358 CHARACTER OF 



we can educate them for more active purposes 

 than any that can be answered by plants. 



As those who have paid even moderate atten- 

 tion to the subject, can always distinguish the re- 

 mains of plants, when dissolved but not chemically 

 decomposed, from dissolved inorganic matter, so 

 it is just as easy to distinguish animal matter when 

 dissolved, but not decomposed, from vegetable mat- 

 ter in the same state. The plant, if we except the parts 

 which are soon evaporated by the atmosphere or 

 washed away by the waters, is found to consist of 

 carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, that is, of charcoal 

 and the elements of water. That matter may be 

 reduced to powder or to paste, but still we can 

 easily distinguish, not merely by chemical exami- 

 nation, but by the touch and the smell ; the last 

 of these, though not very strong, is peculiarly re- 

 freshing, so that it is very healthful to walk over 

 a field of good land after it has been turned up 

 by ploughing. 



Chemical decomposition, at least in the softer 

 parts, very speedily follows animal dissolution ; so 

 that, when an animal substance has been long in 

 the earth, it is not easily detected, except in the 

 bones or shells, and both of these are found to 

 contain lime, a substance of. which most plants 

 contain none, and some only a very little. But 

 this lime, which, in itself, is not, strictly speaking, 

 animal matter, is always in the living, or the re- 

 cent state, cemented together by more or less of 

 animal matter ; and all animal matter contains 

 nitrogen, which is usually regarded as the inactive 

 ingredient of atmospheric air. When the animal 

 substance is burnt, a portion of the nitrogen com- 

 bines with the hydrogen of the water, and forms 



