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THE GENESEE FARMEE. 



to oxidation (nist ; ) but when minutely divided, it can not possibly be brought even in 

 contact ^^-ith atmospheric air at a low temperature, without becoming red hot, and at the 

 same time being converted into an oxide. Cobalt, nickel, and uranium possess the same 

 property. (Mulder and Magnus.) 



The condensation of atmospheric air in the minute pores of an exceedingly fine mineral 

 is doubtless the source of this high temperature. Finely pulverized charcoal has been 

 made to condense gases so much that the latent heat evolved in the operation has set 

 the coal on fire. It is a law of nature that when a body passes from a rarer to a denser 

 medium it gives out heat — i. e., heat which was insensible becomes sensible by the 

 simple compression or consolidation of any substance. Thus, when cold water is applied 

 to cold caustic lime, the liquid becomes incorporated with the lime in a solid form and 

 gives up a portion of its latent caloric, or heat of fluidity. In a similar manner freezing 

 water in a cellar, which without the water would freeze potatoes and apples, warms it 

 sufficiently to prevent their congelation. In this instance the sensible heat is given ofl 

 from the water when transformed into solid ice. When vapor and water are converted 

 into snow in winter, they warm the air sensibly, which elevation of temperature lasts a 

 day or so after the fall of a deep snow. On the other hand, the expansion of water in 

 the process of evaporation absorbs active or sensible heat, and generates cold as it renders 

 heat quite insensible. This law is too familiar to need illustration. Heat and cold are 

 among the most eftective chemical and mechanical agents, and their influences on all 

 bodies to expand or contract their dimensions, as well as the pecuUar fimctions of solar 

 light, deserve the closest study. 



If a large crystal of salt or sugar be crushed into one impalpable powder, its solution 

 in water is greatly promoted. This fact illustrates a general law, and one that prompts 

 the grinding of much grain, the pulverization of the soil, and about half the labor of the 

 agriculturist. No solid food of animals can pass through the walls of the intestines into 

 the lacfcals (milk-ducts) and tlie blood vessels, w^hich is not substantially dissolved in 

 the gastric juices; nor can cultivated, or other plants, subsist on insoluble earthy atoms. 

 Hence, all the circumstances that favor or retard the solution of bodies in tilled land, or 

 living systems, have a high practical value, and a scientific claim to attention. Bodies 

 in solution are in a very favorable condition for the play of chemical forces, whatever they 

 may be. The chemical phenomena witnessed in the cells of plants, in the production of 

 wood, starch, gum, sugar, oil, albumen, casein, and gluten, appear to be governed more by 

 physical than any known vital laws. The further the chemistry of vegetable and animal 

 physiology is extended, the greater becomes human j^ower over all the phenomena of 

 life. We have long believed, and tiuight, the doctrine, that defective nutrition, and most 

 diseases, from our simple liver-complaints and chills and fever, to the yellow fever, cholera, 

 and plague, arise from the violation of laws which chemistry would yet fully elucidate 

 and prevent. Even scrofula and consumption are now cured by phosphate of lime 

 (bone earth) prescribed on strictly chemical principles, or pathology. The following are 

 cases in point: 



" In the first number of the Few Orleans Monthly Medical Register, we find an article by Professor 

 Stone, on the virtnes of 'Phosphate of Lime in Scrofula and other depraved states of the System,' which 

 is of some moment. It was suggested by an Essjiy in the London Lancet, on the 'physiology and 

 pathology of the oxalate and phosphate of lime, and their relation to the formation of cells.'" 



" 'Tlie conclusions of the author,' says Professor Stonf, 'are baaed upon careful chemical researeli 

 and results from the use of the remedy. His researches show that in man, as well as in vegetables 

 and inferior auimals, phosphate of lime, as well as albumen and fet, is absolutely essential for the 

 formation of cells, and he considers that many of the pathological states of the system depend upon a 

 deficiency of this salt The affections in which it is advised arc ulcei'ations dependant upon a general 

 dyscrasia, and not a mere local affection ; infantile atrophy, in those suffering from rickets and conse- 

 quent diarrhcea and tuberculous diseases, particularly of the lungs in the e^arly stages.' 



"Struck by this article, Prof Stone tested it, and he thus describes three cases in which its virtues 

 were very obvious. The first was tliat of a slave who was admitted to the Professor's Infirmary in 



