EXTRACTS — FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 333 



iemperature of 392° F., into oxalic and acetic acids. But the 

 mhydrous acetic acid contains carbon and the elements of water 

 Drecisely in the same relative proportion as ligneous fibre (Peligot) 

 .vhich, in perfectly similar conditions, also gives acetic acid. 



This mode of decomposition has led a distinguished French che- 



nist to admit the existence of oxalic acid ready formed in tartaric 



At all events, its elements are formed in it by the side of a 



lecond body, which, like sugar, gum, and ligneous fibre, may be 



egardcd as a combination of carbon with water. 



Every part, every principle, of the animal body is derived from 

 )lants. It IS by the organism of plants that the combinations 

 s'hich serve to sanguification are formed; it cannot be doubted 

 hat the parts of the plants serving as food contain, not only one 

 j»r two, but all the principles of the blood. 



I We cannot believe in the possibility of the formation of blood 

 ,1 the body of an animal, or of milk in that of a cow, if there be 

 /anting m their food one of the principles which should be re- 

 arded as conditions of equal necessity for the sustenance of all 

 le vital functions. 



The sulphuro-nitrogenous substances, as well as the alkalies and 

 lie phosphates, are principles of the blood ; we cannot conceive 

 16 passage of the former into this fluid without the presence and 

 loncurrence of the latter. 



The faculty possessed by a portion of the plant of sustaining 

 18 lite of an animal, and of increasing the mass of its blood and 

 esh, IS, then, in direct ratio with its richness in the organic prin- 

 ples of the blood and with the quantity of alkalies, phosphates 

 lid metallic chlorides (chlorides of sodium or potassium) necessa- 

 [i^ to their passage into the blood . 



I It certainly is a highly remarkable fact, and of great value to 

 Yiculture that the sulphuro-nitrogenous vegetable substances, 

 hich we have designated as organic principles of the blood, are, 



all the parts of plants in which they are found, always accom> 

 anied by alkalies and phosphates. 



I In the juice of potatoes and of beet-roots the vegetable albumen 

 ' accompanied by alkaline salts and soluble phosphate of magne- 

 a ; we have in the seeds of peas, lentils and beans, and in those 

 ! cereals, alkaline phosphates and earthy salts. 

 I The seeds and fruits in which the organic principles of the 

 ood are found in greater abundance, contain also a predominating 

 lantity of the inorganic principles, the alkalies and phosphates 5 

 }A m the other substances, such as potatoes and roots, which are 

 :oportionally so poor in the former, the latter exist also in a 

 ;uch smaller quantity. 



. The simultaneous presence of the two classes of combinations 

 > so constant, that an intimate connexion cannot be doubted It 

 < extremely probable that the production and formation of the 



