PROSPECTS OF SCIENCE. 29 



This is an important and striking, and is, I believe, likely to remain a 

 permanent distinction, between most substances of organic and of inor- 

 ganic origin. 



Looking back at the vast strides which organic chemistry has made 

 witliin the last twenty years, and is still continuing to make, and trust- 

 ing to the continued progress of human discovery, some sanguine chem- 

 ists venture to anticipate the time when the art of man shall not only 

 acquire a dominion over that principle of life, by the agency of which 

 plants now grow and alone produce food for man and beast, but shall be 

 able also, in many cases, to imitate or dispense with the operations of that 

 principle: and to predict that the time will come when man shall man- 

 ufacture by art those necessaries and luxuries for which he is now wholly 

 dependent on the vegetable kingdom. 



And, having conquered the winds and the waves by the agency 

 of steam, is man really destined to gain a victory over the uncertain sea- 

 sons too? Shall he come at last to tread the soil beneath his feet as a 

 really useless thing — to disregard the genial shower, to despise the influ- 

 ence of the balmy dew — to be indifferent alike to rain and drought, to 

 cloud and to sunshine — to laugh at the thousand cares of the husband- 

 man — to pity the useless toil and the sleepless anxieties of the ancient 

 tillers of the soil ? Is the order of nature, through all past time, to be re- 

 versed — are the entire constitution of society, and the habits and pur- 

 suits of the whole human race, to be completely altered by the pro- 

 gress of scientific knowledge ? 



By placing before man so many incitements to the. pursuit of know- 

 ledge, the will of the Deity is ,that out of this increase of wisdom he 

 should extract the means of increased happiness and enjoyment also. 

 But set man free from the necessity of tilling the earth by the sweat of 

 his brow, and you take from him at the same time the calm and tran- 

 quil pleasures of a country life — the innocent enjoyments of the return- 

 ing seasons — the cheerful health and happiness that wait upon labour 

 in the free air and beneath the bright sun of heaven. And for what? — 

 only to imprison him in manufactories, to condemn him to the fretful 

 and feverish life of crowded cities. 



To such ends, I trust, science is not destined to lead ; and he is not 

 only unreasonably, but thoughtlessly sanguine, who would hope to de- 

 rive from organic chemistry such power over dead matter as to be able 

 to fashion it into food for living animals. With such consequences be- 

 fore us it seems almost sinful to wish for it. 



Yet, that this branch of science will lead to great ameliorations in the 

 art of cuhure, there is every reason to believe. It will explain old meth- 

 ods — it will clear up anomalies, reconcile contradictory results by ex- 

 plaining the principles from which they flow — and will suggest new meth- 

 ods by which better, speedier, or more certain harvests may be reaped. 



§ 2. Relative proportions of organic elements. 

 Though the substance of plants consists chiefly of the four organic ele- 

 ments, yet these bodies enter into the constitution of vegetables in very 

 difTerent proportions. This fact has already been adverted to in a gen- 

 eral manner: it will appear more di&inctly by the following statement 

 of the exact quantities of each element contained in 1000 parts by 

 2* 



