S4 ORIGIN AND ACTION OF HUMUS. 



of one body for a second, which does not exist, 

 is quite inconceivable. The ammonia, in this 

 case, is formed only on account of the existing 

 attractive desire of the acid for saturation. Hence 

 we may perceive how much these modes of decom- 

 position, to which the name of transformations or 

 metamorphoses has been especially applied, differ 

 from the ordinary chemical decompositions. 



In consequence of the formation of ammonia, 

 the other elements of hydrocyanic acid, namely, 

 carbon and hydrogen, unite with the oxygen of 

 the decomposed water, and form formic acid, the 

 elements of this substance with the power of com- 

 bination being present. Formic acid, here, repre- 

 sents the excrementitious matters ; ammonia, the 

 new substance, assimilated by an organ of a plant 

 or animal. 



Each organ extracts from the food presented to it, 

 what it requires for its own sustenance ; while the 

 remaining elements, which are not assimilated, 

 combine together and are separated as excrement. 

 The excrementitious matters of one organ come in 

 contact with another during their passage through 

 the organism, and in consequence suffer new trans- 

 formations ; the useless matters rejected by one 

 organ containing the elements for the nutrition of 

 a second and a third organ ; but at last, being ca- 

 pable of no further transformations, they are sepa- 

 rated from the system by the organs destined for 

 that purpose. Each part of an organized being is 



