270 Notices respecting new Booh. 



u4n Inqy'vy into the Changes induced on Atmospheric Air ly 

 the Gtrminalion.of Seeds, the Vegetation of Plants, and 

 the Respiration of Animals. iJy Daniel Ellis, pp. 256^ 

 8vo. Murray, ISOJ. 



Perhaps no speculation in experimental philosophy has 

 ever been more generally received, than the notion that plants 

 in the process of vegetation purify the air j and since the dis- 

 coveries of Priestley, the labours of IngenhoUsz, and the 

 rhymes of Darwin, not only philosophers but ladies have 

 been delighted with their presence, under the influence of this 

 pleasing fancy. The opinion was first promulgated by 

 Priestley in 1771, and almost without examination has been 

 adopted by all subsequent philosophers, excepting some few- 

 indirect objections, down to the present author, whose able 

 inquiry will most probably consign it to the oblivion of vul- 

 gar errors. " The investigation of this subject was suggested 

 to him, he states, by accidentally observing the spontaneous 

 recovery of an animal in whbm all the appearances of life 

 had been -suspended by drowning. The result of his inquiry 

 terminated in a conviction, that although many great and im- 

 portant ste[)S had been made, yet much hypothetical conjec- 

 ture was blended with established fact, and many suppositions 

 were admitted into our theories which but ill accorded with 

 the structure and O2conomy of the animal system." No refer- 

 ence is made to the theories of vegetation and respiration, as 

 tlTey must depend on our knowledge of tlie changes produced 

 by living bodies on the air; a subject, it appears, with which 

 we are yet very little acquainted. 



Mr. Ellis pursues his investigation by examining " the 

 Changes induced on the Air bv the Germination of Seeds — > 

 iheVegetation of Plants — the Respiration of Insects, Worms, 

 Fishes and Amphibious Animals; and of Birds, of Qua- 

 drupeds, and of Man. On the Source of the Carbon in Ve- 

 getables and Animals, by which the Changes in the Air arc 

 efiected ; and the Phsenomena which arise from the Changes 

 induced on the Air by the living Functions of Vegetables 

 and Animals." The following is a brief abstract of his prin- 

 cipal observations on germination ; 



Dried 



