376 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



might be formed by the reduction of the phosphate of iron by the 

 carbon. Although I was convinced that this could not happen at 

 the temperature whicli I employed, I mixed phosphate of iron inti- 

 mately with sugar, and charred tiie mixture at a higher temperature ; 

 hydrochloric acid, however, extracted the salt so completely from 

 the charred mass, that this burnt without any residue in an atmo- 

 sphere of oxygen. 



It might be supposed that the salts found in the ash of the ex- 

 hausted charred substances are so intimately combined with organic 

 substances that they can only be detected by reagents after the com- 

 plete destruction of the latter. But the organic substances are so 

 destroyed by the charring, that if the inorganic salts found in the ash 

 pre-existed as such in them, they should have been extracted by 

 those agents in which they are soluble. 



Tliere still remains one view respecting the origin of these ashes. 

 The salts found in them may perhaps not have pre-existed as such 

 in the organic substances, but were first formed by oxidation after 

 the burning of the coal. It has long been known that the proteine 

 compounds, of both animal and vegetable origin, contain sulphur 

 and phosphorus in an unoxidized state; but, as far as I am aware, 

 the supposition has never been advanced, that the radicals of the 

 earths and alkalies may likewise be contained in organic substances 

 in an unoxidized state, perhaps combined with those elements. 

 These would certainly constitute a very peculiar class of combina- 

 tions, such as Ave are at present not acquainted with. If they are 

 really combined with organic substances in the living body, they 

 cannot have been essentially altered on destroying the organic body 

 by charring, or they have entered into combinations with carbon 

 and nitrogen, which are insoluble in water and in hydrochloric 

 acid. 



I have already observed that the salts found in the ash of the 

 charred mass exhausted with water and acid, especially when derived 

 from vegetable substances, are similar to those which occur in the 

 aqueous and acid extract. This view can only be confirmed by a 

 long series of investigations; but if it should be confirmed, then those 

 salts which we find in the ash after the destruction of the living 

 plants were probably contained in them only in part as such, and in 

 part in an unoxidized state. The inorganic salts, therefore, which 

 are. taken up from the soil by the living plant, are partially deoxi- 

 dized by it, and in this state form combinations with organic sub- 

 stances contained in the plant. 



This view is I'ar more probable with respect to several animal 

 substances, especially the blood, than in reference to plants. It has 

 long been suspected that the iron in the blood was contained in it 

 in an unoxidized state; and, according to the recent investigations 

 of INIulder, the iron is actually extracted by acids from hcematine 

 with evolution of hydrogen gas. This view acquires still greater 

 probability from the experiments which I have related. On the 

 other hand, it is very remarkable that the iron cannot be extracted 

 from the charred blood by hydrochloric acid. I think it would bo 



