PRODUCTIONS OF THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. 115 



These processes are various, and are described in works on 

 elementary chemistry. Many of them, however, are well 

 known to farmers, such as the obtaining of starch from pota- 

 toes or wheat, of sugar from the juice of the maple, beet-root, 

 etc. The vegetable proximate principles are all decomposed 

 by a red-heat, and are converted chiefly into carbonic acid 

 and water. When subjected to ultimate analysis, they are 

 found to be composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitro- 

 gen. Small quantities of phosphates, sulphates, metallic ox- 

 ides and earths are found in vegetable bodies ; which, though 

 essential to them, constitute but a small portion of their sub- 

 stance, and are called the inorganic constituents of plants. 

 The vegetable, as it is formed in nature, contains alkalies 

 and metallic oxides, in combination with ihe proximate prin- 

 ciples, although the latter, as such, contain no metallic bases. 



The simple bodies O. C. H. N. are found combined in va- 

 rious proportions. Generally a larger number of equivalents 

 are united to form the organic than the inorganic body. 

 Some organic bodies are composed of two, some of three, 

 and others of four simple bodies ; and the proportions vary 

 from one to seventy equivalents or more, but in inorganic 

 bodies, rarely more than seven equivalents of the same ele- 

 ments are found. 



I. Organic principles, composed of two ingredients, are of 

 four kinds. 



1. Compounds of carbon and hydrogen, as in oil of turpen- 

 tine, which is composed of C'^H^,* and in the volatile and 

 fixed oils. 



* It will be recollected that the four bodies, carbon, oxygen, hydro- 

 gen and nitrogen, are represented by their initial letters, C. O. H. N. 

 and the number of equivalents are represented by figures placed as in- 

 dices ; thus C^, O^, signifies a compound formed of 2 equivalents, or 12 

 parts by v/eight of carbon, and 3 equivalents, or 24 parts by weight 

 of oxygen. The equivalent of hydrogen is 1, oxygen 8, carbon 6.12, 

 and nitrogen 14. We have only to look at the indices, to ascertain 

 the number of equivalents in any compound, and by multiplying that 



