160 ProfessoT G. F. Poore [April 24, 



that analogous forces have been in operation. It seemsj indeed, to 

 be a law of nature that the ultimate destiny of organic matter is to 

 " circulate," and that if it do not do so quietly, as in the ordinary pro- 

 cesses of nutrition in plants and animals, it merely bides its time 

 and ultimately attains its end with more or less destructive violence. 



Nitre (nitrate of potash or nitrate of soda) is an organic product, 

 and sulphur is an essential constituent of all or nearly all organisms. 

 Of the three ingredients of gunpowder, two (charcoal and saltpetre) 

 are, it is certain, of exclusively organic origin, and the third, sulphur, 

 may be so also. 



All the common combustibles with which we are familiar are 

 certainly of organic origin, and one is almost forced to the conclusion 

 that in this world life must have preceded combustion. If we are to 

 explain what Jiaa been by what is, such a conclusion is irresistible. 

 Are we quite sure that volcanoes, which are seldom far from the sea, 

 are not fed by old deposits of organic matter which has collected in 

 the primeval ocean, and like the more recent coal measures, have 

 been silted up, 



Wliat has been the destiny of the protoplasm of the countless 

 animals and plants which are found in geologic strata? What part 

 have ancient microbes had in the formation and disruption of the 

 successive layers of which this earth is formed ? These are questions 

 which force themselves upon the mind, but which I will not now 

 attempt to answer. This biological view of the cosmogony which 

 subjects the world equally with all that is upon it to the laws of 

 development, evolution and decay, does not, I believe, present so 

 many difficulties as might at first sight appear. 



" Omne vivum ex vivo " is a law of nature, and all organic bodies 

 spring from organic antecedents. Organic matter is our capital in 

 this world, and the more frequently we can turn it over, and the 

 more quickly and efiiciently we can make it circulate, the more 

 frequent will be our dividends. If we burn organic matter, we may 

 get a good dividend of energy, but nothing further is to be expected. 

 The construction of the furnace involves an outlay of capital which 

 steadily diminishes as the furnace wears out by frequent use. If we 

 burn organic matter merely to be rid of it, we spend our money for 

 the sole purj)ose of dissipating our capital. The function of fire is 

 to destroy and sterilise. 



If we mix organic matter with large quantities of water, we have 

 to encounter all the evils and annoyance of putrefaction, and if, when 

 so mixed, we send it to the sea, we have no material gain of any kind. 

 We spend our money for the purpose of dissipating our capital. 



We may place the water containing the organic matter upon the 

 land, and in tropical countries this is done with excellent effect for the 

 production of rice, a semi-aquatic plant which, according to Professor 

 Georgeson, Professor of Agriculture in the Imperial University of 

 Tokio, is said to prefer its nitrogen in the form of ammonia. The 



