OF BODIES DESTITUTE OF NITROGEN. 305 



similar to those effected by spongy platinum ; but that they pro- 

 ceeded from a different cause was shown by the fact that the 

 presence of carbonic oxide, which arrests completely the action 

 of platinum on a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, did not re- 

 tard in the slightest degree the combustion of the hydrogen in 

 contact with the decaying bodies. 



But the same bodies were found by De Saussure not to pos- 

 sess the property just described, before they were in a state of 

 fermentation or decay ; and he has shown that even when they 

 are in this state, the presence of antiseptic matter destroys com- 

 pletely all their influence. 



Let us suppose a volatile substance containing a large quanti- 

 ty of hydrogen to be substituted for the hydrogen gas in De 

 Saussure's experiments. Now, the hydrogen in such compounds 

 being contained in a state of greater condensation would suffer 

 a more rapid oxidation, that is, its combustion would be sooner 

 completed. This principle is in reality attended to in the manu- 

 factories in which acetic acid is prepared according to the new 

 plan. In the process there adopted all the conditions are afforded 

 for the eremacausis of alcohol, and for its consequent conversion 

 into acetic acid. 



The alcohol is exposed to a moderate heat, and spread over a 

 very extended surface, but these conditions are not sufficient to 

 effect its oxidation. The alcohol must either be in contact with 

 decaying wood, or must contain a substance which is with facility 

 changed by the oxygen of the air, and either enters into erema- 

 causis by mere contact with oxygen, or by its fermentation or 

 putrefaction yields products possessed of this property. A small 

 quantity of beer, acescent wine, a decoction of malt, honey, and 

 numerous other substances of this kind, possess the action 

 desired. 



The difference in the nature of the substances possessing this 

 property shows, that none of them can contain a peculiar matter 

 which has the property of exciting eremacausis ; they are only 

 the bearers of an action, the influence of which extends beyond 

 the sphere of their own attractions. Their power consists in a 

 condition of decomposition or eremacausis, which impresses the 

 same condition upon the atoms of alcohol in its vicinity ; exactly 



