in flax seed, to fifty-four in 
 olives, and sixty in filberts. Leaving out the main deposits 
 of fat in the adipose tissue of animals, the proportions in 
 their other parts range from 3.13 in cows' milk, to 3.89 in 
 ox-liver, 14.3 in ordinary meat, and 28.75 in the yolks of 
 eggs. The organic elements of fats and oils may be seen in 
 the Tables. 
 
 The fixed oils, or fats, employed as food, are compounds 
 of two, three, or more neutral saponifiable principles,* or 
 proximate elements, named stearin, margarin, olein, buty- 
 rine, caprine, caproin, hircine, and phocenine. Bach of 
 these fatty principles is convertible, by a caustic alkali, into 
 a fatty acid, a sweet substance, called glycerin, and water. 
 
 Glycerin is the sweet principle of oils, and is supposed 
 to form the basis of fatty matter, is without color or smell, 
 and of a syrupy consistence. It is soluble in water and 
 
 * Capable of being conyerted into soap. 
 
56 GLYCERIN. 
 
 alcohol, but not in ether, and dissolves baryta, strontia, and 
 oxyd of lead. It is classed among the uncrystallizable sugary 
 principles, not susceptible of vinous fermentation. It may 
 be obtained in abundance in the process of making soap 
 from the fats, by potassa and soda, as it remains in the 
 liquor after the removal of the soap. It constitutes about a 
 tenth or twelfth part of fats. 
 
 Glycerin is spoken of by some chemists as an oxyd of 
 glyceryle, while others denominate it a hydrated oxyd of 
 glyceryle. On this subject Brande makes the following 
 remarks : 
 
 "It is assumed that glycerin is the oxyd of a hydrocar- 
 bon (glyceryle) composed of 6 atoms of carbon and 7 of 
 hydrogen ; but it is contrary to analogy that an oxyd, con- 
 taining 5 atoms of oxygen, should be basic. Stenhottse 
 has inferred that the atomic constitution of glycerin, as it 
 exists in combination with the fatty acids, is 3 atoms of 
 carbon, 2 of hydrogen, and 1 of oxygen; and that when 
 these compounds are decomposed, 2 equivalents of the gly- 
 cerin so constitued, combine with 3 of water to form ordinary 
 hydrated glycerin* Some later experiments, too, of 
 Pelouze, quoted by Lowig, indicate the formula for hydra- 
 ted glycerin, dried at 250° to 260°, as 6 atoms of carbon, 8 
 of hydrogen, and 2 of oxygen. The assumption, however, 
 that glycerin is an oxyd of glyceryle, and that the fats and 
 oils are proximately constituted of glycerin combined with 
 the fatty acids, after the manner of saline combinations, is 
 altogether hypothetical. Beezelius regards the fats as 
 peculiar organic products, which agree in their susceptibility 
 of being resolved by alkalis and other salifiablef bases, into 
 fatty acids and glycerin, partly under catalytic influences, 
 and partly as the results of affinity." 
 
 The edition of Brande from which we quote, is that of 
 1848, and it seems that the true relation of glycerin to the 
 fats was not then fully understood. Stocelhaedt's Princi- 
 ples of Chemistry, published two or three years later, speaks, 
 without any qualifications, of the oxyd of glyceryle, as the 
 base of the fats and oils. 
 
 * See Table IX for the analysis of hydrated glycerin, 
 t Salt-producing. 
 
GLYCERIN. 
 
 57 
 
 Stearin, margarin, olein, &c, says Pbreiea, are proba- 
 bly hydrated salts of glycerin, as their analysis gives the 
 following results : 
 
 Called 
 Stearate of Glycerin • 
 Margarate of Glycerin, 
 Oleate of Glycerin, 
 Butyrate of Glycerin 
 
 1. Stearin, 
 
 2. Margarin, 
 
 3. Olein, 
 
 4. Butyrine, 
 
 5. Caprine, 
 9. Caproine, 
 
 7. Hircine, 
 
 8. Phoeenine, 
 
 Caprate of Glycerin, - 
 Caproate of Glycerin, 
 
 Yields 
 Stearic acid and Glycerin. 
 Margaric acid & Glycerin. 
 Oleic acid and Glycerin. 
 Butyric acid and Glycerin. 
 Capric acid and Glycerin. 
 Caproic acid and Glycerin. 
 Hirsic acid and Glycerin. 
 Phocenic acid & Glycerin. 
 
 Hircate of Glycerin, 
 Phocenate of Glycerin, 
 
 Stearic, margaric and oleic acids are without smell, and 
 as they cannot be distilled with water, are called fixed acids. 
 The other fat acids are odorous, volatile, and acrid. The pe- 
 culiar smell, which most fats have, is due to one or more of 
 these volatile oily acids. 
 
 It is necessary, to a clear understanding of this subject, 
 to state the proportions in which the substances named occur 
 in the more common fatty products. Pereika gives the fol- 
 lowing as the per cents : 
 
 TJie proportions of Solid and Liquid Fats in 
 
 certain Fatty Matters. 
 
 
 'o 
 
 i 
 3 
 
 d 
 o 
 
 n 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 U 
 
 « 
 
 A 
 oa 
 o 
 
 -a 
 
 a 
 = 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 a 
 
 n 
 
 •i 
 
 o 
 u 
 
 g 
 a 
 
 § 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 CO 
 O 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 s 
 
 1 
 
 Stearin, 
 
 Olein, 
 
 Margarin, 
 
 Butyrine, 
 
 Caprine, 
 
 Caproine, 
 
 72 
 28 
 
 76 
 24 
 
 30 
 68 
 
 r- 
 
 38 
 62 
 
 76 
 24 
 
 26 
 
 74 
 
 32 
 68 
 
 28 
 72 
 
 26 
 74 
 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 Hog's lard contains, besides stearin and olein, some 
 margarin, but the proportion is not stated. The marrow 
 of large bones, says Berzelius, is absolutely of the same na- 
 ture as the other fat of the animal, so that the above table 
 will afford a true idea of the general properties of beef and 
 mutton tallow. The difference in the taste, between suet and 
 
58 STEARIN, ETC. 
 
 marrow, depends on the presence of substances in suet not 
 included in the marrow. Mutton suet, for example, besides 
 stearin and olein, contains some margarin, hircine and hircic 
 acid. Hircine is most abundant in the feet of goats, from 
 which it takes its name on account of its goaty odor. ±he 
 oil from the blubber of the common whale consists principal- 
 ly of olein with some phocenine, and usually a little phocemc 
 acid, to which it owes its odor. It also contains stearin. The 
 oil from the spermaceti whale is more pure than the common 
 whale oil, and deposits a substance called spermaceti. When 
 this is triturated with alcohol, a little oily matter is abstract- 
 ed and the residue is termed eetine. Palm oil has a con- 
 siderable portion of stearin in its composition. 
 
 Stearin is the solid part of fatty matters, from which the 
 oily part has been separated. After melting, it concretes 
 into a translucent, brittle, and friable crystalline mass. It 
 is insoluble in cold water and cold alcohol, and yields mar- 
 garin, margaric acid, and acroleine by dry distillation. Its 
 organic elements are given in Table IX. 
 
 Stearic Acid is obtained from stearin, by a series of te- 
 dious chemical processes, during which it is separated from 
 the glycerin of the stearin, and from any margaric acid that 
 may be mingled with it. When thus prepared, it is bril- 
 liantly white and translucent. Stearic acid is insoluble in 
 water, but, like stearin, is soluble in boiling alcohol and 
 ether. Its organic analysis gives it nearly the same consti- 
 tution as stearin, the proportion of carbon and hydrogen be- 
 ing nearly the same, but the oxygen about one per cent. less. 
 When stearic acid is subjected to distillation, it yields mar- 
 garic acid and margarone, carbureted hydrogen, and car- 
 bonic acid gas, and water. It is also converted into margaric 
 acid by sulphuric acid or chromic acid. 
 
 Margarin, it has been stated, is a margarate of glycerin. 
 It is so difficult to obtain it pure, and so uncertain, that no 
 analysis of it has been published in the works consulted by 
 the author. It is solid, like stearin. 
 
 Marqaric Acid can be obtained from olive oil, or any 
 substance yielding it, by a process somewhat similar to that 
 employed for stearic acid. Margaric acid is a white, ino- 
 
OLEIN— OLEIC ACID. 59 
 
 dorous, tasteless, crystalline substance, insoluble in water, 
 but soluble in boiling alcohol and ether. It falls in pearly 
 scales as its alcoholic solution cools. The crystalline margar- 
 ic acid has been repeatedly analyzed : its components are 
 given in Table IX. Like stearic acid, it combines with a 
 number of other chemical elements. 
 
 Olein has already been mentioned as the oleate of glyce- 
 rin, and associated with margarin and stearin, in fats and 
 oils. It is the leading ingredient in the greater number of 
 the oils which remain fluid at common temperatures, and it is 
 supposed that the properties of the greasy and of the drying 
 oils are principally referable to peculiarities in their respect- 
 ive oleins ; but perfectly pure olein, says Brande, has 
 not been obtained. . Olein is the fluid portion of fats and 
 oils, which remains after the stearin and margarine have been 
 separated from it. It is procured in a state approaching to 
 purity, by separating, as far as possible, the margarin and 
 stearin from a fat oil, by cold and pressure, dissolving the 
 liquid portion in ether, evaporating and digesting the residue 
 in cold alcohol, which dissolves the olein, and leaves the 
 greater part of the remaining margarin and stearin undis- 
 solved. The olein is then separated from the alcohol by 
 evaporation on a warm stove. 
 
 Olein is colorless, inodorous, and tasteless. The more 
 perfectly it is freed from stearin and margarin, the more fluid 
 it becomes and the lower the temperature at which it con- 
 geals. It is insoluble in water, but abundantly soluble in 
 alcohol and in ether. Subjected to dry distillation it yields 
 sebacic acid and aeroleine ; when long exposed to air it 
 gradually thickens, absorbing oxygen and evolving car- 
 bonic acid. 
 
 Oleic Acid is obtained from olein, by chemical processes 
 which separate the latter substance from its base, glycerin, 
 and from any other substances that may be present. Oleic 
 acid is colorless, it has a slight odor, a somewhat acrid taste, 
 and is insoluble in water, but easily soluble in alcohol. It 
 is decomposed when subjected to distillation, yielding se- 
 bacic acid, carbonic acid, and a peculiar hydro-carbon, 
 together with a carbonaceous residue. Its combinations with 
 other chemical elements are numerous. 
 
60 PROCESS OF COMBUSTION. 
 
 Fats are not volatile, and when spread on paper, or other 
 porous substances, will not disappear. As they remain soft 
 for a long time, we possess in them the means of rendering 
 leather soft and flexible. They float upon water, and may 
 be used for excluding air from other bodies. They are in- 
 soluble in water, and hence, may be used to prevent other 
 bodies from being penetrated by water. 
 
 The similarity in the combustion of fatty matters and wood, 
 indicates that they have a similar constitution. Indeed, 
 both bodies possess the same constituents, namely, carbon, 
 hydrogen and oxygen, the difference being that the fats 
 contain more hydrogen and less oxygen than wood. They 
 accordingly belong to one and the same category with alco- 
 hol and ether, namely to that of the organic bodies which 
 are rich in water. 
 
 It has been stated that hydrogen is eminently combusti- 
 ble, while carbon burns with more difficulty — the former 
 emitting flame, while the latter only rises to a glow. Thus, 
 we can explain why fuel burns with a flame at the commence- 
 ment of combustion, but finally only glows : it is the hydro- 
 gen which first burns with a flame, and afterwards the carbon 
 with a mere glow, without flame. In this result we have the 
 explanation of the reason why fatty matters, during combus- 
 tion, produce more flame, in proportion to their bulk, than 
 wood. 
 
 As in wood, so also in fats, the hydrogen burns more 
 briskly than the carbon, and this is the reason why the part- 
 ly burnt oil, remaining after the extinction of the flame, is 
 richer in carbon and has a darker color. Linseed oil, on yet 
 farther beating, becomes continually blacker, so that it final- 
 ly acquires a viscid consistency, which when mixed with 
 lamp-black, or ivory black, forms the printer's ink. Fats 
 are combustible, but only at a temperature sufficiently high 
 to effect their chemical decomposition. To secure combus- 
 tion in the ordinary candle, the wick, formed of an easily 
 combustible body, is employed, which on being lighted, melts 
 the tallow and allows it, by capillary attraction, to ascend 
 into contact with the flame and become heated. 
 
 Any further discussion of the properties of the fixed oils, 
 
VOLATILE OILS. 61 
 
 may Tbe deferred, as more properly belonging to the arts and 
 manufactures, than to agriculture. A description of the 
 process by which fats are converted into soaps, by the action 
 of the alkalies, may also be omitted here, and the chapter 
 closed by a notiee of the volatile oils, and some general re- 
 marks. 
 
 Volatile Oils. — The fats and fat oils, or fixed oils, are 
 common to both vegetables and animals. Palm oil, indeed, 
 resembles fat rather than oil, and is used by the natives of 
 the west coast of Africa as a substitute for butter. The 
 volatile oils, however, are of vegetable origin, and from 
 that source they are obtained, whether used as perfumes or 
 for medical purposes. 
 
 Whenever we perceive an odor in a plant, says Stock- 
 haedt, we may presume that a volatile oil is present, which 
 gradually evaporates. But how incredibly diffused and 
 diluted this must be, in many plants, may be inferred from 
 the fact, that scarcely a quarter of an ounce of volatile oil is 
 contained in one hundred, pounds of fresh roses or orange 
 blossoms. We most frequently find the volatile oils in the 
 flowers and seeds, sometimes in the stalks and leaves, but 
 more rarely in the roots. The oils are mostly obtained by 
 distilling the vegetable parts with water, with the exception 
 of the rind of lemons, oranges, &c, which yield their oils to 
 pressure. 
 
 The sources of the volatile oils are numberless, but those 
 in most common use are obtained from the rose, the orange, 
 the lemon, the nutmeg, the almond, cinnamon, cloves, pep- 
 permint, lavendar, bergamot, fennel, balm, mustard, juniper, 
 laurel, wormwood, rue, turpentine, camphor, &c, &c. 
 
 Sometimes several sorts of oils are found in the same 
 plant ; as, for example, in the orange tree, the leaves of 
 which yield one kind, the blossoms another, and the rind of 
 the fruit a third. 
 
 All these oils are volatile at average temperatures, says the 
 author last quoted, except camphor. If they are cooled, 
 there is frequently separated from them a beautifully crystal- 
 lized, solid, white, camphor-like substance, which Berzelius 
 has called stearoptene, in opposition to the liquid portions 
 
62 FERMENT OILS, ETC. 
 
 that remain, which are called eleoptene. Accordingly, the 
 volatile oils, like the fixed fats, consist of two proximate con- 
 stituents, one of which may be regarded as solid and crys- 
 tallized, but the other only as a liquid. Many oils— for 
 instance, the oils of roses and anise-seed — are so rich in 
 stearoptene, that when kept in cool cellars, they congeal 
 into a nearly solid mass. 
 
 The volatile oils are soluble in alcohol, and thus dissolved, 
 many of them are used as cordials. They are also dissolved 
 by ether and acetic acid, and may be mixed with the fat 
 oils, to impart to them an agreeable odor. 
 
 All volatile oils are converted into resin, because they 
 gradually absorb oxygen from the air, which first combines 
 with a portion of the hydrogen of the oil, forming water, and 
 then unites with the oil itself. The volatile oils are first 
 converted by the air into turpentine and then into resins.* 
 Oil of turpentine is composed of 10 atoms of carbon and 16 
 of hydrogen — or in per cents, according to Dumas, 88.4 
 of carbon, and 11.6 of hydrogen, in 100 parts: — Resin, of 
 10 atoms of carbon, 15 of hydrogen, and 1 of oxygen. The 
 oil of turpentine, consequently, has only to relinquish one 
 atom of hydrogen, and receive one atom of oxygen, to be 
 converted into resin. This explains the reason why volatile 
 oils become gradually viscous and scentless on being kept, and 
 more rapidly in large and only partly filled bottles than in 
 small ones. They are very rapidly changed by nitric acid 
 into non-volatile, resinous substances. 
 
 Ferment Oils. — Certain vegetables, namely, tobacco, the 
 centaury-plant, &c, yield volatile oils, while undergoing the 
 process of fermentation, either in water or in masses in the 
 air. These are called ferment oils. 
 
 Empyreumatic oils are produced by dry distillation from 
 both vegetable and animal substances : for example, oil of 
 wood-tar from wood, coal oil from pit coal, animal oil from 
 bones, oil of amber from amber, &e. 
 
 The action of air and oxygen upon the fixed oils has been 
 carefully investigated by Sattssure. He found that the re- 
 
 * Stockhardt. 
 
EMPYBEVMATIC OILS. 63 
 
 cently expressed fixed oils are scarcely affected by the action 
 of the atmosphere ; that after a variable period, however, of 
 several months, but dependent upon temperature and expo- 
 sure to light, they begin rapidly to absorb oxygen, and 
 evolve carbonic acid and hydrogen. Under certain circum- 
 stances these changes may become so rapid as to be attended 
 by inflammation, especially when the surface of the oil is 
 greatly extended, 5s in the case of greasy cotton, tow, and 
 cloths ; and so many cases of spontaneous combustion have 
 arisen from this circumstance, as to render precaution ne- 
 cessary, in shops and in all manufactories and establishments 
 where danger Gan arise from such causes.* The so-called 
 drying oils., linseed, hemp-seed, &c, appear to be the most 
 susceptible of this species of oxydizement. 
 
 It is the opinion of some chemical physiologists, that the 
 oil in seeds contributes to the production of heat during their 
 germination, by undergoing oxydizement, and that they thus 
 promote the more rapid growth of the young plant. 
 
 •Brando. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES:— WAX— REBmS— EXTRACTIVE MATTER— COLORINa MATTER. 
 
 Wax occurs in small quantities in all plants, especially in 
 the shining coats of the leaves, stalks, and fruits ; for instance, 
 in the skins of apples, and particularly in the pollen of flowers. 
 Some plants of Japan and South America, contain so much 
 was that it may he separated by boiling with water and by 
 pressure, and it is then introduced into commerce under the 
 name of vegetable or Japan wax. But the purveyors of our 
 common wax are the bees, who gather it from the flowers, 
 and use it in the building of their cells. Turpentine added 
 to bees' wax, renders it more pliant and tough, and makes 
 it more suitable for candles. Its analysis is given in Table IX. 
 
 Resins. — It has been already stated that the volatile 
 oils, when left exposed to the atmosphere, are acted upon by 
 its oxygen and converted into resins. The principal sources 
 of the common rosin, are from the pines and fir trees which 
 yield turpentine. But the finest quality of turpentine is 
 yielded by the American silvter-fir, and is called Canada 
 Balsam. 
 
 All the turpentines and balsams are to be regarded as so- 
 lutions of resin in volatile oils, into which two constituents 
 they are separated when distilled with water. The same 
 thing happens when they are allowed to stand for some time 
 in an open vessel, in a warm place, except that in this case 
 the oil volatilizes and diffuses itself in the atmosphere, leaving 
 the resin behind as a solid, brittle mass. 
 
 Resinous juices, from which the resins are prepared, ex- 
 ude from the trees spontaneously, or through incisions in 
 their bark. Resins are also prepared by roasting the woods 
 from which they are obtained. They may also be extracted 
 from resinous plants by alcohol. 
 
 Resin, with a slight exception, is not soluble in water, but 
 is soluble in alcohol and the volatile oils. The principal 
 resins are the following : pine resin, copal, mastic, lac, ben- 
 
GUM RESINS, ETC. 65 
 
 zoin, dragon's blood, guaiacum, &e. Amber and bitumen 
 are classed with the resins, though obtained from the 
 earth. 
 
 Resins do not undergo decay, but have the power of pro- 
 tecting other bodies from decomposition. Though but slight- 
 ly soluble in water, some of them contain it in a state of 
 minute division. When this water is separated by heatfrom 
 the resin of pines, they become transparent, and are then 
 called rosin or colophony. 
 
 It is not necessary that we should enumerate the various 
 uses to which the resins are applied. Their occurrence in 
 vegetables, occasionally, can be accounted for, by the reader, 
 when he is reminded that many plants contain volatile 
 oils, which, on evaporation, yield resins. The analyses of 
 rosin and bitumen are given in Table IX. 
 
 Gum Resins. — There is another class of exudations from 
 plants, half-resinous, half-gummy, which is called gum resins. 
 Many plants in hot climates are especially rich in such 
 resins, and from them the supplies of these substances are 
 principally obtained. The principal varieties of gum resins 
 are opium, aloes, myrrh, frankincense, assafoetida, gamboge, 
 galbanum, euphorbium, and ammoniac. 
 
 These gum-resins can be separated readily into their two 
 proximate constituents, as the gum is soluble in water and 
 not in alcohol, and the resin soluble in alcohol but not in 
 water. Most of these substances, besides gum and resin, 
 contain a small quantity of volatile oils, to which they owe 
 their peculiar odor. 
 
 India Rubber and G-utta Percha are obtained from 
 the exudations of a milky juice from certain trees in South 
 America and the East Indies, which, on drying, yields 
 the solid gum as it is furnished by commerce. The analysis 
 of the India Rubber is stated in Table IX. 
 
 Extractive Matter. — It has been found, on closer ex- 
 amination of the vegetable juices, after the known substances, 
 such as sugar, albumen, starch, &c, have been removed, that 
 a brown or black unerystallizable, soluble mass remains be- 
 hind. This remaining extract generally possesses, in a 
 greater degree than those removed, the taste and medicinal 
 5 
 
66 COLOBING MATTEB. 
 
 effect of the plant from which it has been extracted. Worm- 
 wood and rhubarb have a bitter taste, henbane and pepper a 
 pungent taste, the roots of liquorice and couch grass a sweet 
 taste. When introduced into the stomach, wormwood is a 
 stomachic, rhubarb purgative, pepper stimulating, henbane 
 narcotic, &c. This substance is called extractive matter, 
 and is distinguished by the following terms : bitter, aromatic 
 bitter, acrid, sweet, narcotic, &c. The name, says Stock- 
 hardt, was obviously a very convenient one, since it ap- 
 plied to all the innumerable vegetable substances not 
 thoroughly examined, which possessed a dark color and did 
 not crystallize, however different might be their chemical 
 constitution. How great this difference may be we infer 
 from this, says he, that most vegetable substances, when 
 they are boiled for along time, or merely exposed to the air, 
 owing to the ready changeableness of vegetable matter, are 
 converted into brown, uncrystallizable compounds. But in 
 modern times, several of these peculiar substances have been 
 obtained in a crystalline form, consequently as fixed and in- 
 dependent compounds, some of which are named in Table 
 XII, and will be more particularly noticed in considering 
 the vegetable bases or alkaloids. The term extractive mat- 
 ter, then, is very indefinite, as to the properties that may 
 constitute any such mass of matter yielded by plants. Ex- 
 tract of gentian, of columbo root, of quassia, &c, are sub- 
 stances of this kind. 
 
 Coloring Matter. — When any of the extractive matters, 
 above noticed, are themselves colored, or become so by the 
 action of other substances, they are called coloring matter or 
 dyes. The rich, varied, and delicate colors of flowers are so 
 evanescent that they fade or disappear as the flowers wither, 
 or if an attempt be made to obtain them by pressure or oth- 
 erwise. A few plants, only, contain coloring juices of such 
 permanency that they are more slowly decomposed by 
 light, and may be extracted and employed for coloring other 
 substances. These coloring juices are sometimes contained in 
 the roots or the wood of plants, and sometimes in their leaves 
 or fruit. But they are all turned white by chlorine or sul- 
 phurous acid, and may thus be removed, or bleached from 
 any fabrics requiring that process. 
 
COLORING MATTER. 67 
 
 The coloring matter of plants may be extracted in most 
 cases by water, but sometimes it is only obtained by alcohol 
 or other liquids. Some of these dyes may be obtained in a 
 crystalline form, but others are known only in the form of 
 extracts. 
 
 The most universally diffused of these coloring matters is 
 chlorophyle, a name given to the green coloring matter of 
 the stalks and leaves of plants. It is a mixture of wax and 
 of several coloring matters, not well known. It is only me- 
 chanically mixed with the juices of the leaf, and is never 
 present but where the plant is exposed to the light. Under 
 the microscope it can be seen in some thin leaves, circulating 
 in minute green granules among the juices of the cells.* 
 
 The other coloring matters furnished by vegetables need 
 not be noticed. The organic analysis of indigo is given in 
 Table XH. 
 
 It was remarked in a former chapter, that alumina has a 
 great affinity for coloring matters. If logwood, or Brazil 
 wood, be boiled for some time, and the colored decoction 
 mixed with a solution of alum, adding thereto a solution of 
 the carbonate of potassa, as long as any precipitate subsides, 
 the hydrate of alumina is precipitated, and along with it the 
 coloring matter of the decoction. These precipitates are 
 called lakes. 
 
 To gain a clear conception of the principles upon which 
 colors are fixed in fabrics of linen, cotton, silk, wool, &c, 
 prepare a solution of alum, another of salt of tin, a third of 
 green vitriol, a fourth of tartaric acid, and a fifth of carbonate 
 of potassa, and saturate a sheet of white blotting paper with 
 each solution. When dry, cut each sheet into three strips, 
 smear one of the strips from each sheet with the decoction of 
 fustic, another of logwood, and the third set with that of Bra- 
 zil wood, and again dry them. It will be found that one and 
 the same coloring matter produces a different color, or shade 
 of color, upon each of the five sheets. This color will be very 
 slight when the colored decoctions are applied to mere blotting- 
 paper. If these dried strips be immersed in warm water, the 
 
 * Quekett. 
 
68 COLORING MATTES.. 
 
 colors will be for the most part dissolved from the last three 
 tests, but not from the alum, tin and green vitriol. Those salts 
 which, like the last three, have the power of forming insolu- 
 ble combinations with the coloring matters, and fixing them 
 firmly in the fibres of the cloth, are called mordants, and 
 are generally employed by manufacturers to fix their dyes. 
 
 That which effects the coloring in fabrics, is the insoluble 
 lake colors, that is, a combination of the coloring matter with 
 alumina, peroxyd of tin, or sesquioxyd of iron, but which, 
 in order that it may adhere firmly, must first be formed with- 
 in the pores of the vegetable fibre, otherwise the colors may 
 be rubbed off or washed out. 
 
 In calico printing, the mordants are only applied in spots, 
 or else the whole of the cloth is first covered with the mordant, 
 which is again removed in spots, by other chemical agents, 
 that have the power to neutralize the mordant. When a 
 piece of cloth thus treated is immersed in the coloring decoc- 
 tion, the coloring matter will be precipitated only in those 
 places covered with the mordant, and thus, instead of one 
 uninterrupted homogeneous color, an interrupted color is 
 obtained, presenting a pattern.* 
 
 > StockhanJt. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PROXIMATE ELEMENTS : — ORGAHIO BASES — VEGETABLE BASES, OB ALKALOIDS — ORGANIC 
 AOTDS — ACETIO AOLD— LAOTIO AOID — BUTYRIO ACID— BREAD. 
 
 When oxygen and carbon combine chemically, they form 
 carbonic acid. When oxygen and calcium combine chemi- 
 cally, they form lime. The first named product is called 
 an acid, and the second a base. When this carbonio acid 
 and lime come in contact, they unite chemically, and form a 
 compound called carbonate of lime, because it consists of 
 carbonic acid and lime : the latter being the base of the 
 chemical compound. 
 
 This statement will enable the unlearned reader to under- 
 stand what is meant by a base, when the term is used in 
 application to chemistry. All the alkalies are bases, and 
 form compounds with acids. But as these alkalies are of 
 mineral origin, they are called inorganic bases. When 
 strips of spongy paper have been saturated with a decoction 
 of litmus and dipped in an acid solution, their blue color is 
 changed to red: but if this red paper be again dipped in an 
 alkaline solution, the effect of the acid is destroyed and the 
 paper again restored to its blue color. This is the common 
 test for all acid and alkaline elements. 
 
 Organic Bases, or Vegetable Bases. — Among the 
 vegetable products noticed under the head of extractive 
 matter, there are many peculiar substances, which, like the 
 inorganic bases, can combine with acids, forming salts. 
 These substances are called organic bases, as many of them, 
 like the alkalies, exert a basic reaction upon red test paper, 
 changing it to blue. As these organic bases are charred and 
 consumed by heat, while the inorganic bases are not, the 
 former are called alkaloids, to distinguish them from the 
 latter. Alkalies, then, are of mineral origin, and alkaloids 
 of vegetable origin. 
 
 Almost all organic bases, says Stockhardt, dissolve with 
 difficulty, or not at all, in water, but more readily in alco- 
 hol; their solutions have commonly a very bitter taste. As 
 
70 ORGANIC OB VEGETABLE BASES. 
 
 a general rule, they dissolve much more readily in water, 
 when combined with acids as salts, than they do when in 
 their simple condition. 
 
 Most of the organic bases known at present, continues the 
 last named writer, are derived from those plants which are 
 characterized by their poisonous qualities or by their medicinal 
 effects, and we have strong reasons for attributing to these 
 bases the poisonous or medical properties of the plants. 
 Many of them are virulent and dangerous poisons ; but in 
 very small doses they are energetic medicines. One grain 
 frequently possesses the same medicinal power as an ounce, 
 or even several ounces, of the vegetable substances from 
 which they were obtained. 
 
 When the vegetable bases are dissolved, they are, almost 
 without exception, precipitated by tannic acid as nearly or 
 entirely insoluble tannates. For this reason, liquids con- 
 taining tannic acid, such as tincture of gall-nuts, decoction 
 of green-tea, or of oak bark, &c, are employed, not only as 
 re-agents for detecting vegetable bases, but also as efficient 
 antidotes in cases of poisoning by them. 
 
 The vegetable bases occur generally in combination with 
 vegetable acids, and such other elements as are common to 
 plants including acids. These bases can be separated from 
 the vegetable acids, and extracted from the vegetable matter, 
 by adding to the latter some water, and an acid which is 
 stronger than the vegetable acid, and forms with the base 
 an easily soluble salt. For this purpose muriatic acid, or 
 sulphuric acid, is preferred. When one of these acids has 
 combined with an organic base, if a stronger base be added 
 to the solution, such as potash, lime, ammonia, or magnesia, 
 the organic base is precipitated, while the strong acid and 
 strong base form a new compound. It is on this principle 
 that the formation of the different kinds of soaps is effected. 
 The stronger bases, soda and potassa, displace the weaker 
 oxyd of glyceryls, and combine with the fat acids, forming 
 compounds of fat acids with soda or potassa : these products 
 are the hard soaps and soft soaps in common use. 
 
 But we need not pursue these investigations any further. 
 Table XII includes the analyses of a number of these vege- 
 table bases. 
 
ORGANIC ACIDS. 71 
 
 Organic Acids. — The acids which are found ready form- 
 ed in vegetables are called organic acids, and occur in 
 greater abundance than the organic bases. Several of these 
 acids occur uncombined, or as acid salts, and produce the 
 acid taste in unripe fruits and many other vegetable sub- 
 stances. They are also, in many cases, completely neutral- 
 ized by bases, or are insoluble, as in the resins, and in both 
 these cases they are not recognized by the taste. Besides 
 these acids occurring in nature, many, also, have been dis- 
 covered, which may be artificially produced from other non- 
 acid vegetable substances ; thus, oxalic acid and formic acid 
 are prepared from sugar, acetic acid from alcohol, the fat 
 acids from fats, &c* 
 
 The vegetable acids have been denominated organic acids, 
 to distinguish them from the oxygen and hydrogen acids, 
 which are called inorganic acids. This term is applied to 
 the latter class of acids, because they are principally found 
 in the mineral kingdom, or prepared artificially from miner- 
 als and earths. Citric acid, is abundant in the lemon, and 
 is also contained in currants, gooseberries, raspberries, straw- 
 berries, the onion, potato, &c. Malic acid is found in the 
 juices of unripe apples, in the berries of the mountain ash, and 
 in the culinary rhubarb. Oxalic acid is also obtained in the 
 rhubarb, along with the malic acid : one gallon of the juice 
 yielding about 2.3 ounces of the latter and 6 drachms of the 
 former. Tartaric acid is obtained from the grape, tama- 
 rind, &c. 
 
 The organic analyses of several of these acids are given in 
 Table XI. They consist of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. 
 Nearly all vegetable acids consist of these three elements. 
 Oxalic acid is considered as forming an exception, and con- 
 taining carbon and oxygen only, but our table gives it near 
 2| per cent, of hydrogen, on the authority of Gat Ltjssac 
 and Thenarii. Brande says that absolute oxalic acid has 
 not been isolated, and appears incapable of existing except 
 in combination with water or some other base. 
 
 The organic acids cannot be prepared artificially from 
 
 * Stockhardt. 
 
72 ACETIC ACID. 
 
 their elements, like the inorganic acids, though some vegetable 
 acids may be also artificially imitated; but, as a general rule, 
 this is effected by the metamorphosis of other vegetable sub- 
 stances. Like the vegetable bases, all vegetable acids can 
 be charred and consumed by heat. The inorganic acids can- 
 not be so consumed. Vegetable acids, like the mineral 
 acids, unite with bases and form salts, and these salts are 
 again liberated when the acid is decomposed by heat. 
 
 The organic acids and bases are derived from so many 
 sources, and are so varied in their capacity for combining 
 with each other, and with those of inorganic origin, that the 
 method of their production, and their numerous transforma- 
 tions, cannot be enumerated in this work. As examples, 
 however, we may state the process for the production of 
 acetic acid, or common vinegar, and one or two other 
 products. 
 
 Acetic Acid. — Liquids which contain starch and sugar 
 may be converted into vinegar, but not until after these sub- 
 stances have undergone the vinous fermentation and passed 
 into alcohol. The formation of vinegar consists in an oxyda- 
 tion of the alcohol by the oxygen of the air. The formation 
 of alcohol from glucose, it will be remembered, requires that 
 the vinous fermentation shall remove a portion of the con- 
 stituents of the sugar, from its solution, in the form of car- 
 bonic acid, and that when this is accomplished, the residue 
 consists of alcohol and water, which can be separated by 
 distillation. To convert alcohol into vinegar, the former 
 must be made to combine with an additional portion of oxy- 
 gen. To effect this oxydation of the alcohol, it must be 
 diluted with water and some leaven added, and the liquid 
 left exposed to the air at a temperature of between 86° 
 and 104°, when, after some weeks, it will be converted 
 into vinegar. 
 
 As the solution of sugar does not of itself pass over into 
 alcohol, neither does the alcohol of itself pass over into vine- 
 gar. But as the yeast disposes sugar to enter into decom- 
 position and produce alcohol, by parting with a portion 
 of its constituents in the form of carbonic acid ; so does a 
 piece of leavened bread, vinegar, or leaven, added to the 
 
LACTIC ACID. 73 
 
 dilute alcohol, bring it into that state in which it absorbs 
 oxygen and passes into vinegar. 
 
 In the same manner, with pure diluted alcohol, other al- 
 coholic liquids, such as beer, wine, cider, &e. , may, by 
 receiving oxygen, be converted into vinegar. And as they 
 generally contain gluten or lees in solution, which perform 
 the office of yeast, these liquids are all liable to pass spon- 
 taneously from the vinous fermentation into the vinegar 
 fermentation. For this reason, in the hot months of sum- 
 mer, the brewers and brandy distillers find difficulty in 
 keeping their fermenting worts and mash from turning sour. 
 
 This explains the reason why the farmer obtains vinegar 
 from cider, or the peels and refuse of fruit ; and why boiled 
 food, preserved fruits, &c, become acid after a time. These 
 substances all contain some starch or sugar, and also some 
 albuminous Substances. The spontaneous decomposition of 
 the latter, it will be recollected, performs the office of yeast, 
 and induces the vinous fermentation in the former, which, if 
 not arrested, passes into the vinegar fermentation, and pro- 
 duces vinegar, or acetic acid. 
 
 The rapidity with which the transition of aleohol into vin- 
 egar takes place depends upon the extent to which the sur- 
 face of the liquid is exposed to the air. For this reason the 
 liquid is sometimes made to drip slowly through a porous 
 shelf, near the top of a tub, down upon a mass of fine 
 shavings at its bottom, and this minute subdivision of the 
 liquid greatly hastens the production of the vinegar.* 
 
 Lactic Acid. — When a liquid containing sugar, gluten, 
 &c, is allowed to remain for some time at a temperature of 
 64° to 75°, it undergoes the vinous fermentation and alcohol 
 is produced. But if a similar liquid, beet juice, for instance, 
 be left to stand in an open vessel, in a warm place, where it 
 will be heated to between 86° and 104°, it will enter 
 into fermentation, and when the process is finished, notwith- 
 standing all the sugar has disappeared, no alcohol exists in 
 the fermented liquid. The process has converted the sugar 
 into lactic acid, and along with it is found a mucilaginous, 
 
 ' See Stockkardt for particulars. 
 
74 BXJTYRIP ACID— BREAD. 
 
 gummy substance. This species of decomposition is called 
 mucilaginous fermentation. Though the temperature is the 
 same as that required for the vinegar fermentation in alco- 
 holic liquids, yet as the beet juice has been at first raised 
 from 86° to 104°, the alcoholic fermentation cannot take 
 place, as it requires the temperature to be at from 64° to 
 75° only. As the alcoholic fermentation must always pre- 
 cede the vinegar fermentation, it follows, therefore, that 
 vinegar cannot be produced in liquids where their fermenta- 
 tion occurs at a temperature above that which induces the 
 vinous fermentation. In the production of lactic acid* car- 
 bonic acid is also produced, as in the case of the production 
 of alcohol from sugar. Gum, as above stated, is also a 
 product of this kind of fermentation. 
 
 The sugar contained in many vegetables likewise under- 
 goes a change into lactic acid, when they are mixed with 
 salt, and kept for some time in a compressed state. The 
 acid taste in pickled cabbage, beans, &c, is owing princi- 
 pally to lactic acid. This acid is largely produced in the 
 souring of milk. 
 
 Butykic Acid. — Besides the lactic acid above mentioned, 
 as produced in the pickles, another, called butyric acid, is 
 also formed, which imparts to them their peculiar odor. 
 This acid, it seems, may also be produced by the metamor- 
 phosis of vegetable mucus, for it is always generated when 
 vegetable mucilaginous substances, such as quince cores, 
 linseed, &c, are allowed to remain for some time in water. 
 It is a constituent of butter. 
 
 Bbead. — In the manufacture of white bread, brewers' 
 yeast is added to the flour, in mixing the dough. The sugar 
 contained in the meal is thereby resolved into alcohol and 
 carbonic acid, which struggle to escape, whereby the tough 
 mass of dough is disintegrated, and rendered light and po- 
 rous. These substances, together with about half the water 
 employed, volatilize by the rapid heating in the oven, during 
 the process of baking ; and the cellular portions of the baked 
 bread retain their form and place after cooling. 
 
 During the process of making black bread, besides alcohol 
 
BBEAV. 75 
 
 and carbonic acid, a little acetic and lactic acids are formed, 
 and perhaps, also, some butyric acid.* 
 
 We may remark, in closing this chapter, that it will be 
 observed, in noticing the Tables, that some plants yield 
 sugar, and others glucose — that is, one class of plants yield 
 cane sugar, and the others grape sugar. The cause of this 
 difference is easily explained. Fruits contain grape sugar, 
 which increases in quantity as they ripen or become less sour. 
 In the sugar cane, the beet root, and the maple and birch 
 trees, cane sugar exists, but in their juices no acid is asso- 
 ciated with the sugar. On the contrary, ammonia is known 
 to be present in most of them, along with the cane sugar. 
 Hence, it is inferred that, as in our hands and in our experi- 
 ments cane sugar is changed, by the agency of acids, into 
 grape sugar, and with remarkable ease, by that acid which 
 exists in the grape, so it is in the interior of plants. Where 
 sugar occurs in connection with an acid in the juice of a 
 plant, it is grape sugar in whole or in part, because in the 
 presence of an acid body cane sugar cannot permanently 
 exist, but is gradually transformed into the sugar of grapes, 
 or glucose. It thus appears, also, why fruits so readily enter 
 into fermentation, and why, even when preserved with cane 
 sugar, they will, in consequence of the acid they retain, 
 slowly change the latter into grape sugar, and thus induce 
 fermentation, t 
 
 * For interesting details, see Stockhardt. I Johnston. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 THE OBGANOGEHS— KATUKE OP COMBUSTION— DIGESTION— DECAY. HOMUS : US PRO- 
 DUCTION AND RELATIONS TO VEGETABLE LIEE. 
 
 In reviewing the ground over which we have now passed, 
 so far as it relates to the proximate elements of plants, the 
 reader will perceive that the four organogens, carbon, hy- 
 drogen, nitrogen and oxygen, constitute the main pillars of 
 the vegetable world. Next to them, sulphur and phospho- 
 rus appear most widely diffused in the vegetable kingdom, 
 since they form essential constituents of the albuminous com- 
 pounds existing in all plants. These organogens are dissi- 
 pated during the combustion of the bodies into the composition 
 of which they have entered, and, resuming their gaseous 
 form, again return to the atmosphere from which they were 
 derived. The sulphur, during combustion, is partly con- 
 verted into sulphurous acid ',* which also escapes, and partly 
 into sulphuric acid, which unites with one of the bases 
 present (potash, lime, soda, &c.,) and remains behind in the 
 ashes. 
 
 But while the organogens constitute the great bulk of the 
 bodies in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, they cannot, 
 alone, form any single plant or animal. It is essential to 
 the existence of all such bodies, that, along with the organic 
 elements which enter into their constitutions, there should be 
 a portion of inorganic matter to serve as the basis of their 
 superstructures. This inorganic matter, being indestructible 
 by heat, it remains, after the combustion of organized bodies, 
 as a residue, and we call it ashes. That the ashes of plants 
 are composed of elements derived wholly from the earth, 
 while the parts driven off into the air, during combustion, 
 are derived from the atmosphere mainly, has already been 
 
 * This is the lowest form in which sulphur and oxygen combine, being one atom 
 of sulphur and two of oxygen. Sulphuric acid is the common oil of vitriol, and 
 consists of one atom of sulphur and three of oxygen. 
 
COMBUSTION AND DIGESTION. 11 
 
 shown. The term ashes, however, conveys a very indefinite 
 idea of the chemical character of the residue of plants left by 
 combustion. This will be made evident by examining the 
 Tables, where the chemical differences in the ashes of various 
 plants are stated. 
 
 It has been asserted, heretofore, that combustion, diges- 
 tion, and decomposition are all chemical processes nearly 
 identical in their operations and results. The terms putre- 
 faction and decay, mean nearly the same thing as decompo- 
 sition : the processes varying a little, but the effects being 
 one. A tree falls into a pond or marsh, and sinks beneath 
 the surface where the action of the air is partially excluded 
 and it rots : the process is called putrefaction. But if a 
 tree falls to the earth, and rots in the open air, the process 
 is called decay. In chemical language they are both decom- 
 posed, and as fully so as though they were burnt. 
 
 It must not be overlooked that while combustion, diges- 
 tion, and decomposition are identical in their operations and 
 final results, they differ greatly from one another in the time 
 necessary to accomplish the destruction of the body acted 
 upon. By combustion, a few minutes or hours serve to de- 
 compose a plant and restore its organic elements to the air 
 and the inorganic to the earth. In digestion, it takes hours 
 or days to perfect the process. But in decomposition, weeks, 
 months, or years are often required for the separation of the 
 elements of organic bodies. 
 
 In reference to the identity of combustion and digestion, 
 Prof. B. Silliman, Jr., remarks : " the carbon of the hu- 
 man body is as truly burnt in the lungs by the atmospheric 
 oxygen, as is the fuel of our fires ; and the product of the 
 combustion, the carbonic acid thrown out by the lungs at 
 every exhalation, is the same thing which is discharged at 
 the mouth of a furnace. In the case of the animal body, 
 the combustion is so slow that no light is evolved, and only 
 that degree olheat (98° to 100°) which is essential to vital- 
 ity. The term combustion must have, then, a chemical sense 
 vastly more comprehensive than its popular meaning. The 
 rust which slowly corrodes and destroys our strongest fix- 
 tures of iron, and the gradual process of decay which reduces 
 
78 COMBUSTION AND DIGESTION. 
 
 all structures of wood to a black mould (humus), are to the 
 chemist as truly cases of combustion as those more rapid 
 unions with oxygen which are accompanied by the splendid 
 eyolution of light and heat." 
 
 These remarks bring us to the consideration of the decom- 
 position of organic bodies by the action of natural causes, 
 and the restoration of their elements to the sources from 
 whence they were derived. But another explanatory remark 
 is here needed. Combustion and digestion differ in this : 
 combustion at once makes a complete separation of the or- 
 ganic and inorganic elements of bodies, while digestion makes 
 but a partial separation of them. The cause of this differ- 
 ence in the results of the two processes, arises from the fact 
 that the woody fibre contained in the food of animals is com- 
 bustible but not digestible. It accordingly remains unaffect- 
 ed by digestion, and passes off as excrement, along with the 
 inorganic elements of the food. Were it otherwise and the 
 woody fibre digestible, then the dung-heaps of the farmer 
 would contain little else than what he finds in his piles of 
 ashes. As it is, however, the Tables show that barnyard 
 manures contain large per cents of organic elements, while 
 ashes consist only of inorganic elements. Digestion, then, 
 is more limited in its powers than combustion. But it is not 
 the woody fibre only that escapes combustion during the pro- 
 cess of digestion. All the nitrogenized portions of food, 
 where digestion is complete, instead, of undergoing immediate 
 combustion, are transferred to the blood, as will be seen 
 hereafter, and go to sustain for a time the tissues of the body. 
 
 But in the putrefaction, decay, or decomposition of organic 
 bodies, the process is still different, in another respect, from 
 combustion and digestion. The combustion of an organic 
 body totally dissipates all its organic parts. In the diges- 
 tion of such a body, its organic elements, as above stated, 
 are mostly appropriated, by the animal functions, to the 
 formation and support of the animal tissues : the indigestible 
 organic parts and the unappropriated inorganic parts only 
 being rejected and thrown off to mingle with the soil. In 
 decomposition, however, all the organic and inorganic parts 
 of bodies are left to the slow process of decay, during which 
 
HUMUS. 79 
 
 the greater part of their bulk, in many instances, becomes 
 intermingled with the soil, and exerts an influence upon its 
 productive powers. With these explanations, we are now 
 prepared to proceed to the consideration of the decomposition 
 of organized bodies. 
 
 Htjmus. — The organic substances contained in arable soil, 
 says Stockhardt, have always a black or brown color, and 
 are designated by the term humus. They partly consist of 
 decaying leaves and branches, which have fallen off, and of 
 decaying roots of plants remaining behind in the earth, and 
 partly of decomposing vegetable or animal manure put upon 
 the soil. These products of decay are gradually still further 
 decomposed into carbonic acid, ammonia, and water, and for 
 this reason they cause a more vigorous growth of vegetation. 
 They likewise act favorably on vegetation, because, by rea- 
 son of their dark color, the soil is heated more strongly by 
 the rays of the sun, and they tend also to render the soil 
 more loose and mellow. The presence of humus in the farm- 
 er's lands acts favorably in another respect, namely, by pro- 
 moting the decomposition of the rocky parts of the soil, 
 through the agency of the carbonic acid which is set free by 
 the continuous decomposition of the vegetable substances 
 composing the humus. 
 
 But the term humus is as indefinite as that of ashes, and 
 both must be understood as used to designate a mass of 
 chemical elements of unknown properties and proportions, 
 except by chemical analysis. The ash of plants contains only 
 their inorganic elements : humus consists mostly of their 
 organic parts, but includes also the small proportion of inor- 
 ganic elements that the living plant, from which it is derived, 
 originally embraced. This subject, however, may be better 
 understood by a more particular reference to the decomposi- 
 tion of wood, and it may serve as the representative of all 
 plants. 
 
 Wood is subject to several kinds of decay, says Bkande, 
 some of which seem at first sight to relate merely to texture, 
 whilst in others the changes are evidently of a more intricate 
 nature, and terminate in the production of humus. When 
 wood is preserved under cover in a dry atmosphere, or when 
 
80 COMBUSTION AND DECAY. 
 
 it is submerged in deep water, it is very little prone to change, 
 and may remain unaffected for many centuries ; but under 
 the joint action of air and moisture, it undergoes a series of 
 successive changes, affecting both its form and composition. 
 Under these circumstances it becomes friable, or easily crum- 
 bled, often of a pale or deep brown color, and, if moist, it 
 converts the oxygen of the air about it into carbonic acid. 
 The rapidity of these changes, and their concomitant results, 
 depends much upon the nature of the wood in question ; that 
 is, upon the quality and quantity of the foreign matters 
 which may have been associated with it : the nitrogenized 
 tending to promote and the resinous to retard the change. 
 Beech, chestnut, and oak, as often seen in old forests or 
 parks, or in timbers of buildings, furnish good specimens of 
 this species of decay. Such specimens are of various shades 
 of gray, or brown, and sometimes nearly black, and the result- 
 ing product appears to differ in composition with the circum- 
 stances under which it has been produced. But some farther 
 explanations are here demanded. 
 
 It has been stated that combustion and decay are identical 
 in their operations and results : that combustible bodies, in 
 the common sense of the term, are those which burn under 
 ordinary circumstances: that carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, 
 &c, are elementary combustibles, or simple substances capa- 
 ble of being burned : and that tar, oils, wood, &c, are com- 
 pound combustibles. The process of combustion, however, 
 has not yet been fully explained. We find it thus described : 
 
 Combustion is the disengagement of light and heat which 
 accompanies chemical combination. Nearly all our opera- 
 tions being performed in presence of the oxygen of the atmos- 
 phere, the term combustion has come to be restricted, in a 
 popular sense, to the union of bodies with oxygen, when 
 heat and light are accompaniments of such union. Oxygen 
 being possessed of stronger affinities than any other elemen- 
 tary body, forms compounds with those bodies which are 
 burned in it. In all cases of combustion the action is recip- 
 rocal. Hydrogen burns in common air; but if a stream of 
 oxygen is thrown into a jar of hydrogen, through a small 
 aperture at the top, when the latter is burning, the flame is 
 
COMBUSTION AND DECAY. 81 
 
 carried down into the body of the- jar, and the oxygen will 
 continue to burn in the hydrogen, as it issues from the jet. 
 In this case the oxygen may be said to be the combustible, 
 and the hydrogen the supporter. The simple statement in 
 both cases is, that oxygen and hydrogem combine together, 
 and combustion — that is, the disengagement of light and 
 heat — is the consequence. The diamond burns in oxygen 
 gas, but the latter is as much altered by the union as the 
 former, and we cannot, therefore, say whether the oxygen or 
 the carbon is the most burnt.* Heat and light attend this 
 union, and the product of the combustion is carbonic acid. 
 If pure charcoal, which is carbon, be burned, the same result 
 follows : the oxygen of the atmosphere, as in the burning of 
 the diamond, combines with the earbon, and forms carbonic 
 acid. The combustion of oxygen and hydrogen, as above 
 noticed, produces water. The combustion of phosphorus also 
 takes place on contact with oxygen, at a suitable temperature, 
 and the product is phosphoric acid. The same results fol- 
 low in the combustion of the other simple elementary bodies, 
 an oxygen acid, corresponding with the element burned, 
 being always produced. 
 
 But the burning of a compound combustible body produ- 
 ces results somewhat more complex than those of the simple 
 elements above noticed. In the combustion of wood, its 
 hydrogen is burned out sooner than its carbon. The reason 
 of this has been explained : the hydrogen being more inflam- 
 mable than the carbon is more rapidly consumed. Conse- 
 quently, when the combustion of wood has proceeded for 
 some time, where the oxygen of the air has- not free aceess, 
 as ia charcoal pits, the hydrogen unites with the oxygen 
 present, to a much greater extent than the carbon, and much 
 of the latter is left unconsumed, when the former has all dis- 
 appeared. Accordingly, if, at this stage, the charcoal pit 
 be closed and the farther access of oxygen prevented, the 
 combustion ceases, and the carbon of the wood remains in 
 the form of charcoal. 
 
 If, in addition to carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, an organic 
 
 • SQlimaa. 
 
82 COMBUSTION AND DECAY. 
 
 body contains nitrogen also, it escapes uncombined, during 
 the combustion, in the form of gas. 
 
 The process of decay, says Petzholdt, bears a remarkable 
 resemblance to that of combustion. Absorption of oxygen 
 from the atmosphere takes place, and carbonic acid and water 
 are formed in decay, exactly in the same way as in combus- 
 tion, but without the appearance of flame ; and the fact must 
 be particularly noticed, that the hydrogen combines with the 
 oxygen in preference to the carbon in decay as well as in 
 combustion, and this necessarily causes the proportion of 
 carbon in the residue to increase in the decaying substance, 
 notwithstanding that a part of the latter also becomes oxy- 
 dized and forms carbonic acid. 
 
 To render this intelligible, says the author last quoted, let 
 us suppose woody fibre, in a moist state, exposed to the 
 atmosphere for a considerable time. The oxygen of the 
 atmosphere, in the first instance, will combine with part of 
 the hydrogen of the fibre at its surface, forming water, and 
 consequently, a corresponding amount of the oxygen and 
 carbon, combined with this hydrogen in the fibre, will be 
 liberated. Now, chemical experience has proved, that dif- 
 ferent substances combine with each other with greater facil- 
 ity at the moment of their liberation from other combinations 
 (technically called their nascent state) than at any other time. 
 This is precisely the case in decay : the oxygen and carbon 
 are in contact at the instant they are liberated from woody 
 fibre, in consequence of its hydrogen forming water with the 
 oxygen of the atmosphere, and it is therefore in accordance 
 with the general law of chemical combinations, that the car- 
 bon and oxygen thus brought into contact, should unite and 
 form carbonic acid ; and this under circumstances in which 
 carbon alone does not usually combine with oxygen ; as it is 
 well known, that in order to burn a piece of charcoal, namely, 
 to make it enter into combination with the oxygen of the 
 atmosphere, and form carbonic acid, it is necessary to heat 
 it to redness. 
 
 But we will explain this process of decay more minutely. 
 Carbon and oxygen combine, and form carbonic acid, only 
 in definite proportions. These proportions, as stated by 
 
COMBUSTION AND DECAY. 83 
 
 Petzholdt, from whom we quote, are 27.65 parts by 
 weight of carbon, and 72.35 parts by weight of oxygen. 
 Now, vegetable fibre contains so much carbon, that even if 
 all the oxygen present in the fibre combined with its carbon, 
 and formed carbonic acid, it would not consume it all, and 
 therefore, when all this oxygen is expended, a balance of 
 carbon necessarily remains. Let us take the extreme case, 
 that 100 parts of vegetable fibre undergo completely the pro- 
 cess of decay; the result must be that after the 5.2* parts 
 of hydrogen, in the fibre, have combined with atmospheric 
 oxygen forming water, the 42.3 parts of oxygen of the fibre 
 will combine with only 16.1 of the 52.5 parts of carbon 
 present, forming carbonic acid, and thus leave 36.4 parts of 
 carbon uncombined. 
 
 No instance, however, is known, where the process of de- 
 cay has proceeded so far as to leave nothing but pure carbon. 
 On the contrary, it is known that in all processes of decay, 
 a period arrives when the carbon of the vegetable fibre be- 
 gins to combine with the atmospheric oxygen, and after the 
 lapse of a considerable time, it is all formed into carbonic 
 acid, and nothing whatever remains of the vegetable fibre, f 
 It is in this way partly that humus disappears from soils. 
 
 As in the preparation of charcoal by combustion, so in the 
 decay of wood : the longer the decay has operated, up to a 
 certain point, the greater is the per cent of carbon in the 
 residue. The rate at which the oxygen of the air combines 
 with the hydrogen of wood, as compared with that at which 
 the oxygen and carbon of the wood combine, is thus stated 
 by Brande : For every two equivalents of hydrogen oxy- 
 dized by the air, one equivalent only of carbon is separated. 
 Supposing this kind of decay to continue till the whole of the 
 hydrogen had been removed, the final solid residue would 
 be carbon only (as in the case of the preparation of charcoal 
 by suppressed combustion); and this seems to have been the 
 case in the formation of certain kinds of coal, which, like 
 anthracite, are little else than pure carbon. In some in- 
 
 * These proportions correspond most nearly with the wood of Walnut, in 
 Table XIII. t JPetzholdt. 
 
84 HUMUS. 
 
 stances, too, the decay of wood, under the joint action of air 
 and water, leads to a similar result ; for the black mud of 
 shallow ponds surrounded by trees, and in which a large 
 accumulation of dead leaves and wood has been allowed to 
 rot and decompose, is found to contain a considerable pro- 
 portion of charcoal. 
 
 The black mold, or humus, of rich alluvial soils, or of 
 new grounds, is similar in its composition to the black mud 
 of ponds. The black muck of swamps also possesses the 
 same properties, and has been formed in the same manner 
 with the black mud of ponds. All such deposits of humus 
 are invaluable as manure for lands, if scattered over them 
 and plowed under, to prevent the escape of their fertilizing 
 properties. 
 
 When vegetable substances undergo decomposition in 
 ponds, or where there is much moisture and not a free access 
 of oxygen, the process, as before noticed, is called putrefac- 
 tion, to distinguish it from decay, which occurs in the air. 
 The process of putrefaction resembles that of carbonization, 
 as in both there is an insufficient supply of oxygen present : 
 and decay resembles combustion, in which there is a full 
 supply of oxygen. Liebig calls decay a slow combustion. 
 
 The reader will now comprehend the processes by which 
 wood is reduced by the action of oxygen into humus. 
 
 Plants, however, are made up of other matters besides 
 woody fibre, and there is always present in them a portion 
 of proximate principles, which include nitrogen, as well 
 as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The proportion of 
 nitrogen in these proximate elements of plants, as shown by 
 Table X, ranges from 15 to 18 per cent, and in animal 
 substances, from 14 to 18. It is from the decomposition of 
 these substances that ammonia is formed : it being a com- 
 pound of nitrogen and hydrogen. Ammonia is invariably 
 found in the humus of soils, ponds and swamps. As animal 
 substances contain a much greater proportion of nitrogenized 
 elements than plants, it follows, that animal matter adds the 
 greatest proportion of ammonia to soils. 
 
 It will now be apparent that humus is identical with de- 
 caying organic matter, and that, therefore, it must include a 
 
HUMUS. 85 
 
 Variety of distinct elementary substances, both organic and 
 inorganic. The Tables of inorganic analyses will enable 
 the reader, without repeating the statements here, to judge 
 of the proportions and properties of the inorganic elements 
 included in the humus derived from any single plant, or 
 number of species of plants. 
 
 From the organic constituents of humus, several elements 
 have been separated, which are of great importance in soils. 
 Table XIII contains the analysis of humus itself, and of 
 two of its products — ulmic acid and humic acid. Humus 
 has a great preponderance of carbon, while its oxygen is one- 
 half less than in wood. Ulmic acid has its hydrogen and 
 oxygen in the proportion to form water. The terms geine, 
 ulmine, humic acid, ulmic acid, &c, have been applied to 
 the peculiar brown matter which may be extracted from 
 humus. According to the analyses of Mulder, all the 
 ordinary forms of these substances contain ammonia, and 
 therefore yield nitrogen, as an ultimate element. They 
 have consequently been represented, says Brandb, as salts 
 of ammonia, and a variety of formulae have been imagined 
 as the representatives of these compounds ; but they are at 
 such variance with each other, and so manifestly hypotheti- 
 cal, as to deserve no confidence. It will be best for us, 
 then, to leave these doubtful points, and proceed to close 
 our remarks on humus, by a more particular statement of 
 its uses in promoting the growth of plants : merely saying 
 here, that chemical changes are produced in its constituents 
 by several of the alkalies and acids present in soils. 
 r Humus possesses an extraordinary power of attracting 
 moisture from the atmosphere, and of absorbing gaseous sub- 
 stances. It will imbibe water to the extent of three-fourths 
 of its own weight without becoming moist,* and is therefore 
 a fruitful source of the supply of water to plants. The 
 farmer knows that lands which are dark colored, and con- 
 sequently rich in humus, are more fertile than paler colored 
 lands, and that the humus diminishes in his fields in pro- 
 portion to the frequency and abundance of the crops they 
 
 * Petzholdt. 
 
86 HUMUS. 
 
 are made to yield. This operation, if not counteracted, he 
 knows, will ultimately render his lands less productive, and 
 hence he resorts to manuring and setting his fields in clover. 
 By this course he adds humus to his soils, and keeps up 
 their fertility. A single acre of land, cultivated in clover, 
 and then plowed, has several thousand pounds of clover 
 roots added to its soil. The roots, as well as the tops, thus 
 mingled with the earth, soon rot and become humus. 
 
 The constitution of humus in the soils alters every day, 
 says Stookhaedt, since a little of its carbon and hydrogen 
 is every day oxydized and separated. The humus generated 
 by decay, as we find it in arable soil, he says, is now thought 
 to be a mixture of several distinct brown substances, — name- 
 ly, ulmin, humin, ulmic acid, humic acid, geic acid, crenic 
 acid, and apocrenic acid, — which are produced consecu- 
 tively, according to the above series, from vegetable matter. 
 The two latter acids are soluble in water, and are partly the 
 cause of the yellow or brownish color which we perceive in 
 the water of marshes or bogs ; the other three acids are only 
 soluble in water when alkalies are added ; finally, the first 
 two substances, ulmin and humin, can neither be made solu- 
 ble by water nor alkalies. Accordingly, by the general term 
 humus we must understand a mass of brown decaying matter, 
 partly soluble, partly insoluble, partly acid, partly neutral, 
 which, with the uninterrupted presence of air, water, and 
 heat, may be still further decomposed, and thereby carbonic 
 acid and water evolved. Carbonic acid and water are in- 
 dispensable in the nourishment of plants; hence, in a soil 
 rich in humus, the plants will grow more vigorously, because 
 they find there, and can absorb by their rootlets, more of 
 these two nutritive substances than they could in a soil poor 
 in humus. Humus exerts, moreover, a beneficial influence 
 upon vegetation, because it loosens the soil by the develop- 
 ment of carbonic acid; because it possesses the power of 
 attracting water from the air, and of retaining it for a long 
 time ; and because, by means of the acids contained in it, it 
 is _ able to abstract from the air, and also from manure, the 
 third means of nutriment for plants, ammonia. 
 
 The reason why humus and manures, containing ammonia, 
 
HUMUS. 87 
 
 or nitrogenized substances from which ammonia can be form- 
 ed, or substances which can absorb ammonia from the atmos- 
 phere, are so exceedingly valuable, is, because the nitrogen 
 thus supplied, says Professor Norton, is required to form 
 gluten, and bodies of that class, in plants. Plants, he says, 
 can easily obtain an abundance of carbon, oxygen, and hy- 
 drogen, from the air, the soil, and manures. Not so with 
 nitrogen. They cannot get it from the air ; there is little 
 of it in the soils ; and hence, manures which contain much 
 nitrogen produce such a marked effect. Not that it is more 
 necessary than other organic bodies, but more scarce, — at 
 least in a form available for plants. The same reason applies 
 to phosphoric acid. It is not more necessary than the other 
 inorganic ingredients; but still is more valuable, because 
 more uncommon in the soil and manures. 
 
 We shall close this chapter with a remark or two as to the 
 relation which humus bears to vegetable life. It was at one 
 time supposed, says Brande, that plants eould feed upon 
 soluble organic matters; and that the brown extract of a 
 rich soil, or the liquor running from a dung heap, were in 
 that way available as food for the growing vegetable, and 
 that a great part of their carbon was derived from such 
 sources. But we know that plants, instead of detracting 
 from, add to the carbonaceous contents of the soil, partly 
 by excretion from their roots, and partly from the autumnal 
 fall and decay of their leaves and fibres ; and that although 
 the accumulation of decaying matter, which chemists term 
 humus, performs an important part in vegetable nutrition, it 
 is not by its direct absorption and assimilation, but by its 
 influences as a source of carbonic acid, which is partly taken 
 up by the juices of the root, and partly evolved into the 
 atmosphere : so that plants, independent of their leaves, can 
 thus receive carbonic acid. It would also appear, from the 
 experiments of Lukas, quoted by Liebig, that the action of 
 humus may, under certain circumstances, be almost exclu- 
 sively mechanical; that it may, for instance, be replaced by 
 powdered charcoal, a substance in itself inert and insoluble, 
 or, at most, only containing small portions of alkaline sili- 
 cates, but yet administering to the wants of the plant, in 
 
88 UUMVS. 
 
 consequence of its extraordinary power of condensing car- 
 bonic acid, ammonia, and water, within its pores ; for, when 
 these bodies are present in the charcoal, the four organogeny 
 are there, for the support of the plant. In this way, plants 
 not only grow, but thrive, blossom, and bear fruit, when 
 planted in powdered charcoal, provided the influence of the 
 rain and atmosphere be not excluded. On the other hand, 
 a plant may die, though its roots are surrounded by the 
 richest mold, if the access of air, and consequent production 
 of carbonic acid, be cut off. 
 
 As this subject must again be alluded to, incidentally, 
 when we come to consider the mode in which the vegetable 
 kingdom appropriates the elements of its existence, we need 
 not, at present, give it any further attention. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 STRUCTURE OF PLANTS — THEIR APPROPRIATION OF THE ELEMENTS OP THEIR GROWTH 
 — INFLUENCE OF MANURES — PHILOSOPHY OP THE ROTATION OF OROFS — IMPOR- 
 TANCE OF THE ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 
 
 From the consideration of the nature, extent and sources 
 of the supplies of vegetable aliment, we may next proceed to 
 an examination of the mode by which plants appropriate the 
 elements of their growth and perfect their structures. In this 
 investigation references will have to be made, not only to the 
 relations existing between the vegetable and animal king- 
 doms, but to the organic and inorganic elements of which the 
 whole are composed. 
 
 The proportions in which the proximate constituents of 
 plants exist in various articles of food, are stated in Tables 
 XIV and XV. But the results there stated, as well as in 
 the other Tables, must be taken only as close approxima- 
 tions. We have seen tables that give the proportion of fatty 
 matter in Indian corn, as ranging from 5 to 9 per cent, 
 while our Table places it at from 3.71 to 4.68 per cent. 
 Variations exist in other articles, also, to such an extent, as 
 to indicate that grains and roots are affected in their propor- 
 tions of proximate elements by local causes, such as climate, 
 soil, seasons, &c. These analyses, however, afford a suf- 
 ficient index to the general properties of our common vege- 
 tables, and will serve as guides in the selection of articles of 
 food, when a given result is desired in the feeding of stock. 
 
 We have elsewhere said that the chemical action of the 
 organic and inorganic elements upon each other, in the soils, 
 serves the purpose of cooking the food, as it were, upon 
 which plants subsist. The point at present to be considered 
 is, the appropriation of this food, by plants, in the process of 
 growth. This will be best understood by considering first 
 the structure of plants. 
 
 Among the circumstances connected with the structure of 
 plants, says Prof. Johnston, the organization of the leaf is 
 of the greatest importance. The upper side differs essen- 
 
90 STRUCTURE OF PLANTS. 
 
 tially from the under side ; subjected to the magnifying 
 power of the microscope this difference is very striking. 
 The under part of the leaf is found to be studded with little 
 holes, pores, or mouths, which sustain an important relation 
 to the life of plants. They are very numerous, so much so, 
 indeed, that on a square inch of a single leaf twenty thou- 
 sand of these little pores have been seen and counted. The 
 structure and number of these pores differ in different 
 species of plants. By means of these they suck in aerial 
 food from the atmosphere ; and the mode in which they drink 
 it in, and the quantity and circumstances under which they 
 absorb it most favorably — that is, the circumstances of tem- 
 perature and moisture — are related to the form and number 
 of these pores, as they occur in particular kinds of leaves. 
 
 The structures of the stems of plants, and of their roots, 
 are also important points to be considered. Some plants 
 spread their roots over the surface to the distance of many 
 feet, while the roots of others descend to a great depth. 
 Wheat, for example, sends its roots to the depth of three or 
 four feet into the soil, in search of food, and requires deep 
 plowing to secure the best crops. An extended discussion 
 of these points, however, is not intended here, and the reader 
 is referred to the author above named, and to others who 
 have written more particularly upon the subject. 
 
 The leaves of plants, by means of their innumerable pores, 
 suck in the carbonic acid of the atmosphere during the day 
 time, but not during the night. Carbonic acid, as before 
 stated, is composed of oxygen and carbon, which, it will be 
 remembered, constitute two of the organogens or main pillars 
 of the vegetable kingdom. But the leaves, at the same time 
 that they draw in the carbonic acid, discharge very nearly as 
 much oxygen as they take in of oxygen in the form of car- 
 bonic acid ; that is, if the leaf sucks in a given volume of 
 the two gases combined, it discharges the whole of the 
 oxygen and retains the carbon ; the function of the leaf, 
 therefore, is to suck in carbonic acid and throw off oxygen. 
 But it retains the carbon, though not as charcoal ; on the 
 contrary, the plant exhibits green leaves, having no appear- 
 ance of charcoal about them. The carbon undergoes certain 
 
PROCESS OF THEIR GROWTH. 91 
 
 chemical changes, the result of which is, that the oxygen is 
 given off, and the carbon hecomes a new substance. This 
 is one source from which plants derive the food out of which 
 the proximate elements are formed. But in addition to the 
 carbonic acid of the atmosphere, the humus of the soils is 
 constantly affording a supply of this gas for the benefit of 
 vegetation. Besides the action of humus upon the insoluble 
 particles of rocks in the soils, and upon other elements exist- 
 ing therein, it is believed that plants derive some of their 
 carbon from this source. In all ordinary cases, says Prof. 
 Norton, it is supposed that at least two-thirds of the carbon 
 in plants comes from the air, and the remaining third in 
 various forms from the soil. This is shown by the fact, that 
 plants cultivated year after year cause the organic matter of 
 the soil to diminish quite rapidly. 
 
 Plants require hydrogen, the third pillar of the vegetable 
 world, as well as carbon and oxygen, from which to build up 
 their structures. This element is readily obtained by them. 
 Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen : in the form of a 
 liquid the plants draw it up from the earth by their roots, or 
 as a vapor it is absorbed from the atmosphere by their leaves. 
 This may be seen, says Prof. Norton, in the great effect of 
 a trifling shower during dry weather. Even if there is only 
 enough of rain barely to moisten the surface of the parched 
 earth, the leaves, which had been drooping before the shower, 
 are revived, and the whole plant assumes a flourishing 
 appearance. This is the case, even where no water has 
 reached the roots ; the moisture, therefore, must have been 
 absorbed through the leaves. Water, then, furnishes the 
 supply of hydrogen to the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 Oxygen, says the last named author, is also to be obtained 
 by the plant from water. Carbonic acid, too, it will be re- 
 membered, is partly composed of oxygen ; and there is thus 
 no difficulty in plants obtaining this element, and there can 
 be no fear of exhausting it from the atmosphere. 
 
 Nitrogen is also one of the organogens, and the last of 
 the four pillars above named, but the source whence plants 
 derive their supply of this element is not so clear. We 
 know, says Prof. Norton, that four-fifths of the air sur- 
 
92 PROCESS OF THE 
 
 rounding all plants is nitrogen, and yet it is proved that but 
 little of any of this nitrogen is absorbed through their leaves : 
 neither can it be shown to enter in any quantity through 
 their roots. We find, however, he says, that the soil is the 
 place from which it comes, but it is always, in some form, 
 chemically united with other bodies. Ammonia and nitric 
 acid, previously described as containing nitrogen, are the 
 chief sources of its supply to plants : and this fact partly ex- 
 plains their great efficacy when used as manures. They are 
 both present in fertile soils, sometimes the one and some- 
 times the other in large quantity. Both are soluble in 
 water, and therefore can without difficulty enter by the 
 roots. 
 
 It will how be apparent, that plants absorb their nourish- 
 ment partly by the roots and partly by the leaves ; and it 
 follows, that their food must either be liquid or aeriform ; 
 for in these two forms only can it penetrate the fine pores of 
 the root-fibres and the stomata of the leaves. Plants, then, 
 we may conclude, receive their hydrogen and oxygen from 
 water, their carbon from carbonic acid, and their nitrogen 
 principally from ammonia ; but in what manner the assimi- 
 lation of ammonia takes place in the vegetable kingdom, so 
 as to impart its nitrogen to plants, is not yet fully known. 
 
 The fluids which are absorbed by the roots of plants, con- 
 stitute the crude or ascending sap, and are circulated by the 
 vessels heretofore noticed, throughout their stems, branches, 
 and leaves, where they contribute to the formation of new 
 parts, and to the composition of their various secretions. 
 This sap is very dilute, and consists of little else than a wa- 
 tery solution of carbonic acid, ammonia, and traces of other 
 salts, such as have been described as the inorganic constitu- 
 ents that enter into the composition of plants. This dilute 
 sap is concentrated by evaporation, on reaching the leaves, 
 and receives an addition of carbon from the carbonic acid of 
 the atmosphere, which they are constantly absorbing. 
 
 The cause of the circulation of the sap, says Bkande, is 
 involved in great obscurity, enough only being known to 
 render it probable that the chief ascent of the sap, from the 
 roots to the leaves of trees, is through the vessels of the sap- 
 
GROWTH OF PLANTS. 93 
 
 wood or alburnum; and, that haying undergone the changes 
 adverted to, it descends again from the leaves, chiefly by the 
 inner layer of bark or liber, giving rise to the secretion of a 
 glutinous substance called cambium, to the formation of new 
 wood, and to the deposition or separation of gum, resin, and 
 the_ other proximate principles which belong to plants and 
 their fruits and seeds. The proofs of this circulation of the 
 sap are, that if a branch be cut through in the spring, sap 
 will exude more or less from its whole surface, but most 
 copiously from the sap-wood; if it be cut half through, and 
 a semi-cylindrical piece removed, the principal exudation of 
 sap, upon the upper half, will then be in the inner layers of 
 the bark, and the liquid which there oozes will be different 
 from that which runs from the outer layers of the wood, and 
 more concentrated : as if the ascending sap-vessels had been 
 divided in the sap-wood, and the descending in the inner 
 bark. Another fact confirming this view of the mode in 
 which the sap circulates, and adds the materials of the growth 
 of plants, in its descent, is this : If the branch or trunk of 
 a tree have its bark cut through, upon one side, during the 
 growing season, and a small space left bare, the proportion 
 of new woody matter which is produced upon the upper side 
 of the cutting is enormous, as compared with the lower side. 
 It is during this ascent and descent of the sap of plants, 
 that the elaboration of all their proximate constituents takes 
 place. The organic elements being presented to the leaves 
 and roots in a liquid or gaseous form, plants can easily drink 
 in, or absorb, this portion of their aliment. This is not the 
 ease, however, with their inorganic elements : these must be 
 changed by chemical action, as they are mostly found, origi- 
 nally, in the state of solids, insoluble in water. But soluble, 
 salts, as we have seen, are always forming in the earth, from 
 insoluble rocks. The term rock, as here used, includes not 
 only the larger masses, but the smallest particles of unde- 
 composed mineral substances. The salts thus rendered 
 soluble, can be absorbed by the roots of plants as readily as 
 they take up the liquids or gases. These inorganic element*, 
 are thus as fully supplied to plants, in fertile soils, as their 
 organic elements are, from the soils and atmosphere. 
 
94 GROWTH OF PLANTS. 
 
 It should be expressly stated, however, that a plant can 
 grow vigorously, thrive, and attain complete maturity, only 
 when all four of the organogens are presented to it simulta- 
 neously ; and, even then, only when the inorganic elements 
 are also present in a soluble state. For, if the latter elements 
 are wanting in the soil, the seeds sown in it may indeed_ ger- 
 minate, and grow for a while, because they contain within 
 themselves a certain quantity of those inorganic constituents 
 which the plants require for their growth, but the growth 
 will cease when the constituents are exhausted in the devel- 
 opment of the young plants. As the life of man ceases if 
 only a single condition necessary for his continued existence 
 is withdrawn, so also the complete development of a plant is 
 obstructed when a single one of the above mentioned means 
 of nourishment fails.* 
 
 If we give abundant and invigorating food to an animal, 
 it becomes strong and fat ; on scanty and slightly nourishing 
 food, it remains poor and lean. The same thing occurs with 
 plants. When they find an abundance of all the substances 
 which they require for their development, in the soil and in 
 the air, they will grow up more vigorously, and put forth 
 more branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits, than when they 
 do not find these substances, or find only a part of them 
 in sufficient quantity. Consequently, the way of obtaining 
 from our fields and meadows the largest produce, is to pre- 
 sent to the plants cultivated upon them, all the materials 
 requisite for their nourishment; and those in sufficient 
 quantity. 
 
 But, while the atmosphere is a never failing source of 
 supply of the organic elements of plants, soils do not every- 
 where contain all their inorganic elements in sufficient quan- 
 tity or in such state as to be adapted to their wants. Nature 
 provides, indeed, for the formation of soluble substances in 
 the earth, by the gradual action of the weather ; but these 
 are not sufficient to yield a rich harvest, year after year, 
 from the same fields, and it is therefore, sooner or later, in- 
 dispensable to renew these constituents artificially in the 
 soil, in order to maintain its fertility. 
 
 * Stockhardt. 
 
INFLUENCE OF MANURES. 95 
 
 Now, without here entering upon the discussion of the 
 importance and value of manures, we may refor to a few 
 facts connected with that subject. When soils have lost 
 their fertility, for want of carbonic acid to decompose and 
 render their mineral matter soluble, the best way, says Prof. 
 Noeton, is to cultivate green crops for plowing under — such 
 as clover, buckwheat, &c. The advantages of this process 
 are easily seen. Though plants draw much of their organic 
 parts from the soil, yet the greater proportion comes from 
 the air through the leaves ; consequently, when a crop of 
 clover is plowed in, it carries with it, in addition to what it 
 has taken from the soil, much more than half its weight of 
 materials derived from the air, which is, therefore, so much 
 clear gain to the soil. In this way the organic matter of 
 soils may be increased, and even the poorest land gradually 
 brought up to a state of fertility. 
 
 But when a tract of land is deficient in any inorganic 
 element, or of the minerals which afford it, there is but one 
 remedy ; and that is, to add the element needed to the soil, 
 separately or in combination with manures. All vegetable 
 and animal humus contains more or less of albuminous sub- 
 stances, and will supply some sulphuric acid, phosphoric 
 acid, and ammonia, to soils. But if phosphoric acid be 
 demanded in larger quantities, then pulverized bones, bone 
 ashes, animal charcoal, or guano, must be employed; and 
 in this way any other essential element may be added. 
 
 It must be noted, also, that the soluble salts existing in 
 food are removed again from the animal body by the urine 
 of animals, while the insoluble pass off as solid excrement. 
 This fact explains, very satisfactorily, the reason why the 
 excrements of animals fed upon oats are the most appropri- 
 ate manure for oats ; those of animals fed upon peas, clover, 
 or potatoes, the best manure for peas, clover, or potatoes. 
 
 We may also here further remark, in the language of 
 Stockhakdt, that since the different kinds of plants require 
 different inorganic substances, and different quantities of 
 them for their nourishment, — some, for instance, principally 
 salts of potassa, others salts of lime, and others, again, phos- 
 phates or silicates, — so it is advantageous, in the cultivation 
 
96 ROTATION OF CHOPS. 
 
 of plants, to make such a rotation of crops, that a potassa 
 plant shall be followed by a lime plant, and this again by a 
 silica plant, &c. In this way it is possible to obtain from a 
 field, which is exhausted for one kind of plant, a second or 
 a third crop, consisting of a different species of plant, with- 
 out the necessity of manuring it each time. 
 
 Erom these hints the farmer will be enabled to compre- 
 hend the advantages of the rotation of crops, and to see 
 that chemistry alone can give him a knowledge of the con- 
 stituents of his soil, of the constituents of the plants which 
 he wishes to cultivate upon it, and also of the substances 
 which must be added to it in order that the plants may find 
 there all that is necessary for their nourishment. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM: — ITS RELATION TO THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM — DIGESTION — 
 CHYME — CHYLE — ELEMENTS OP RESPIRATION— ELEMENTS OF NUTRITION— CIRCULATION 
 OF THE BLOOD — EXHALATION OF CARBONIC ACID AND WATER— PRODUCTION OF ANIMAL 
 HEAT — ALCOHOL — OXYGEN, ITS OFFICE IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY — STARVATION, ITS 
 EFFECTS — DEATH. 
 
 The relation which the Earth and Atmosphere sustain to 
 the Vegetable Kingdom, has now been noticed as fully as our 
 plan will allow, and we shall proceed to that of the Animal 
 Kingdom. 
 
 It will be evident from what has been said of the phe- 
 nomena of vegetation, that the functions of plants consist in 
 the formation of a variety of complicated products, out of 
 the comparatively simple materials derived from the air and 
 soil ; and that the chief food of plants, independent of certain 
 matters derived exclusively from the . soil, may be said to 
 consist of binary* compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen 
 and nitrogen; namely, carbonic acid, water and ammonia.^ 
 
 The functions of animals tend, on the other hand, to 
 diametrically opposite effects from those of vegetables : the 
 food of all animals, from the worm up to man, being either 
 directly or indirectly of vegetable origin ; and, as far as the 
 graminivorous tribes are concerned, consisting exclusively 
 of the complex products of plants. Thus, while the functions 
 of vegetables, as we have said, are employed in forming 
 woody fibre, starch, sugar, gum, albumen, gluten, casein, 
 fatty matter, &c. , out of carbonic acid, water and ammonia, 
 the animal functions depend upon the progressive resolution 
 or separation of these vegetable products into carbonic acid, 
 water, and ammonia. That is to say, vegetables elaborate, 
 or produce articles of food from the elements existing in 
 nature ; while animals decompose these articles of food and 
 convert them back again into their original elements. In 
 
 * That is, compounds of two elements. t Brande. 
 
 7 
 
98 FUNCTIONS OF ANIMALS. 
 
 these processes, both plant and animal find their only means 
 of subsistence. The plant, therefore, can exist without the 
 animal, hut not the animal without the plant. The animal 
 cannot suck in the atmosphere and convert its binary* com- 
 pounds into the solid parts of its own body ; neither can the 
 plant live upon the ternary and quaternary^ combinations 
 which are required for the support of animal life. 
 
 The chemical processes, says Stockhakdt, which take 
 place in the living animal, are far more mysterious and more 
 complex, than even those which take place in plants. That 
 such actions really do occur in the animal body, who can 
 doubt? We here see that which peculiarly characterizes 
 these processes, the conversion of bodies into new bodies, 
 with entirely new properties, far more distinctly and more 
 forcibly than in plants and minerals. For example, can there 
 be a more striking metamorphosis than that of the constitu- 
 ents of the egg, embracing albumen, yolk, and egg-shell, 
 into the constituents of the young bird, consisting of flesh, 
 blood, bones, feathers, &c. ? or the conversion of milk, which 
 constitutes the sole nourishment of many young animals, into 
 flesh, blood, &c. ? 
 
 That chemical force, alone, cannot effect these changes is 
 certain ; it is merely the instrument, the means, which the 
 Divine Power has employed, in a way yet concealed from 
 us, to form, during the life of vegetables amd animals, all 
 the different parts of the vegetable and animal kingdom. 
 That which principally distinguishes animal life from vegeta- 
 ble life is, that during the former, oxygen is incessantly 
 inhaled, but during the latter it is exhaled ; and also that, 
 with the exception of water and some salts, organic substances 
 only are appropriated to the support of the animal, while a 
 considerable portion of inorganic substances make up the 
 vegetable. 
 
 But we must view this subject in another aspect. A 
 living body, says Pereira, has no power of forming elements, 
 or of converting one elementary substance into another; and 
 
 * 1 ? e ?, Ta 15? 1 .' v *■ % J 11 *' iS) compounds of three elements and at four elements : 
 see Tables/vn, vm, IX, X. 
 
DIGESTION. 99 
 
 it therefore follows, that the elements of which the body is 
 composed, must be the elements of its food. The essential 
 constituents of the human body are thirteen ; and the same, 
 therefore, must be the elements of our food. They consist 
 of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, 
 iron, chlorine, sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and 
 fluorine. Traces of silicon, iodine, manganese, and alumi- 
 num, are also met with in a few animal substances. Silica 
 forms a principal element in the ash of plants, but only a 
 trace of it can be detected in the ash of animal matter. The 
 Tables, however, furnish the necessary information upon this 
 subject. 
 
 The first operation which the food undergoes is that of 
 mastication, and mixture with saliva ; and it is then pro- 
 pelled into the stomach, where digestion, as it is termed, 
 commences. By digestion the elements are brought into a 
 state of solution, and converted into an apparently pulpy 
 mass, termed chyme, the theory of the formation of which 
 has been much simplified by the results of modern research, 
 which have taught us that the proximate principles concerned 
 in the formation of the blood, and which are afterwards to 
 build up the animal fabric, preexist in the food ; and that 
 the chief end of the function of digestion, is either to sub- 
 divide or dissolve them. This solution of the food has been 
 shown by chemical physiologists to depend upon a sort of 
 fermentation, or a metamorphosis analogous to it, under the 
 influence of a nitrogenized principle resembling diastase.* 
 
 This subject has long engaged the attention of the learned, 
 but we shall not enter upon the details of their experiments. 
 All concur in showing, that the solvent powers of the gastric 
 juice depend upon the joint agency of a peculiar animal 
 principle, distinguished by the term pepsin,^ and an acid, 
 which is probably the muriatic acid, though phosphoric, lactic, 
 acetic, and butyric acids appear to be sometimes present. 
 
 By digestion, then, the nitrogenized components of food, 
 heretofore described, such as fibrin, albumen, casein, and 
 gluten, are dissolved by the secretions of the stomach. Starch 
 
 * Brande. t The analysis of Pepsin is embraced in Table X. 
 
100 CHYME-CHYLE. 
 
 is probably converted into dextrine and glucose ; gum and 
 sugar, perhaps, undergo some analogous changes, and may 
 possibly tend to the formation of lactic acid; and fatty 
 matters are merely subdivided. To these we must add the 
 liquids which are taken in with our food, the principal of 
 which is water ; and certain inorganic substances, which are 
 chiefly salts of the alkaline and earthy bases, and oxide of 
 iron. Amongst the former, common salt is preeminently 
 important, as appears from its constant presence in the blood, 
 and in many of the secretions, the eagerness with which it is . 
 sought after, and the maladies that arise out of its deficient 
 supply ; indeed, it is probably the chief source of the muri- 
 atic acid* and of the soda which are found in some of the 
 secretions, f 
 
 Liebig observes, in reference to this subject, that the 
 plants upon which herbiferous animals feed, cannot grow in 
 a soil destitute of alkalies ; but these alkalies are not less 
 necessary for the support of animals than of plants. Soda 
 is found in the blood., and in bile ; and potash exists in the 
 juice of flesh, and in milk ; and phosphate of lime, which is 
 essential to the healthy growth of the grasses, is equally 
 essential for the production of bone.f 
 
 Here, now, are the substances which enter the stomachs 
 of animals as food, are subjected to the process of digestion, 
 and converted into chyme. The chyme passes from the 
 stomach into the small intestines, where it soon changes its 
 appearance, by becoming blended with Mle, and is ultimately 
 separated into two portions, one of which is white as milk, 
 and is termed chyle : the other portion, passing on, is finally 
 ejected as excrement .| Chyle has at first the appearance of 
 a milky liquid, but in its passage through certain glands it 
 acquires a reddish tint, and if removed, is spontaneously 
 coagulable. According to Tiedemann and Gmelin, the 
 serum of chyle is reddish-yellow, and the coagulum, at first 
 pale, gradually acquires a vermillion tint. They ascribe its 
 white opacity to the presence of globules of fat, the relative 
 
 * Common salt is the chloride of sodium, and muriatic acid is called also hydro- 
 chloric acid, as it is a compound of chlorine and hydrogen, 
 t Brando. J For the chemical analysis of animal excrement, see Table XHL 
 
CHYME— CHYLE. 101 
 
 quantity of which depends upon the fat in the food.* "We 
 shall resume this subject again. 
 
 From the descriptions of vegetable products, in the pre- 
 ceding pages, it is evident that the food of animals includes 
 two distinct series of proximate principles : those which are 
 destitute of nitrogen, and those which include that element. 
 The first class are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxy- 
 gen, and are principally concerned in maintaining animal 
 temperature, by a species of slow combustion, already noticed, 
 terminating in the production of carbonic acid and water, 
 which are thrown off by the lungs : these substances, there- 
 fore, have been termed elements of respiration. The second 
 class consist chiefly of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro- 
 gen, together with sulphur and phosphorus, and are employed 
 for the formation of the principal organs of the body : these 
 have been called plastic elements of nutrition. The elements 
 of respiration include starch, gum, sugar, woody fibre, and 
 fat; the elements of nutrition are the proteiniferous or 
 nitrogenized products of vegetables, and their congeners,^ 
 the flesh and blood of animals. The importance of these 
 distinctions will be apparent, as we proceed in this investi- 
 gation ; and it will be well for the reader to turn to the 
 Tables of organic analyses, and note the bodies which contain 
 nitrogen and those which do not : the former are the elements 
 of nutrition, and the latter the elements of respiration. 
 
 We can now easily determine the chemical properties of 
 the chyme and chyle, above noticed, by calling to mind the 
 properties of the proximate principles of the food which has 
 been eaten, and undergone the process of digestion and 
 assimilation. On this subject Stockhaedt says : "All of 
 the chyme which has become soluble is, during its passage 
 through the intestines, absorbed and introduced as nourish- 
 ment, or chyle, into the blood. The changes which the food 
 experiences in the animal body are, therefore, the following : 
 from the food is formed chyme, from this chyle, from this 
 blood, and from the blood all the numerous organs and parts 
 of the animal body are generated, just as all the organs and 
 parts of plants are generated from the vegetable juices." 
 
 * Brande. t That is, substances of the same genus, kind, or nature. 
 
102 RESPIRATION. 
 
 As soon as an animal is released from its dependence upon 
 the parent for sustenance, and begins to receive food into its 
 stomach, this process of digestion and the formation of chyme 
 and chyle begins, and the independent production of blood 
 is commenced. As long as an animal lives, its blood js in a 
 state of constant motion and of constant change ; giving off 
 its elements of nutrition as it courses through the system, 
 ■wherever they are demanded to form, to complete, or to 
 sustain, the various tissues or parts of the body. The writer 
 last quoted, thus describes this process: " Light red blood 
 streams out from the heart, through the arteries, into all 
 parts of the body, from which it returns, darker colored, 
 through the veins, back again to the heart. But before the 
 latter blood recommences its circulation, it is impelled through 
 the lungs, in 'which it comes in immediate contact with the 
 inhaled air, and by means of which it experiences a most 
 remarkable change. When in contact with the air, the dark 
 venous blood is converted again into light red arterial blood, 
 and thereby the air loses a part of its free oxygen, and 
 receives in return carbonic acid and vapor ; the exhaled 
 air is accordingly poor in oxygen, but rich in carbonic acid 
 and vapor." 
 
 Compare the composition of the air, before it goes into the 
 lungs, with its composition when it comes out, and you will 
 find that the air comes out charged with a greater quantity 
 of carbonic acid gas than when it went in. In its passage 
 through the lungs, the volume of this gas is greatly increased. 
 This carbonic acid comes from the blood of the system ; it 
 consists of carbon and oxygen, and is obtained from the food. 
 The animal, in fact, draws in air in its common form, and 
 throws out air of a different composition ; its oxygen is 
 diminished, and its carbon increased.* 
 
 This change of the air in the lungs, is obviously very 
 much like that which it undergoes by the process of combus- 
 tion ; for in this case, too, its free oxygen is converted into 
 carbonic acid and water. Indeed, this similarity is ren- 
 dered still more apparent, when we consider, moreover, that 
 
 * Prof. Johnston. 
 
RESPIRATION. 103 
 
 heat becomes free, also, in the animal body, as long as it 
 lives and breathes, and that the food received into it, like 
 wood in a stove, entirely disappears, with the exception of a 
 small_ portion which passes off in the form of excrements. 
 Its disappearance takes place exactly in the same way as 
 that of wood with which we heat our apartments. This dis- 
 appearance is caused by a change of the food into aeriform 
 combinations; that is, into carbonic acid and vapor, which 
 are partly exhaled by the lungs, and partly evaporated from 
 the skin._ For this purpose, as it seems, the non-nitrogen- 
 ized articles of food are principally employed; namely, 
 starch, sugar, gum, fat, lactic acid, and other organic acids, 
 beer, wine, alcohol, &c* These are the chief elements of 
 respiration. 
 
 We shall not dwell upon the subject of the transfer of the 
 fibrin, albumen, casein, &c, of vegetables, into the muscle, 
 the blood, the hair, the skin and bones of animals, by the 
 process of digestion, &c. It will be understood, from what 
 has been said, that plants are merely a species of manufac- 
 tory, as is well remarked by Prof. Nokton, where food is 
 prepared in such a form, that the animal can build up its 
 own body with the least possible trouble ; and that, in eating 
 meat, we only eat a more concentrated form of nitrogenized 
 substances than can be had in a vastly greater bulk of vege- 
 table diet. As, however, the offices performed in the animal 
 economy by the non-nitrogenized elements above named, 
 especially their supplying the animal heat, are not so easily 
 comprehended, we must notice this point more at large. 
 
 By the union of carbon with oxygen, in whatever part of 
 the system this is effected, heat must be evolved. At least, 
 in all other cases, the formation of carbonic acid is attended 
 with the evolution of heat ;f and we have a right, therefore, 
 to assume that the same takes place within the body. We 
 are, in fact, acquainted with no conceivable reason why it 
 should be otherwise. According to Despketz, one pound 
 of pure charcoal evolves, by its combustion in oxygen gas, 
 sufficient heat to raise the temperature of 78 pounds of water 
 
 * Stockhardt. * Pereira. 
 
104 BESPIRATION. 
 
 from 32° to 212°, which is from the freezing to the boiling 
 point. 
 
 Now, the most abundant of the elements of respiration, 
 in common vegetables, is starch. Carbon constitutes over 
 42 per cent, of starch. When speaking of the functions 
 of the leaves of plants, it was stated that they draw in car- 
 bonic acid, and throw off oxygen ; the carbon only remain- 
 ing, and that in a new state of combination. Starch is one 
 of the products formed from the carbon thus retained by 
 plants. It consists of carbon and water only, its oxygen 
 and hydrogen being in the proportions to form water ;* so 
 that, in forming starch, the carbonic acid absorbed from the 
 air unites with water in the plant, and gives back its oxygen 
 to the atmosphere. The function of the leaf, then, is to 
 change this carbonic acid, and form starch ; and so of gum, 
 sugar, &c. The animal takes this starch into the stomach 
 and decomposes it, and it escapes from the lungs in the state 
 of carbonic acid and water ; thus reducing the starch, as be- 
 fore stated, to its original elements. That water is given off 
 from the lungs, is proved by breathing into a tumbler, when 
 the cool glass is immediately coated with vapor, condensed 
 from the breath. Proper tests show, also, that carbonic acid 
 is exhaled from the lungs in large quantities. 
 
 The lungs, therefore, are continually exhaling carbonic 
 acid and water, and these are thrown off at the expense of 
 the food which the animal eats : that is, the starch which is 
 conveyed into the stomach in the form of food, is, by certain 
 animal processes, converted into carbonic acid and water, 
 and thrown from the lungs. If a piece of starch be kindled, 
 it will burn much like wood, and give out heat and light ; 
 and when it gives out this heat and light, it is converted into 
 carlonic acid, and water, or into the same things exactly as 
 it is by the respiration of the animal. Thus, it is evident 
 that the functions of animal life convert starch into the same 
 substances which are produced when we burn it. The same 
 effects are produced in relation to sugar, gum, fats, &c, as 
 they have the same chemical constitution as starch. 
 
 * See Table XI. 
 
ANIMAL BEAT. 105 
 
 This combustion, digestion, or decomposition of the starch, 
 and other non-nitrogenized elements of food, in the animal 
 body, is, then, the source of animal heat; or, at least, that is 
 the present opinion of those who have investigated the subject. 
 
 In the natural and healthy condition of the system, the 
 food supplies the necessary carbon for the support of animal 
 heat ; but when food is withheld, the fat of the body is con- 
 sumed, its carbon being converted into carbonic acid, and its 
 hydrogen into water. Hence results the emaciation attend- 
 ing long abstinence or starvation. The fat of animals, there- 
 fore, may be compared to the storehouses of fuel which are 
 laid up for winter, when an increased amount of heat is 
 needed, and daily supplies of firewood cannot be obtained. 
 
 Experience has shown, says Pereira, that the heat of the 
 blood in health is the same in all climates and in all condi- 
 tions of atmospheric temperature. Now it follows that a 
 larger quantity of combustible matter is required in cold 
 climates and in cold weather, for keeping up this tempera- 
 ture, than in hot climates and warm weather, since a greater 
 amount of heat must be given off to surrounding media in 
 the former than in the latter. Hence the necessity for a 
 more liberal supply of food in cold weather and cold climates. 
 
 Different animals require very different quantities of oxy- 
 gen, for the purposes of respiration. Man and warm-blooded 
 animals consume the largest quantity ; the amphibious tribes 
 not only require less, but can breathe in an atmosphere which 
 will not support the life of the former ; and many insects 
 take such small quantity, as sometimes to have been suppos- 
 ed capable of living without air, which, however, is not the 
 case. In the production of carbonic acid, all animals unite ; 
 and, consequently, the nature of the deterioration suffered 
 by the air is similar throughout the animal creation. Eishes 
 breathe the air which is dissolved in water ; they therefore 
 soon deprive it of its oxygen, the place of which is supplied 
 by carbonic acid : this is, in many instances, decomposed by 
 aquatic vegetables, which restore oxygen and absorb carbon ; 
 hence the advantage of cultivating growing vegetables in 
 artificial fish-ponds.* 
 
 * Brtmde. 
 
106 ANIMAL SEAT. 
 
 Pereiea says that part °f the heat developed in carnivor- 
 ous animals must arise from the oxydation of hydrogen ; for, 
 in the first place, hydrogen, (as of fat,) disappears from the 
 system, and there is no other mode by which it can have 
 done so, except by union with oxygen, and its consequent 
 conversion into water. In the second ' place, he says that of 
 the atmospheric oxygen taken into the lungs during inspi- 
 ration, the whole is not found, in the inspired air, in union 
 with carbon, nearly every experimenter having detected a 
 loss. 
 
 We have spoken of starch, chiefly, in considering the mode 
 in which the elements of respiration tend to keep up the 
 animal heat, during their combustion in the animal system. 
 The other elements — gum, sugar, fat, &c. — are consumed in 
 the same way, as already stated, and also add their propor- 
 tion to keep up the animal heat wherever they are present. 
 There is one element of respiration, however, that should 
 not be overlooked in this connection, on account of its moral 
 bearing upon the mind, as well as its physical influence upon 
 the constitution of man. We refer to alcohol. 
 
 It will be seen, by turning to Table XI, that alcohol is 
 highly combustible, its carbon and hydrogen constituting 
 nearly 65J per cent, of its components. Now, to under- 
 stand fully the influence exerted by alcohol, in the animal 
 system, we must again refer to the offices performed by the 
 two classes of elements existing in our food : the nitrogen- 
 ized and the non-nitrogenized. The nitrogenized substances 
 alone supply to the blood the elements for building up and 
 sustaining the different parts of the animal system, and are, 
 therefore, called elements of nutrition. No parts of food, 
 destitute of nitrogen, can add anything to the production of 
 animal muscle, cartilage, &c. The non-nitrogenized sub- 
 stances in food, serve only as elements of respiration, and 
 for the generation of animal heat. It is believed that the 
 animal functions can transform sugar, starch, and gum, into 
 fat, — which is, itself, one of the elements of respiration, — 
 but never into muscle, cartilage, skin, &c, as they are des- 
 titute of nitrogen, sulpur, and phosphorus — elements which 
 are essential to the production of these bodies. 
 
ALCOHOL. 107 
 
 To illustrate fully the point we have in view, it must be 
 here noted, that the elements of nutrition and of respiration 
 are so nicely balanced in their proportions, in all our common 
 articles of food, that, for the diet of a healthy man, there is 
 no necessity for adding an extra quantity either to the one 
 class or the other. The supply of nutrition and of animal 
 heat is so admirably equalized, in the consumption of com- 
 mon food, that any derangement of the proportions which it 
 affords is attended with a corresponding derangement of the 
 vital functions. If, then, to the proper quantity of food 
 taken into the stomach we add a portion of alcohol, the re- 
 spiration must necessarily be increased, and the animal heat 
 augmented in a proportionate degree. Alcohol, as we have 
 said, is highly combustible, and is an element of respiration, 
 and not of nutrition. What, therefore, must be its effects 
 upon the system "? As the chyle enters into the circulation, 
 and forms a part of the volume of the blood, to supply the 
 wants of the human frame ; so alcohol is also supposed to be 
 conducted throughout. the system, along with the blood, and 
 to exert an influence upon the whole constitution. No part 
 of the alcohol goes to form the tissues of the body, or to 
 renovate and sustain them, as it is destitute of nitrogen, and, 
 therefore, not an element of nutrition. It is obvious, then, 
 that it can only serve as an element of respiration, to be 
 burned in the body of the man, and to add to the amount of 
 his animal heat. And what is the effect of this increase of 
 animal heat upon his constitution ? An insufficient supply 
 of food, it is known, tends to produce paleness of the cheek, 
 because both the animal heat and the nutrition are less than 
 is demanded to keep up the healthful condition of the sys- 
 tem. On the other hand, where age has not indurated the 
 skin, an abundance of food keeps up the vital powers ; and 
 the face, possessing the ruddy color of health, bears testi- 
 mony to a well-stored stomach. But when alcohol is added, 
 in such a case, in excess, the nice balance between nutrition 
 and respiration is destroyed, the healthful action of the ani- 
 mal functions is impaired, the ruddy glow of health disap- 
 pears from the cheek, the deep red of the furnace heated by 
 flame overcasts the countenance, and the secret habits of the 
 
108 OXYGEN. 
 
 inebriate stand revealed ; demonstrating that a fire has been 
 kindled in his breast that soon will consume the vital ener- 
 gies of the man. 
 
 In cases where the digestive organs are impaired by sick- 
 ness, and sufficient food cannot be taken into the stomach to 
 keep up the animal heat, alcohol is a very convenient and 
 efficient agent to supply the deficiency, and secure a proper 
 temperature of the body. " But," says Pekbira, "though 
 alcohol evolves heat in burning, it is an obnoxious fuel. Its 
 volatility, and the facility with which it permeates membranes 
 and tissues, enable it to be rapidly absorbed ; and when it 
 gets into the blood, it exerts a most injurious operation on 
 the brain and the liver, before it is burnt in the lungs. 
 Though by its combustion heat is evolved, yet, under ordi- 
 nary circumstances, there are other better, safer, and less 
 injurious combustibles to be burned in the vital lamp." 
 
 While alcohol is exclusively an element of respiration, and 
 all its modifications of brandy, rum, gin, and whisky, pos- 
 sess only this property ; beer and wine, not being the product 
 of distillation, retain a portion of the elements of nutrition, 
 belonging to the substances of which they are manufactured, 
 and have been considered as less pernicious, on this account, 
 than alcoholic drinks. In reference to their nutritive prop- 
 erties, however, says Baron Liebig, " we can prove, with 
 mathematical certainty, that as much flour or meal as can 
 lie on the point of a table knife is more nutritious than five 
 measures (about 8 or 10 quarts) of the best Bavarian beer ; 
 and that a person who is able daily to consume that amount 
 of beer, obtains from it in a whole year, in the most favora- 
 ble case, exactly the amount of nutritive constituents which 
 is contained in a 5 pound loaf of bread, or 3 pounds of 
 flesh." But we need not pursue this subject. 
 
 It must now be apparent that the primary conditions of 
 the maintenance of animal life are a constant supply of ar- 
 ticles of food and of oxygen in the shape of atmospheric air ; 
 and that during every moment of life, oxygen is absorbed 
 from the atmosphere into the organs of respiration, so that the 
 act of breathing, and the consequent generation of animal 
 heat, cannot cease while life itself continues. The amount 
 
OXYGEN. 109 
 
 of oxygen thus taken into the system in one year by a man, 
 is estimated at from 746* to 837f pounds, and yet his 
 weight remains about the same at the year's end. This is 
 an interesting fact, and the question will naturally arise, 
 what has become of this oxygen ? This seeming mystery is 
 easily explained. No part of this oxygen remains in the 
 animal body, but is given out again, combined with carbon 
 mid hydrogen. The carbon and hydrogen of certain parts of 
 the body combine with the oxygen introduced through the 
 lungs and skin, and pass off in the forms of carbonic acid 
 and vapor of water. At every expiration and every moment 
 of life, a certain amount of its elements is separated from 
 the animal organism, having entered into combination with 
 the oxygen of the atmosphere. \ It is in this way, then, 
 that the oxygen taken into the system, after serving as the 
 supporter of combustion and generator of animal heat, again 
 passes out of animal bodies. 
 
 A clearer view of the subject may be had by referring 
 also to the amount of carbon taken into the system, and 
 upon which the oxygen acts in the production of carbonic acid 
 and of animal heat. The daily food of an adult man, taking 
 moderate exercise, contains 13.9 ounces + of carbon, equal- 
 ing 317 pounds in a year. To convert this carbon into 
 carbonic acid gas, and allow it to pass off through the skin 
 and lungs, requires 37 ounces of oxygen daily, J or 844 
 pounds in a year. There being also a constant supply of 
 hydrogen in food, though in much less proportion than car- 
 bon, § it likewise must have oxygen with which to combine 
 and escape from the system as water. The hydrogen of the 
 food, therefore, plays a not less important part than the 
 carbon in the animal economy. 
 
 But to obtain the clearest views possible of the whole 
 process of respiration, and the influence which the oxygen 
 absorbed exerts upon the living animal body, we must con- 
 sider the state of a man, or animal, totally deprived of food. 
 
 It has already been noticed that the starving man loses 
 his fat, by its combustion, to keep up the animal heat. In 
 
 * Lavoisier. fMenzies. JLiebig. {See Tables. 
 
110 STARVATION. 
 
 the process of starvation, however, it is not only the fat 
 which disappears, but also, by degrees, all such of the solids 
 as are capable of being dissolved. For, in the absence of 
 the elements of respiration, which are also supplied by the 
 food, the oxygen after consuming the fat in the system, 
 combines with other solid parts of the body and consumes 
 them also. 
 
 Let us, then, note the extent of the chemical action ne- 
 cessary to reduce the human body, or that of any other ani- 
 mal, to its original elements by the deprivation of food. The 
 whole amount of the elements of nutrition which are trans- 
 formed into blood, and thence into the composition of 
 the fleshy parts of the body, is derived from the food that 
 is eaten. Cut off the supply of food, and no additional 
 blood can be formed. The whole weight of blood in a 
 healthy man is estimated at 24 pounds, of which 80 per 
 cent, is water. From the known composition of the blood, 
 it would only require 64.102* grains of oxygen, to convert 
 the carbon and hydrogen of these 24 pounds into carbonic 
 acid and water and remove them from the system. An 
 adult man absorbs into his system 32j ounces, t or 15.661 
 grains of oxygen daily ; it would, therefore, require only 
 four days and five hours, for the decomposition of the 24 
 pounds of blood, and for the speedy death of the man, unless 
 new blood were produced by the supply of food, or some 
 element of respiration taken into the stomach, to relieve the 
 solid parts of the body from the action of the oxygen. By 
 this means life might be somewhat prolonged. 
 
 In reference to death by starvation, Liebig says, that 
 " in the wasted bodies of those who have suffered starvation, 
 the muscles are shrunk and unnaturally soft, and have lost 
 their contractility ; all those parts of the body which were 
 capable of entering into the state of motion have served to 
 protect the remainder of the frame from the destructive in- 
 fluence of the atmosphere. Toward the end the particles of 
 the brain begin to undergo the process of oxydation, and de- 
 lirium, mania and death close the scene ; that is to say, all 
 
 * Liehig :— French weight. f Lavoisier :— French weight. 
 
DEATH. Ill 
 
 resistance to the oxydizing power of the atmospheric oxygen 
 ceases, and the chemical process of eremacausis, or decay, 
 commences, in which every part of the body, the hones 
 excepted, enters into combination "with oxygen. 
 
 " The time which is required to cause death by starvation," 
 continues Liebig, "depends on the amount of fat in the body, 
 on the degree of exercise, as in labor or exertion of any kind, 
 on the temperature of the air, and, finally, on the presence 
 or absence of water. Through the skin and lungs there 
 escapes a certain quantity of water, and as the presence of 
 water is essential to the continuance of the vital motions, its 
 dissipation hastens death. Cases have occurred, in which a 
 full supply of water being accessible to the sufferer, death 
 has not occurred till after the lapse of twenty days. In one 
 case, life was sustained in this way for the period of sixty 
 days. 
 
 "In all chronic diseases death is produced by the same 
 cause, namely, the chemical .action of the atmosphere. When 
 those substances are wanting, whose function in the organism 
 is to support the process of respiration ; when the diseased 
 organs are incapable of performing their proper function of 
 producing these substances ; when they have lost the power 
 of transforming the food into that shape in which it may, by 
 entering into combination with the oxygen of the air, protect 
 the system from its influence ; then the substance of the 
 organs themselves, the fat of the body, the substance of the 
 muscles, the nerves, and the brain, are unavoidably con- 
 sumed. The true cause of death in these cases is the 
 respiratory process, that is, the action of the osygen of the 
 atmosphere." 
 
 Here, now, we may close this investigation. With the 
 facts before him, the reader will be able, it is hoped, to 
 comprehend the general principles of Animal Chemistry, and 
 to understand that care is needed, in the selection of food, 
 to secure a healthful action of the animal functions, and to 
 prevent premature decay and death. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Our task is now nearly finished. It has formed no part 
 of our design to attempt the production of a book that shall 
 supersede the many valuable agricultural works heretofore 
 given to the public, or to supply a substitute for the several 
 instructive periodicals now devoted to the interests of agri- 
 culture, but only to present a more concise view of the great 
 principles of the science than has yet appeared, and to show 
 its relation to animal life. We shall, therefore, leave to the 
 Editor the task of teaching the farmer how to prepare and 
 apply manures to his soils, and how he shall best succeed in 
 resorting to rotations in his crops. 
 
 This much, however, we must say : that the analysis of his 
 soils is the first step necessary to be taken by every farmer 
 who contemplates an improvement in his method of agricul- 
 ture. Before he can know what is most needed to impart 
 the greatest possible fertility to his lands, he must ascertain 
 the elements which they already contain, so that he may add 
 those only that are deficient in quantity.* 
 
 Table XVI. presents a sufficient number of analyses to 
 show that both soils and subsoils greatly vary in the propor- 
 tions of their elements; and that the absence of a single 
 element — phosphoric acid, for instance — may have a most 
 injurious effect upon vegetation, and, consequently, upon 
 animal life. The importance of this or any other element 
 necessary to the maturing of crops will be understood, in its 
 relations to animal life, when it is stated that the body of an 
 adult man is estimated to contain from 9 to 12 pounds of 
 bones, which, on being burnt, yield from 6 to 8 pounds of 
 bone ashes : and that these ashes contain from 5 to 7 pounds 
 of phosphate of lime, and therefore include from 2$ to 3 
 
 * Careful analyses of soils can be made, for Ohio, by Dr. Locke, of Cincinnati, 
 Prof. Mather, of Columbus, and Prof. St. John, of Cleveland. Much care and 
 chemical skill are demanded to make a correct analysis of soils, so as to detect all 
 the elements present. 
 
CONCLUSION. 113 
 
 pounds of phosphoric acid. The phosphate of lime, com- 
 posing the bones of all animals, is wholly derived from their 
 food ; and hence the vast importance of this element to the 
 agriculturist. The guano, now so extensively supplied by 
 commerce, abounds in phosphates, and is, therefore, invalu- 
 able as a fertilizer of soils. The analyses of guano and other 
 substances is given in Table XVII. 
 
 But enough has now been said to show the relation of ihe 
 animal kingdom to the vegetable kingdom, and of both to 
 the earth and atmosphere. We need not, therefore, detain 
 the reader to sum up, at length, these diversified relations. 
 If he will himself undertake the task, and contrast the func- 
 tions of animals with those of vegetables, he cannot but be 
 struck by the admirable adjustments which regulate them, 
 and by which they are rendered mutually subservient and 
 dependent. He will see that the food of the vegetable king- 
 dom is principally administered to it in the form of water, 
 carbonic acid, and ammonia : that these substances are de- 
 composed in the plant, and that their ultimate elements, — 
 carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, — together with the 
 inorganic elements derived from the soil, are elaborated by 
 the vegetable organism into the proximate principles which 
 serve as the food of animals ; that is to say, into all the 
 modifications of the elements of nutrition and of respira- 
 tion. In the animal system, on the other hand, he will 
 observe that these proximate principles are successively re- 
 solved into more simple forms ; and, ultimately, during the 
 life and at the death of animals, into the very carbonic acid, 
 water, ammonia, and inorganic products, upon which the 
 plants feed. 
 
 Thus will he perceive, that in the endless series of com- 
 pounds produced from the simple elements existing in nature, 
 by chemical action, under the control of the laws of life, 
 there is no blank or interruption ; the first substance capable 
 of affording nutriment to animals, being the last product of 
 the creative energy of vegetables. And if he will take a 
 wider view, so as to embrace the common rocks, precious 
 stones, and metals, useful in architecture, arts, and manu- 
 factures, he will find that nothing has been made in vain, or 
 
114 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 for nought ; but that every element existing in nature be- 
 longs to the treasures which the beneficent Creator has laid 
 up in store for the use of man ; and that they are ceaselessly 
 moving in one vast cycle, being combined, decomposed, and 
 recombined, over and over again, in mineral, vegetable, and 
 animal organisms, for the use of the successive generations 
 of men. 
 
 The respective attributes of the vegetable and animal 
 kingdoms have been well contrasted by Dumas and Cahours, 
 and we cannot do better than close our remarks by append- 
 ing their very lucid contrast. 
 
 VEGETABLES 
 
 Produce proteiniferous substances, 
 " fatty matters, 
 " sugar, starch, gum. 
 Decompose carbonic acid, 
 " water, 
 " ammonia. 
 Evolve oxygen. 
 Absorb heat and electricity. 
 Constitute an apparatus of reduc 
 
 tion. 
 Are stationary. 
 
 ANIMALS 
 
 Consume proteiniferous substances, 
 
 fatty matters, 
 
 sugar, starch, gum. 
 Produce carbonic acid, 
 
 water, 
 
 ammonia. 
 Absorb oxygen. 
 Evolve heat and electricity. 
 Constitute an apparatus ofoxydize- 
 
 ment. 
 Are locomotive. 
 
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NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Owing to the engagements of the author, taking him from home while the work 
 was passing through the press, a part of the proofs could not reach him before the 
 sheets were printed. The reader will please to make the following corrections, 
 which include all of importance that have escaped the proofreader. Small letters 
 instead of capitals, have been used, by mistake of the compositor, in the Generic 
 names of vegetables. 
 
 Page 35, 11th line from bottom, for ' seicome,' read ' leicome.' 
 
 Page 58, 4th line from top, for 'feet,' read ' fat.' 
 
 Page 60, 10th line from bottom, for ' beating,' read £ heating,' 
 
 Page 113, line 18 from bottom, for ( organism,' read ' organisms.' 
 
 Table II, in figures of Grain of Oats, opposite Oxyd of Iron, read ' 0.40,' instead 
 of '0.70.' 
 
 Table V, under Outside TFood of Chestnut, opposite Phos. of Peroxyd of Iron, 
 read ' 1.30,' instead of ' 0.30,' and under Wood of Peach tree, opposite Sulphuiic 
 Acid, read ' 1.51,' instead of ' 0.51.' 
 
 Table VII, under Rye, opposite Hydrogen, read '5.38' and '5.58,' instead of '5.58' 
 and '5.38,' and same line, under Peas, read '6.09,' instead of '6.69.' 
 
 Table IX, in figures of Nut oil, in footing, read '99.46,' instead of '95.46.' 
 
 Table X, in foot note, fig. 3 omitted before 'cow's milk.' 
 
 Table XIV, in figures of beans, opposite Loss, read '1.0,' instead of '1.9,' and in 
 2d line of Notes, for 'Starch, sugar,' read 'Starch -sugar.'