EXTRACTS— FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 331 



of Starch, and of ligneous fibre, are found restrained : that their 

 presence gives activity to, and augments, its vegetation, it is clear 

 that if in culture a maximum of product should be attained, it is not 

 by an excess of carbonic acid and humus that it can be effected if 

 we do not present to the plants, in great quantity, and in a stLte 

 appropriate to absorption, the alkalies which are the principal con- 

 ditions of the conversion of carbonic acid into sugar and starch, 

 wha ever may be the manner in which they may contribute to this 



The oxalic, tartaric citric, and malic acids, &c., are produced 

 in^the organism of the plant : their carbon arises from carbonic 



We find, in vegetables, these acids combined with potassa, lime 

 md magnesia m the state of salts, the smallest parcels of which, 

 ibandoned to themselves, follow their own attractions, as is seen 

 n their tendency to crystallize. 



, It cannot be doubted that these combinations do not possess the 

 [.haracter of organic life, precisely because the force which appears 



be in activity in them is not the vital force, but the force of co- 



JTptalHzabr'^ ^"''' '^' ''""' ^''^ '"^"'' ^^''^ ''^ ^^^^^i^' 

 i We should suppose that the smallest parcels of the products, 

 vhose formation IS due to carbonic acid, are subordinate to the acti- 

 ;'ity which, in the living plant, reacts on them, like the smallest 

 parcels of carbonic acid itself; that, thus, the carbon of the oxalic 

 .nd tar aric acids, &c., should possess the faculty of becoming the 

 .irmciple of an organ endowed with vital force. 



1 It is easy to pursue this metamorphosis in the organic acids If 

 ee represent 12 equivalents of our carbonic acid as losing (in pre- 

 ence of a base, and under the influence of light, in consequence of 

 he action of the vital force of its elements), the fourth of its oxv- 

 en, we have oxalic acid. This acid may be imagined in the anhy- 

 rous state, by supposing that the carbonic acid has not given rise 

 5 it in any other manner : — ^ 



C-02^-0«=:C'20'«=6 eq. of anhydrous oxalic acid. 

 j The oxalic acid does not exist in the anhydrous state. In the 

 'ate ot hydrated oxalic acid, it contains 1 eq. of water ; the salts 

 I potassa, lime, and magnesia, likewise contain water. Hydrated 

 Kalic acid is formed of : — 



C-0-+6 eq.=C-H«0'^=6 eq. of hydrated oxalic acid. 



It is easy to observe that carbonic acid and hydrated oxalic acid 



nrelf "] T^} I'^'^'^r ^^ °^ ^^^g""- ^^ "^^>'' therefore, here 

 present hydrated oxalic acid as carbonic acid, into the coraposi- 

 mot which a certain quantity of hydrogen enters. 

 n the continuation of the influence of the activities eliminates 



