80 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE. 



elements. Vegetable substances spring from the earth, 

 and inhale from the atmosphere. They contain within 

 themselves mineral constituents, non-combustible elements 

 drawn from the soil by their roots, and gaseous elements ; 

 the combustible elements, drawn from the atmosphere by 

 their leaves, &c. elaborated into an * organism ' under 

 certain ' cosmic ' conditions light, heat, the sun's rays, 

 moisture, &c. When these vegetable substances decay, 

 their non-combustible elements return to the soil, and 

 their combustible or gaseous elements to the atmosphere 

 (the result of combustion), available to be transformed 

 into other substances, or other forms. When taken as 

 food, they enter into the ' organism ' of the animal feeding 

 on them. 



Animal forms are composed of identical elements, or 

 constituents, with the vegetable. These constituents arc 

 derived from the vegetable substances on which the animal 

 feeds, and are elaborated into the higher organism of the 

 animal under the action of the so-called ' vital force,' the 

 circulation of the blood, and its oxidation by means of 

 the respiration of the oxygen of the atmosphere, and are 

 ultimately returned to the air and the soil in the exhala- 

 tions and excrements, and the decomposition of the body 

 after death. 



All alimentary substances, vegetable or animal, are 

 composed of mineral substances, nitrogenous or albumi- 

 nous compounds (strength-giving), and heat-giving and 

 fat-forming compounds ; also water. 



In vegetables, the heat-giving, or respiratory compounds 

 are in the form of starch, gum, sugar, and in many seeds, 

 as oil instance, linseed, rape, cotton, &c. In the animal 

 structure the albuminous compounds and minerals are 

 the flesh, blood, juices, and bones ; and the heat-giving 

 compounds, which are as starch, & c . in the vegetable, 

 appear as fat and fatty tissue. Albuminous (or nitrogenous) 



