WATER IN THE ECONOMY OF ORGANIZED BEINGS. 219 



bably by a substitution of aliments that some water-plants, which are acrid and poisonous, be- 

 come, in dry soils, mild, palatable and nourishing food. The properties of all cereals are 

 somewhat changed by aliments, or by the soil, and it is possible to favor by cultivation the 

 predominance of gluten or starch in wheat. But it should not be inferred that these changes 

 are unlimited. Here is a wide field opened for analysis — the correct determination of aliments 

 and their influence on the properties of plants, and the most effective means of imparting to 

 plants the properties we desire, or rather I should say, to modify those properties so as to 

 make them more useful to man. To do this will require an accurate knowledge of the com- 

 position both of the soil and plant. 



The application of the precept of giving select food to the cultivated plants and fruits, as 

 well as grains and roots, extends itself through the whole field of husbandry. The value of 

 many, and perhaps all fruits, is very much diminished when they are produced upon certain 

 soils, and their value greatly increased by proper food and culture. There is a great difference 

 in the quality of uncultivated fruit and nuts. It has its application too to stock-growing and 

 stock-feeding : the texture and flavor of meat is altered, in a sensible degree, by the quality of 

 the food ; pasture lands, by draining, become so far ameliorated in their grasses that mutton 

 and beef is sensibly changed for the better. In the husbandry of this country these subjects 

 are only beginning to receive attention. The field is interesting and important, but no one 

 can successfully prosecute a refined husbandry who is ignorant of the composition of his lands, 

 the wants of vegetables and animals, and the physiology of organized beings. 



IMPORTANCE OF WATER IN THE ECONOMY OF ORGANIZED BEINGS. 



It is a question whether water should be regarded as an aliment. Its importance can not 

 be over estimated ; and yet it is impossible to say whether it contributes to the matter of the 

 cell. If the water was removed from the tissue of an organ, it would not be diflicult to pre- 

 serve the form and shape of the organ ; air would distend and fill the cells and insinuate itself 

 between the molecules. One of the important offices of water to organized beings, is to dis- 

 solve the elements. Water is the only agent which can separate the atoms of bodies, and so 

 far divide them as to enable them to pass into the tissues of the body. I have already noticed 

 some of the facts in regard to the amount of water in plants. By a reference to the table 

 we may learn something of the importance of water, provided we admit that quantity is a test 

 of importance. When we see that grasses and roots or herbage, in their growing state, con- 

 tain from 70 to 90 per cent of water, we can not but believe that it plays an important part j 

 it seems to be a solvent and a diluent : food, as has been remarked, must undergo solution ; 

 these solutions can not be concentrated. The constitution of bodies is such that nutritive matter 

 must be dilute : when it is too much concentrated in the solution, it acts mechanically, and fills 

 up the pores and channels of circulation. The remark is scarcely necessary that plants differ 

 greatly in the amount of water which they require ; and it may be true also, that some plants 

 admit a more concentrated solution without injury. Water plants are exceedingly spongy and 



