12 x Introduction. 



Treating this result as we did that of the aniline we shall 



uave 



6,100,000,000, 000,000,000,000.000 = 8i )3 io,COO,000,000,030 

 36,3UJ X li 728 



as the number of molecules of sodium nitrate in each cubic 

 inch of water from which the plants may draw their sup- 

 ply of nitrogen. It will be seen that this number is so 

 large that even a cube of water .01 inch on a side will 

 contain 81,310,000,000, a number far too large for com- 

 prehension, and yet if 200 pounds of sodium nitrate were 

 applied to the acre this number would have to be multiplied 

 by the number of grams in 200 pounds to express the num- 

 ber of molecules there would be for each cube of soil- water 

 one-hundredth of an inch on a side. 



8. Molecular Structure in Relation to Poisons. It is the 



extremely large number of molecules which may exist in a 

 small space, coupled with the energy which these molecules 

 may carry with them in their movements, which makes 

 possible the violent disturbances in the life processes of 

 animals and plants associated with the introduction into 

 the system of such small quantities of substances known as 

 poisons. It will be easily understood from, what has been 

 said regarding the vast number of fertilizer molecules per 

 cubic inch of soil moisture, when only a single gram has 

 been disseminated throughout the surface four feet of a 

 full acre, that extremely small quantities of any poison, 

 like strychnine, will contain molecules enough to charge 

 the body of the largest animal with great numbers of the 

 poisonous units. 



The important practical lesson to be remembered in 

 this connection is that, since such extremely small quan- 

 tities of matter, when introduced into the plant or animal 

 body, are sometimes capable of producing such profound 

 disturbances as to cause death, extremely small quantities 

 of other substances may have very important beneficial 

 effects; and it is quite possible that it may be along such 



