I>K. NICHOLS' ADDUluSS. 7 



p(»\V(.T >o inhnitL'Iy .^urpasbt's that of man. But after all, this analyti- 

 cal power of the plant is no less amazing than its syntlietical capabili- 

 ties. The v,'ork of tearing apart oxidized bodies Is inmiediately fol- 

 lowed by that of rearranging the elements and forming new com[»ounds 

 still more complex, and into these, as a fixed principle, less oxygen is 

 allowed to enter. The great work of the plant is to disassociate oxy- 

 gen from eomi)ounds, and thus store up energies which are made 

 apparent wdien we burn vegetable substances as fuel upon our hearth- 

 stones, or as food in our bodies. All the forces resulting ffom heat 

 and muscular exertion, have their origin in plants, and however great 

 may be the exhibition of power, the leaves of the trees and the grasses 

 of the fields have utilized or elaborated it all from the solar rays. 



Although the food of plants and the method of appropriating it, 

 differs from that of animals, there are analogies, not only ai)parent, 

 but real, between them. In animals we ^lave the respiratory functions, 

 and so we have in plants, for plants breathe as truly as we do our- 

 selves ; we rei^uire our food to be composed of certain elements 

 arranged in certain combinations, so do plants ; we find it essential 

 that our food should ])e in particular forms or mechanical conditions, 

 so do plants; we must l)e regularly supplied with food, and this is the 

 case with plants. These are some of the similarities existing between 

 plants and animals, and they serve to show how intimate is the relation 

 which subsists between plants and the higher forms of organized 

 structures. 



Although vre have learned with certainty regarding the elements 

 essential to plants, and also the forms of comlnnation rcijuired, we 

 have yet to learn the exact mode in which they acijuire their food, and 

 bow they are able to buildup such l)odies as cellulose starch, albumen, 

 oil, ka., from these elements. No processes which chemists venture 

 upon in the laboratory, are found so difficult as the synthetical produc- 

 tion of organic compounds. Indeed, organic chemistry has thus far 

 proved totally incompetent to instruct how to form any one of these 

 bodies from the elements, and for their elaboration we must look to 

 the vital chemistry of animals and plants solely. 



It is a well understood fact that without plants, animals could not 

 exist upon our planet. In the wonderful economy of things, it is 

 absolutely essential that there should be some intermediate or connect- 

 ing link between ourselves and the mineral kingdom, and plants con- 

 stitute this important link in the chain in life. The three kingdoms, 

 animal, vegetable and mineral, are correlative and involved in a cycle 

 of changes which are unintermitting and wonderful in their nature. 

 We are incapal)le of being nourished by any form of mineral substan- 

 ces, but such nourish plants and are transformed by them into vegeta- 

 ble tissues and products, and, subsisting as we do upon plants, we 

 draw support indirectly from the insensible rocks. The plant consumes 

 the rock dust and attracts to itself the car])on of dead air and earth ; 

 we transform these into flesh and bones, and, as a last stej) in this per- 

 petual circulation of matter, after death, they relapse again into their 

 dead inorsanic condition. 



