326 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



real value of the different kinds of butchers' meat, depends great- 

 ly upon the food upon which the animals were fattened ; and 

 that there is at least one third difference between the value of 

 meat fattened upon Indian corn, and the best of the roots which 

 are generally substituted for it. — Eds. 



SULPHUR IN PLANTS. 



We do not speak of the existence of sulphur in plants as a new 

 discovery, still it is a highly interesting fact, and deserving ol 

 careful investigation. Dr. Vogel, Senior, of Munich, has very re- 

 cently called the attention of chemists to this subject. It appears 

 that the cruciferoe as mustard, scurvy grass, &c., contains sulphur as 

 a constituent principle, particularly the pepper-grass (Lepidiuir 

 sativum.) It had been supposed that this substance was admittet 

 into the plant from the soil, but from the experiments of Dr. Vo- 

 gel, it appears that even when all substances containing sulphur 

 are excluded from an artificial soil in which pepper-grass ha; 

 grown, and when watered with distilled water, that it still con 

 tains sulphur. This apparently puzzling fact, seems however, ti 

 be explained on the ground that plants obtain it from the atmos 

 phere. If this conjecture is true, it leads to the establishment o 

 the fact, that one or more of the compounds of sulphur exis 

 constantly in the atmosphere. This compound is supposed to b 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, which exists in all mineral water, termc' 

 hepatic, and also in all animals and vegetable products in a stat 

 of decay. 



