ANIMAL MANURES. 1 07 



mineral indestructible matter, which, resembling the ash of 

 plants, consists of the ingredients that compose our fertile soils. 

 The bones of animals, also, when burned, are found to lose a/ 

 considerable portion of their weight, disagreeable smelling gases 

 escape, and a mass of earthy matter remains in the furnace, to 

 the composition of which I will hereafter have occasion to 

 direct your attention, as it contains some of the most valuable 

 materials required for the nourishment of plants. Thus, the 

 bodies of both men and animals are derived from the same 

 materials as the plants that we cultivate — both are from the 

 soil — creatures of the dust: the plant direct!?/ deriving the 

 materials of its gi'owth from the minerals of the field and the 

 gases of the air, and the animal indirectly, through the vege- 

 table creation. Chemistry has clearly shown us, that the 

 lime of our limestone mountains, the potash which exists in 

 our granite rocks (120), and the phosphorus of our soils, by 

 the wonderful arrangements of Providence, become food for 

 our crops, and ultimately build up the structure of our bodies. 

 Nor are these materials which Nature provides in the earth 

 squandered ; a wonderful economy is displayed in every part 

 of creation. The matters which we receive in our food, 

 which become blood, and flesh, and solid bone, are not 

 allowed, even during life, to remain inactive. They have no 

 sooner performed the office assigned to them, than they are 

 discharged from the body ; and, in the liquid and solid excre- 

 ments, both of man and animals, we discover the mineral 

 materials contained in the bread and the beef, the seeds and 

 the roots, which had composed their food. (156), It has been 

 calculated that, in the case of a horse, which consumes 151bs. 

 of hay and 4-1 lbs. of oats per day, 21 ounces of the mineral 

 matters which the hay and oats took from the soil are taken 

 into his system — in a year, about 480 lbs. of these. If the 

 horse, in the course of a year, increase in weight lOOlbs., and 

 if, in this matter added to his substance, we discover only 7ft)s. 

 of the mineral substances received in his food, the remaining 

 4731bs. must have been discharged from the body — (Liebig.) 

 These matters are actually found in the excrements. The 

 following tables of the composition of the liquid and solid 

 excrements of man will show you, that in them we have the 

 same mineral matters which arc discovered in the ash of our 

 cultivated plants, 



i2 



