' Influence of Oxygen on the Gcrmmalhn of St-edi. 157 



out receiving anv benefit from them, reiblved to difconlinue 

 them, and to bear his fufferings with patience. One day» 

 however, while collefting ants, his hands were excoriated by 

 the acrid liquor of thefe infe6ls, and he was innnediately 

 freed from the pain in his head, which never afterwards re- 

 turned. 



XIV. Experiments refpeB'ing the Influence luh'ich Oxygen 

 has on the Germination of Seeds. Bj Mr, Saussurs 

 junior *, 



M, 



-OST philofophers who have examined the nature of 

 atmofpheric air have found, that feeds expofed to water and 

 pure azotic gas do not germinate ; that, on the other hand, 

 carbonic acid gas is formed, which mixes with the azotic 

 gas, and increafes the atmofphere of the plant. They ob- 

 icrvcd alfo, that when oxygen gas was employed inftead of 

 azot, carbonic acid (ras was in the like manner produced, 

 but that the atmofphere was then lefl'encd and the oxygea 

 gas abforbcd. 



Pr, Rollo t, in the courfe of his refearches refpefting the 

 germination of barley, remarked, that the formation of fuc:ar 

 in the grains of barley during the procefs of germination wqs 

 the immediate confequence of the a£lion of oxygen gas oa 

 the grains, and that, in every cafe where this aftion was fup- 

 preUed, no fugar was formed. From this obfervation, as well 

 as from the formation of carbonic acid gas in azotic and oxy- 

 gen gas, he concludes, that oxygen gas is in part abforbed by 

 the barley, but that it in part forms with the carbon of the 

 feeds carbonic acid gas. The fugar which is formed imme- 

 diately after the germination is, according to him, produced 

 by the union of oxygen gas with the flimy vegetable ferment- 

 able matter. 



If the quantity of the carbonic acid gas formed in this man- 

 perbe Icfsthan that of the oxygen gas which has difappeared, 

 it is probable that a part of the latter is ablbrbed by the grain, 



' Troni Schercr"s Al-^imehtcs Jomnnl tier Chemie, No. 7, for January 

 1*90. f It fliould be Cruickfliaui:. 



and! 



