of Organic Bodies. 5 



remarkable than is at first sight apparent ; for the ash of the 

 exhausted carbonized mass of the pea-straw contains more 

 than half its weight of silica, which existed as such in the oxi- 

 dized state in the living plant, and could not be obtained until 

 after the incineration of the carbonized mass, merely in con- 

 sequence of its insolubility in the solvents. If we take this 

 circumstance into account, the exhausted carbonized mass of 

 the peas yields five times as large an amount of fixed salts 

 as that of the pea-straw. 



Exactly the same results were obtained in the analysis of 

 the inorganic constituents of rape and rape-straw, made by 

 M. Weber (Appendix III. and IV.). 



The quantities per cent, of inorganic constituents were — 



Rape. Rape-straw. 



Extracted by water 0'230 1*556 



Extracted by muriatic acid . . . 0*884 1*805 

 On the incineration of the car-1 , „„. „ -^„ 



1 00* \J Ol\J 



bonized mass 



'-} 



Here also the proportion is more striking than appears at 

 first sight, because nearly half of the ash of the carbonized 

 mass of the rape-straw after exhaustion with the solvents, con- 

 sists of silica, as in the case of the pea-straw. 



The salts obtained by the incineration of the carbonized 

 mass after exhaustion by the solvents, could not have existed 

 as such in the plants and seeds, as has been already men- 

 tioned, nor even in the carbonized mass itself, but must have 

 been produced by oxidation. The next question then is, in 

 what states of combination did the unoxidized inorganic con- 

 stituents exist in the plant, and what in the carbonized mass 

 obtained from it? Upon this point all our explanations are 

 insufficient ; and this question can only be answered by hypo- 

 thesis, which cannot be verified without further investiga- 

 tions. But at all events the subject forms a wide field for 

 interesting investigations, which lead to important results, and 

 by which both chemistry and physiology may acquire im- 

 portant elucidation. 



The carbonized residue of peas and rape, after exhaustion 

 with water and muriatic acid, yields on incineration a large 

 amount of phosphates, and which, had they existed as such in 

 the carbonized vegetable matter, would have been dissolved 

 by the water and muriatic acid. The carbonized mass also 

 contains considerable quantities of nitrogen. If the phosphorus 

 existed in the unoxidized state, it is most probable that it 

 formed compound radicals with carbon and nitrogen, similar 

 to cyanogen or sulphocyanogen, which were combined with the 



