1847.] Operation of Kitrogen on Plants and Animals. 33 



much more than that of the vegetable, as to characterize, unseen, 

 the nature of the emanation. This conservative or instinctive fa- 

 culty, has been conferred upon the whole animal world, to dis- 

 criminate, for self-preservation, that which may be deleterious, 

 from that which may be innocent. 



It is known that each class of organic bodies contains the same 

 ultimate principles; though septon (azote or nitrogen,) is much 

 more abundant in the animal than in the vegetable, still 1 hold it 

 as a necessary inference, that the presence of septon (nitrogen,) 

 is the basis of the peculiar animal emanation, which all will ac- 

 knowledge to exist, and which is so instinctively shunned; and 

 we are thus forcibly led to the conclusion, that this septous (ni- 

 trogenous,) gas, is the basis of the pestilential atmospheric infec- 

 tion. 



Some vegetables approximating the animal constitution, as 

 " wheat," for instance, have often been charged, and peihaps cor- 

 rectly, as the source of malaria. But wheat contains gluten, one 

 of the nitrogenized compounds, necessary to animal nutrition; and 

 may, with many others, be capable of the same products. 



An objection may be offered to our doctrine, that nitrogen with- 

 out color or smell, or any deleterious effects, evinced from its co- 

 pious abundance about four-fifths of the common atmospheric air, 

 we are constantly respiring in safety; but every chemist is ac- 

 quainted with the fact, that the action of a compound, its proper- 

 ties, and relations, are not necessarily, those of either, or all of the 

 simples which compose it; many inert, inodorous, and innocent 

 substances become active, odorous, and poisonous, when combined, 

 and vice versa; acquiring by their union, properties essentially 

 different from the individual components. Nitrogen, the substance 

 in question, stands conspicuously in this category; from its union 

 with oxygen, in various proportions and conditions, result com- 

 pounds, well known to be totally dissimilar in their exteinal quali- 

 ties, and in their chemical relations. From the one proposition, 

 a product, odorless, colorless, and innocent, as the air we breathe; 

 from another, red, and smoking vapors, fatal as the exhalations 

 of the deadly upas; indeed, instances to this point, are too nu- 

 merous, and too notorious, to be quoted: and thus, nitrogen may, 

 and from the facts in the case, does undergo a modification, though 

 mysterious, yet fatal to the health and life of man; indeed the 

 mind, untrammeled by the pride and prejudice of previous opinion, 

 will, I think, acknowledge the reasonable conclusion, (though 

 much mystery may still embarrass the subject, in the modus ope- 

 randi,) that septous (nitrogenous,) vapors, constitute the basis of 

 atmospheric infection. The enquiry is an important one, as the 

 doctrine of the exclusive vegetable origin may and does lead to 

 negligence of the animal nuisance. 



No. IX 3 



