in 'the Afies of P'rge'fahia, *. T^f 



volatile alkali. The animal fluids give fever falts, (carbonat 

 of ammonia,) fal-ammoniac, nitre, &c. Oils both fw€et 

 ■Riid effential, flimy bodies, and extracts belong exclufively 

 to the worlcs of animated Nature. Ev^n th^. different kinds 

 of gafes combined with each other produce new kinds, as 

 may be feen in plants, which convert foul ait into oxy- 

 genated. Ought not the other fubftances found in orga- 

 nifed bodies to be afcribed to the like works of Nature? 



Becher and Henkel firft fliewed that all vegetables contain 

 Iron and gold, and Cnce their time this fatSt has been placed 

 fceyond any doubt. Many chemifls, particularly Lauragais^ 

 Rouelle, Darcct, Sage, Berthollet, &c. obtained both thefe 

 metals from plants by reducing them to allies *. Are thefe 

 fubftances contained in thofe things which furnidi nouriili- 

 mcnt to plants, or are tliey produced by vegetation ? This 

 queftion can be applied alfo to the earth contained in plants. 

 Duck-weed and all plants of this kind grow in the pureft 

 water, and we daily fee bulbous plants fliooting -up in it. 



Van Helmont relates, that he planted a flioot of woad, 

 weighing fifty pounds, in a hundred pounds of earth. He 

 watered it with diftilled water, and in five years it weighed 

 169 pounds 3 ounces : the earth had loft; of its weight only 

 two ounces. Bonnet and Duhamel reared plants in the 

 pureft water, and they grev/ as well as in the beft foil. It 

 may be alked, then, if particles fufccptible of being attradlcd 

 by the magnet could have been found in tiie aflies of thefe 

 plants, as well as in thofe of plants that grew in fields or 

 jrardens ? 



The author rcpcatctl many of ihcfe experiments. He 

 calcined a part of various feeds, and cxtrafted the ferrugi- 

 nous particles from them by means of a magnet ; the other 

 part lie fuffcrcd to fiioot, au.d to grow up in diftillcd water. 



• Since the time of thtir cxfjtriments mnni',anefe lias been foiiml dif- 

 fufcd throu^^h jilants, next in cjuaiuity lo iron. See Schctlt's Effays. 



O 3 TlifiJr 



