ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL A880CIATION. 53 



In protiene we have — 



36 (CO,) + 25HO + 4N = CJELJUfin + 870. 



I would, therefore, conclude from these views, that a vast amount 

 of cooling influence is produced hy the fixation of carbon and the de- 

 composition of water which the vitality of the plant is capable of effect- 

 ing : how much that may be, might in some degree be estimated by the 

 amount of heat given off by the combustion of the dried plant ; and if 

 we take Mr. M' Clean's estimates of the quantity of coal capable of 

 being formed annually by forest growth as our data, we may come to 

 some degree of approximation as to this amount. He states that a three- 

 foot seam of coal would require 1000 years to produce it by the growth 

 of a forest on its site. Now, an acre of such seam would give 5000 

 tons; and this, reduced, would result in 14 millions of units of heat 

 absorbed per hour, by an acre of a growing tropical forest, and this calcu- 

 lation does not include the amount of heat absorbed by the decomposition 

 of water. 



In all this we see a compensating influence in vegetable life, similar, 

 but opposite, to that which occurs in the animal creation ; and, as in 

 the case of the production and decomposition of carbonic acid by ani- 

 mal and vegetable life, so likewise I would infer, that the heat pro- 

 duced by animal existence is more than equalized by the heat absorbed 

 by the vegetable kingdom. And here I would express my conviction, 

 that a hitherto little noticed influence tempers, to a great extent, many 

 tropical climes, which, without the luxuriance of growth there found, 

 would be as arid as an African desert. 

 The Meeting then adjourned. 



FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1860. 



Pbofessob W. H. Habvet, M. D., M. R. I. A., F. L. S., F. R. S., Presi- 

 dent, in the Chair. 



Minutes of last Meeting were approved of, and signed by the President. 



"W. Stokes, M. D., Regius Professor of Physic, read a paper " On 

 some results of Disease as illustrative of Organization." 



The Meeting then adjourned. 



