276 EREMACAUSIS OR DECAY 



A small quantity of beer, acescent wine, a decoc- 

 tion of malt, honey, and numerous other substances 

 of this kind, possess the action desired. 



The difference in the nature of the substances 

 which possess this property shows, that none of 

 them can contain a peculiar matter which has the 

 property of exciting eremacausis ; they are only the 

 bearers of an action, the influence of which extends 

 beyond the sphere of its own attractions. Their 

 power consists in a condition of decomposition or 

 eremacausis, which impresses the same condition 

 upon the atoms of alcohol in its vicinity ; exactly 

 as in the case of an alloy of platinum and silver 

 dissolving in nitric acid, in which the platinum be- 

 comes oxidised, by virtue of an inductive action 

 which the silver in the act of its oxidation exercises 

 upon it. The hydrogen of the alcohol is oxidised 

 at the expense of the oxygen in contact with it, and 

 forms water, evolving heat at the same time ; the re- 

 sidue is aldehyde, a substance which has as great an 

 affinity for oxygen as sulphurous acid, and combines, 

 therefore, directly with it, producing acetic acid. 



EREMACAUSIS OF SUBSTANCES CONTAINING 

 NITROGEN. NITRIFICATION. 



WHEN azotised substances are burned at high 

 temperatures, their nitrogen does not enter into 

 direct combination with oxygen. The knowledge of 

 this fact is of assistance in considering the process 

 of the eremacausis of such substances. Azotised 



