1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



371 



Avhere he is skiniicil; nrul di!=.scctc(l before tlic pu- 

 pils wlio aileiul, anil who pay from n miinea to 

 two ijuineiis a year for the privileire. The currier 

 takes the pIud. The flesli is cut oO', boiled, and 

 sold to the retailers of cats' meat and dogs' meat, 

 who sell it about the streets of London at three 

 Iialf pence per pound. The bones beinf^ broken 

 and boiled, the liit, when cold, is taken oif and 

 sold to the makers of cart-ijrease liir carriao'cs. 

 The bones are then ground by iTieans of a steam- , 

 oncine, and sold in powder to the fi^rmers, to be 

 used (like soot) as a top dressino; tor wheat : both 

 these manures containinij volatile alkali when de- 

 composed, and supplying nitrogen. The bones 

 contain, al'ter being boiled, full one-third of their 

 ■weight of animal irelatine, which, undergoing pu- 

 treliiclion and gradual decomposition, becomes a 

 valuable manm-e. All the bones from the plains 

 of Waterloo, were actually collected and exported 

 to England, f)rincipaliy to ISull. The price of 

 ground bones at that port, about three years ago, 

 was 2s. 10|rf. sterling per busliel. 



The bodies at Waterloo, were first searched 

 over for money, Avatches, trinkets and clothes. 

 Then came the purveyors of human hair, for the 

 supply of the makers ol' f;dse hair, wi^s, curls 

 and frizettes; then came anotlier cjas?, who ex- 

 tracted from the dead bodies, all the sound teeth, 

 for the supply of the dentists; then, when the 

 flesh had putrefied, the collector's of bones search- 

 ed the field lor their harvest. 



Frequently, the ground bones, instead of being 

 bought by the larmers for manure, are sold to the 

 tnanulftclurersof volatile aikal: and sal ammoniac, 

 lor distillation; sometimes, for the hafts of knives 

 and forks, and the common imitations of ivory. 



Woollen rags, refuse parings of skins, and 

 other anitmal matters, having previously been ve- 

 getables, are well adapted, by gradual decompo- 

 sition, to be converted into ve.tretables aijain. 



Spring crops of tares, vetches, buckwheat, or 

 any other venetable sown early, and ploughed in, 

 just as they begin to flower, constitute a very ju- 

 dicious mode of supplyintr mmiure to the earih, 

 when no other is to he procured. It may be asked, 

 if you plough into the irrnund the crop" which the 

 ground has already nourished, what do you gain? 

 The re|)ly is, you gain the whole of thenutriment 

 that the crop has acquired from the air, and ti-om 

 the decomposition of water: an amount of nutri 

 ment, probably, eqnal to one-fourth, at least, of 

 Avhat the plant can furnish by gradual decompo- 

 sition. This brings us to the question, what 

 parts of the plant does nature set to work to ob- 

 tain nutriment and supnlv the rrrowth'? 



First — The ronls. There is no evidence what- 

 ever, that the roots of a plant can take in anv so- 

 lid matter, or any gaseous matter, uidess previous- 

 ly dissolved in water. The sap of every tree and 

 plant, whether ascending or descending, is a fluid; 

 holding in solution more or less, of the substances 

 destined to become parts of the plant itself How 

 does this fluid ascend by means of the roots? As- 

 suredly not, by capillary attraction, which would 

 stop at an inch or two; nor by any of Sir H. Da- 

 vy's "physical agencies," which are utterly wortli- 

 less to account for the plienomenon. Our mode 

 of explaining it, is as follows: a drop of fluid, 

 containing nutriment, comes in contact with a 

 root fibre in search of nutriment. The mouth of 

 the fibre, that is, the internal sides of the tube, 



become stimulated; they contract on the ilrop of 

 fluid, iir.d by a contraction a icrgn, propel il up- 

 wards, where another part of the containing tube 

 being stimulated in like manner, contracts in like 

 manner, and the drop is thus propelled to the very 

 top of its course, in consequence of the irritability 

 of the living fibres of the containing vessels.* In 

 iis course, it undergoes the processes necessary to 

 (i-irm it into the nutriment, and assimilate it to the 

 substance of tfie plant. This is done by means 

 of the peculiar organization of each plant, acting 

 as the nature of the plant requires. 



Were we to propose a tlieory, it should be, that 

 the organization of vegetables and animals, in- 

 cludes and arranges a series of galvanic batteries: 

 by means whereof decompositions and recompo- 

 sitions are effected in organized bodies, which the 

 chemistry of the laboratory cannot explain. We 

 stronirly suspect, that when two dissimilar bodies 

 come in contact, electrical effects, chemical effects, 

 and caloric, more or less, are always produced: 

 whenever two dissimilar bodies, with an interven- 

 ing conducting fluid, capable of acting upon one 

 of them, come together, galvanic efl'ects are pro- 

 duced. And these arrangements are certainlv 

 found in every living vegetable and animal. But 

 the view we can as yet take, is not clear: we see 

 as yet through a glass darkly; and, to use the 

 language of the poet, "the present affords but a 

 illinipse through the gloom." However, discove- 

 ries are in proiiress, and in this, as in every other 

 respect, we may cheeringly say of the march of 

 mmd, Ca Ira. 



During the decompositions of the sap, the ob- 

 servations of Gay-Lussac and Thenard, Avhich 

 we see nothing to controvert, will apply. When- 

 ever hydrogen and oxygen unite in a vegetable, 

 so that the oxycen is to the h\'drogen in a greater 

 proportion than is fiiund in water, the result is an 

 acid. Whenever they unite in the same propor- 

 tions that form water, the produce is saccharine, 

 or mucilaginous, or fecula, or woody fibre. When- 

 ever tbev unite so that the oxygen is in a less 

 proportion than in water, ive have resins, oils, 

 gum-restns. caoutchouc, &c. In these cases, car- 

 i)on forms the third ingredient. 



In pine and fir trees, there seems no doubt but 

 water itself is decomposed, and oxygen is given 

 out, during the formation of [)ilch, turpentine, &c. 

 Is the common prejudice, so prevalent in South 

 Carolina, in favor of a summer's residence in the 

 pme-woods, confirmed by this explanation? It 

 seems so to us. 



vSo much for the function of the roots. But the 



* We are aware of thp tfieory of Monsieur Dutro- 

 chet in his late book, ''L\1gent immediate du mouve- 

 iiicnt vital devoile dans sa. nature, el duns sa wode d'ac- 

 iion, chezles vigetaux el chez tes animaux.^' — 8vo. Pa- 

 ris; 1826. M. Dutrochet is of opinion tfiat the lym- 

 phatic tubes through which the sap ascends, aro in- 

 contractile; but for no valid reason in support of this 

 doubt that we can discover. If the vegetable fibre be 

 possessed of vegetable life, Itmustbe contractile; this 

 being the characterist.'c property of living fibre. Nor 

 can his obscure explanation by endnsmose and exos- 

 niose be satisfactorily admitted, without admitting the 

 contractile property of the cells and membranes in- 

 troduced in his explanation, nor does the application 

 of galvanism in the experiment of M. Porret, or in 

 tliat of M. Dutrochet. negative the contractility of 

 the living fibre— especially as those experiments did 

 not succeed with inorganic substances. 



