THE EARTH. 



2J3 



are never known to putrefy ; and meat may be kept for months 

 without any salt whatsoever. This experiment happily succeed- 

 ed with the eight Englishmen that were accidentally left upon 

 the inhospitable coasts of Greenland, at a place where seven 

 Dutchmen had perished but a few years before ; for killing 

 some rein-deer for their subsistence, and having no salt to pre- 

 serve the flesh, to their great surprise they soon found it did not 

 want any, as it remained sweet during their eight month's con- 

 tinuance upon that shore. 



These powers with which air is endued over unorganized suD- 

 staiices, are exerted in a still stronger manner over plants, ani- 

 mals of an inferior nature, and lastly over man himself. Most 

 of the beauty and tbe luxuriance of vegetation, is well known 

 to De derived from the benign influence of the air ; and every 

 plant seems to have its favourite climate, not less than its pro- 

 per soil. The lower ranks of animals also seem formed for their 

 respective climates, in which only they can live. ]\Ian alone 

 seems the child of every climate, and capable of existing in all. 

 However, this peculiar privilege does not exempt him from the 

 influences of the air ; he is as much subject to its malignity as 

 the meanest insect or vegetable. 



With i-egard to plants, air is so absolutely necessaiy for their 

 life and preservation, that they will not vegetate in an exhausted 

 receiver. All plants have within them a quantity of air, which 

 supports and agitates their juices. They are continually imbib- 

 ing fresh nutriment from the air, to increase this store, and to 

 supply the wants which they sustain from evaporation. When, 

 therefore, the external air is drawn from them, they are no 

 longer able to subsist. Even that quantity of air which they 

 before v/ere possessed of, escapes through their pores, into the 

 exhausted receiver ; and as this continues to be pumped asvay, 

 they become languid, grow flaccid, and die. However, tlie 

 plant or flower thus ceasing to vegetate, is kept, by being secured 

 from the external air, a nuich longer time sweet than it would 

 have continued had it been opeidy exposed. 



Tlxat air which is so necessary to tlie life of vegetables, is 

 still more so to that of animals ; there are none found, how 

 ocemingly torpid soever, that do not require theii' needful supply. 

 Fishes themselves will not live in water from whence the air is ex- 

 hausted ; and it is generally supposed that they die in frozen 



