174 FAttADAV 



will serve my purpose. It is a compound of carbon, hydrogen, 

 and oxygen, similar to a candle, as containing the same 

 elements, though not in the same proportion, the proportions 

 being as shown in this table : 



SUGAR. 



Carbon 72 



Hydrogen n ) 



Oxygen 88 f " 



This is, indeed, a very curious thing, which you can well 

 remember, for the oxygen and hydrogen are in exactly the 

 proportions which form water, so that sugar may be said to 

 be compounded of 72 parts of carbon and 99 parts of water; 

 and it is the carbon in the sugar that combines with the 

 oxygen carried ID by the air in the process of respiration, 

 so making us like candles; producing these actions, wa*rmth, 

 and far more wonderful results besides, for the sustenance 

 of the system, by a most beautiful and simple process. To 

 make this still more striking, I will take a little sugar; or, 

 to hasten the experiment, I will use some sirup, which con- 

 tains about three fourths of sugar and a little water. If 

 I put a little oil of vitriol or> it, it takes away the water, 

 and leaves the carbon in a black mass. [The lecturer mixed 

 the two together.] You see how the carbon is coming out, 

 and before long we shall have a solid mass of charcoal, all 

 of which has come out of sugar. Sugar, as you know, is 

 food, and here we have absolutely a solid lump of carbon 

 where you would not have expected it. And if I make 

 arrangements so as to oxidize the carbon of sugar we shall 

 have a much more striking result. Here is sugar, and I 

 have here an oxidizer a quicker one than the atmosphere; 

 and so we shall oxidize this fuel by a process different from 

 respiration in its form, though not different in its kind. It is 

 the combustion of the carbon by the contact of oxygen 

 which the body has supplied to it. If I set this into action 

 at once, you will see combustion produced. Just what oc- 

 curs in my lungs taking in oxygen from another source, 

 namely, the atmosphere, takes place here by a more rapid 

 process. 



You will be astonished when I tell you what this curious 

 play of carbon amounts to. A candle will burn some four, 



