144 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 



fermentation of vegetables, is readily dissolved 

 and taken up by water ; and that plants possess 

 the power of decomposing water, and of divid- 

 ing and appropriating its principles, in com- 

 bination with carbon, to all its various uses ; why 

 are those principles abandoned, and a process 

 recommended, grounded upon supposition only, 

 in preference ? Such a deviation from the wise 

 rule of Sir Isaac Newton is surely worse than tri- 

 fling ; it is injurious to the character of science. 



Vegetables exposed to the sun and air, and 

 dried, are found to possess more or less of sugar, 

 according to their nature ; and sugar is a vege- 

 table oxyde, almost immediately soluble and 

 convertible into food ; and it is most readily 

 convertible and productive of carbonic acid ; 

 let any person take a bundle of hay, and a bun- 

 dle of green grass, and submit each to infusion, 

 and compare the extract, both in appearance 

 and effect ; the difference will be considerable. 



What says Sir Humphry of malt dust ? That 

 it " consists chiefly of the infant radical, se- 

 " parated from the grain." And he says, " I 

 " have never made any experiment upon this 

 " manure, but there is great reason to suppose 

 " it must contain saccharine matter, and this will 

 " account FOR ITS POWERFUL EFFECTS." Now if 

 these infant radicals had been separated and 



