370 



Variety of Colours. 



Vol. VIII. 



cal compounds of which the muscles, bones, 

 and blood, consist? Are the vital powers 

 bound to labour, as it were, for the existence 

 and support of the body"? Do they compound 

 or build up out of their ultimate elements 

 the various substances of which the body is 

 composed — or do they obtain these sub- 

 stances ready prepared from the vegetable 

 food on which animals, in general, are fed? 

 The answer which recent chemical research- 

 es give to this second question, forms one of 

 the most beautiful contributions which have 

 been made to animal physiology in our time. 



The flour of wheat and of our otlier culti- 

 vated grains, consists in part of gluten, of 

 albumen, or of casein. These substances 

 all contain nitrogen, and are identical in 

 constitution with each other, and with the 

 iibrin of which the muscles of animals 

 chiefly consist.* The substance of the mus- 

 cles exists ready formed, therefore, in the 

 food which the animal eats. The labour of 

 the stomach is in consequence restricted to 

 that of merely selecting these substances 

 from the food and despatching them to the 

 several parts of the body, wliere they are 

 required. The plant compounds and pre- 

 pares the materials of the muscles — the sto- 

 mach only picks out the bricks, as it were, 

 from the other building materials, and sends 

 them forward to be placed where they hap- 

 pen to be wanted. 



Again, in all our crops, so far as they 

 have been examined, there exists a sensible 

 proportion of fatty or oily matter more or 

 less analogous to the several kinds of fat 

 which exist in the bodies of animals. In 

 regard to this portion, therefore, of the body, 

 the vegetable performs also the larger part 

 of the labour. It builds up fatty substances 

 out of their elements — carbon, hydrogen, 

 and nitrogen. These substances the sto- 

 mach extracts from the food, and the body 

 appropriates them — after they have been 

 more or less slightly changed, in order to 

 adapt tiiem to their several purposes. There 

 may possibly be other sources of fat, but the 

 simplest, the most natural — and probably, 

 where a sufficient supply exists, the only 

 one had recourse to by the healthy animal — 



* The chemical reader, who is aware of the exact 

 state of our knowledge upon this subject, will perceive 

 that I .speak hero of the identity of these substances 

 only in so far as the proportions of carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen, and nitrogen, are concerned. It is unneces- 

 sary to allude in thi.^ place, to the different proportions 

 of sulphur and phosphorus they are known to contain 

 — as the more popular nature of this work will not 

 permit me to discuss the refined, though singularly 

 beautiful, physiological questions witB which tliese 

 differences are connected. 



is the fat which is found, ready formed, in 

 the vegetable food it eats. 



Further, the bones, the muscles, and the 

 blood, contain phosphate of lime, phosphate 

 of magnesia, common salt, and other saline 

 compounds. These same compounds exist, 

 ready formed, in the vegetable food, associ- 

 ated generally with the gluten, the albumen, 

 or the casein, it contains. The materials of 

 the harder parts of the body, therefore (the 

 phosphates) as well as the inorganic saline 

 substances which are found in the blood, and 

 in the other fluids of the body — are all 

 formed in or by the plant, or are by it ex- 

 tracted from the soil and incorporated with 

 the food on which the animal is to live. 



Not only, therefore, do the mere elements 

 of which the parts of the bodies ot animals 

 are formed, exist in the food — but they oc- 

 cur in it, put together and combined, nearly 

 in the state in which they are wanted in 

 order to form the several solids and fluids of 

 the body. The plant, in short, is the com- 

 pounder of the raw materials of living bo- 

 dies. The animal uses up these raw mate- 

 rials — cutting them into shape when neces- 

 sary, and fitting them to the several places 

 into which they are intended to be built. 



This is a very simple, and yet a very beau- 

 tiful view of one of the many forms of chemi- 

 cal connection which exist between the pro- 

 cesses and purposes of animal and vegetable 

 lite. Nature seems to divide the burden of 

 building up living bodies between the vege- 

 table and the animal kingdom.s — the lower 

 appearing to exist and to labour, only for the 

 good of the higher rafle of beings. — John- 

 ston'' s Lectures. 



Carpets.^ — The oflener these are taken 

 up and shaken, the longer they will wear, as 

 the dust and dirt underneath grind them out. 

 Sweep carpets with a stiff' hair brush, instead 

 of an old corn broom, if you wish them to 

 wear long or look well. At any rate, keep a 

 good broom purposely for the carpet. 



To Polish Mahogany Furniture. — Rub 

 it with cold drawn linseed oil, and polish by 

 rubbing with a clean dry cloth, after wiping 

 the oil from the furniture. Do this once a 

 week, and your mahogany tables will be so 

 finely polished that hot water would not in- 

 jure them. The reason is this, linseed oil 

 hardens when exposed to the air, and when 

 it has filled all the pores of the wood, the 

 surface becomes hard, and smooth like glass. 



To MAKE CORKS FOR BOTTLES. — Take wax, 



hog's lard, and turpentine, equal quantities, 

 or thereabouts. Melt all together, and stop 

 your bottles with it. 



