1814.] Elements of Organic Nature are combined. 329 



any thing respecting the electrochemical properties of ternary 

 oxides ; for the saclactic acid, for example, which contains eight 

 volumes of oxygen, is a weaker acid than the citric acid, which 

 contains only a single volume; while the oxalic acid, which contains 

 18 volumes, is stronger than either of the two just mentioned. I 

 shall show hereafter that the ratio between the oxygen and 

 hydrogen in the ternary oxides, from which Gay-Lussac and 

 Thenard have endeavoured to derive the properties which charac- 

 terize these substances, determines in fact nothing whatever. It 

 appears, then, that at the instant of the formation of each ternary 

 and quaternary oxide in organic nature, its elements receive in 

 combining a new electro-chemical modification, on which their 

 chemical properties chiefly depend. Though we must acknowledge 

 that the proportion of the elements ought not to be without some 

 influence. 



It appears clear that in animals nature employs the nervous 

 system to produce these new electro-chemical modifications, and to 

 determine the nature and composition of the various substances 

 produced in different parts of the animal body. At the same time 

 there are animals of so imperfect an organization, that anatomy has 

 not been able to find in them a nervous system. Posterity must 

 decide whether this he owing to the insufficiency of our methods to 

 discover nerves when concealed, and probably varying in form, or 

 to the power of nature to employ different means to arrive at the 

 same object. 



In vegetables, notwithstanding the great analogy between vegeta- 

 tion and its secretions and similar functions in animals, nothing has 

 hitherto been observed similar to the nerves of animals. But if we 

 are entitled to draw any conclusion from the strict analogy, for 

 example, between the sexual functions of the two classes of 

 inized bodies, we have a right to suspect that the same analogy 

 exits between the other functions common to animals and vege- 

 tables ; though it may be a very laborious task to penetrate the 

 mystery. * 



In consequence of the great number of elementary volumes 

 which enters into the composition of these ternary and quaternary 

 oxides and from the peculiar and special modification of the 

 electro-chemical properties of these elements, organic bodies in 

 general constitute but feeble compounds, which often begin to 

 undergo decomposition as soon as they escape from the influence of 

 the organ in which they were produced. Almost all organic bodies 

 decomposed by the united influence of air, water, and heat. 

 'J heir elements resume their ordinary electro-chemical modifica- 

 tions, and there finally results a number of binary or inorganic 

 combinations ; bat this seldom takes place all at once. They 

 ■ rally pass through a series of ternary oxides, the composition 

 of which is varied. '1 bus sugar tonus first alcohol, then vinegar, 

 then n mucous /natter, fee, before its organic composition is com- 

 pletely destroyed. 



