ORGANIC CHEIISTEY 



IN ITS APPLICATION TO 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE. 



The object of Chemistry is to examine into the 

 composition of the numerous modifications of mat- 

 ter, which occur in the organic and inorganic king- 

 doms of nature, and to investigate the laws by 

 which the combination and decomposition of their 

 parts is effected. 



Although material substances assume a vast vari- 

 ety of forms, yet chemists have not been able to de- 

 tect more than fifty-five bodies which are simple, or 

 contain only one kind of matter, and from these all 

 other substances are produced. They are considered 

 simple only because it has not been proved that they 

 consist of two or more parts. The greater number 

 of the elements occur in the inorganic kingdom. 

 Four only are found in organic matter. 



But it is evident that this limit to their number 

 must render it more difficult to ascertain the precise 

 circumstances, under which their union is effected, 

 and the laws which regulate their combinations. 

 Hence chemists have only lately turned their atten- 

 tion to the study of the nature of bodies generated 

 by organized beings. A few years have, however, 

 sufficed to throw much light upon this interesting 

 department of science, and numerous facts have been 

 discovered which cannot fail to be of importance in 

 their practical applications. 



