SIMPLE PRODUCTS. CHAP. II. 



be the result of further experiment ; and from the 

 zeal and ability of such chemists as are now direct- 

 ing their attention to the subject every thing is to 

 be expected. 



CHAPTER II. 



SIMPLE PRODUCTS. 



FROM the analysis of the vegetable subject as ex- 

 hibited in the foregoing chapter, it is evident that 

 the compound ingredients of vegetables are all 

 ultimately reducible to a very few constituent and 

 uncompounded elements ; and that the most essen- 

 tial of such compounds consist of carbon, oxygene, 

 and hydrogene, merely ; though others contain also 

 a small proportion of nitrogene said to be found 

 only in cruciform plants. The remaining elemen- 

 tary principles which plants have been found to 

 contain, although they may be necessary in the vege- 

 table economy, yet they are by no means principles 

 of the first importance, as occurring only in small 

 proportions, and being dependant in a great measure 

 on soil and situation ; whereas the elements of car- 

 bon, oxygcne, and hydrogene, form as it were the 

 very essence of the vegetable subject, and constitute 

 by their modifications the peculiar character of the 

 properties of the plant. 



This is conspicuously exemplified in the result of 

 the investigations of Messrs. Gay Lussac, and 



