ITS CAUSE. 3*1 



causis of animal or vegetable bodies which are rich in hydrogen, 

 must accordingly be ascribed to a transposition of the elements 

 or disturbance in their attractions, similar to that which gives 

 rise to the formation of carbonic acid in the processes of fermen- 

 tation and putrefaction. While the hydrogen of the substance 

 is removed and oxidized by eremacausis, carbon and oxygen 

 separate from the remaining elements in the form of carbonic 

 acid. 



The eremacausis of such substances is, therefore, a decom- 

 position analogous to the putrefaction of azotized bodies. For in 

 these there are two affinities at play ; the affinity of nitrogen for 

 hydrogen, and that of carbon for oxygen, and both facilitate the 

 disunion of the elements. Now there are two affinities also in 

 action in those bodies which decay with the evolution of carbonic 

 acid. One of these affinities is the attraction of the oxygen of 

 the air for the hydrogen of the substance, which corresponds to 

 the attraction of nitrogen for the same element ; and the other is 

 the affinity of the carbon of the substance for its oxygen, which 

 is constant under all circumstances. 



When wood putrefies in marshes, carbon and oxygen are 

 separated from its elements in the form of carbonic acid, and 

 hydrogen in the form of carburetted hydrogen. But when wood 

 decays or putrefies in the air, its hydrogen does not combine with 

 carbon, but with oxygen, for which it has a much greater affinity 

 at common temperatures. 



Now it is evidently owing to the complete similarity of these 

 processes, that decaying and putrefying bodies can mutually re- 

 place one another in their reciprocal actions. 



All putrefying bodies pass into a state of decay when exposed 

 freely to the air, and all decaying matters into that of putrefac- 

 tion when air is excluded. All bodies, likewise, in a state of 

 decay are capable of inducing putrefaction in other bodies, in the 

 same manner as putrefying bodies themselves do. 





