THEORY OF PROGRESSED ATOMS. 233 



a most admirable end, giving very satisfactory results, it docs 

 not act so rapidly and energetically as manure ; but its effects 

 are more lasting. In short, the same salts and organic matter 

 as found in the dung-heap, have a higher money value, and seem 

 to exert a more specific influence upon plants, than when pre- 

 sented in artificial mixtures. By substituting nitrate of potassa, 

 or saltpetre, for soda, the compost is greatly improved, while its 

 cost is enhanced. If the salts are dissolved in water, — those 

 that are soluble, — and the bone in ley, and good muck is 

 employed, a compost is formed very nearly as valuable as sea- 

 soned excrement. Very nearly, we have said — why is it not of 

 equal value ? 



We have reason to believe it is owing to a minuteness of the 

 subdivision of atoms, which we can neither produce nor com- 

 prehend, — a degree of comminution which sets at defiance all 

 mechanical and chemical manipulation. Beside this, there is, 

 however, a peculiar condition arising from, or communicated 

 by, the contact of vital forces, which science is incapable of 

 explaining. A physician once brought to me a jar of ox's 

 blood, with the request that I would extract or isolate the metal 

 iron therefrom, and place it in his hands. In answer to inquires 

 as regards its uses, he stated he wished to employ it as a therea- 

 peutic agent, under the impression that iron once assimulated 

 would have a higher and more natural influence when passed 

 again through the animal economy, than the usual forms of the 

 metal from other sources. His hypothesis was undoubtedly cor- 

 rect, and while it was quite within the. power of chemistry to iso- 

 late the iron from the blood, it was impossible to secure it in the 

 condition in which it existed in that fluid. That condition is 

 indeed a peculiar one, and its presence is not indicated by any of 

 the usual chemical re-agents. If we applied to it simply the usual 

 manipulating processes, chemistry would fail to show that there 

 was an atom of iron present in the blood of men or animals. 

 This may illustrate the difference between the fertilizing influ- 

 ence of metals and salts, as found in animal excrement and as 

 existing in other, or the usual forms. The iron as found in the 

 blood, if administered to an enemic patient, would without 

 doubt immediately, and by direct and easy processes, again pass 

 to its appropriate place, and restore the sanguineous fluid 

 promptly to its normal condition. 



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