310 DECAY 



directly with oxygen, and that the products of this 

 action are carbonic acid and humus. 



If the action of the oxygen were confined to the 

 carbon of the wood, and if nothing but carbon were 

 removed from it, the remaining elements would ne- 

 cessarily be found in the humus, unchanged except 

 in the particular of being combined with less car- 

 bon. The final result of the action would therefore 

 be a complete disappearance of the carbon, whilst 

 nothing but the elements of water would remain. 



But when decaying wood is subjected to exami- 

 nation in different stages of its decay, the remark- 

 able result is obtained, that the proportion of carbon 

 in the different products augments. Consequently, 

 if we did not take into consideration the evolution 

 of carbonic acid under the influence of the air, the 

 conversion of wood into humus might be viewed 

 as a removal of the elements of water from the 

 carbon. 



The analysis of mouldered oak wood, which was 

 taken from the interior of the trunk of an oak, and 

 possessed a chocolate brown colour and the struc- 

 ture of wood, showed that 100 parts of it contained 

 53*36 parts of carbon and 46*44 parts of hydrogen 

 and oxygen in the same relative proportions as in 

 water. From an examination of mouldered wood 

 of a light brown colour, easily reducible to a fine 

 powder, and taken from another oak, it appeared 

 that it contained 56*21 1 carbon and 43*789 water. 



These indisputable facts point out the similarity 



