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the substances in the atmosphere ; and that vegetable 

 life is a process in which bodies that the analytical phi- 

 losopher is unable to change or to form, are constantly 

 composed and decomposed. These opinions have not 

 been advanced merely as hypotheses; attempts have 

 been made to support them by experiments. M. 

 Schrader and Mr. Braconnot. from a series of distinct 

 investigations, have arrived at the same conclusions. 

 They state that different seeds sown in fine sand, sul- 

 phur, , and metallic oxides, and supplied only with 

 atmospherical air and water, produced healthy plants, 

 which by analysis yielded various earthy and saline 

 matters, which either were not contained in the seeds, 

 or the material in which they grew; or which were 

 contained only in much smaller quantities in the seeds: 

 and hence they conclude that they must have been 

 formed from air or water, in consequence of the agen- 

 cies of the living organs of the plant. 



The researches of these two gentlemen were con- 

 ducted with much ingenuity and address; but there 

 were circumstances which interfered with their re- 

 sults, which they could not have known, as at the 

 time their labours were published they had not been 

 investigated. 



I have found that common distilled water is far 

 from being free from saline impregnations. In analy- 

 sing it by Voltaic electricity, I procured from it alkal- 

 ies and earths; and many of the combinations of me- 

 tals with chlorine are extremely volatile substances. 

 When distilled water is supplied in an unlimited man- 

 ner to plants, it may furnish to them a number of dif- 



