| 1893, } | On the Food of Green Plants. 405 
by means of which sugars of a great variety have been identi- 
fed and their relationships understood; yet no hydrazone, so 
lar as we know, occurs in plants. " 
Again: There are many carbon compounds which, nor- 
mally produced in living beings, have also been produced by 
synthesis outside the influence of life. As a single example 
of such I mention oil of wintergreen, which normally occurs in 
birch bark and wintergreen berries, but which is now pro- 
duced commercially by synthetic methods. Many other es- 
sential oils are likewise manufactured. 
Most organic substances therefore belong to a group more 
correctly known as carbon compounds, whose connection is 
Very intimate. Among these compounds the most stable 
one, anhydrous carbon dioxide, CO,, naturally finds a place. 
It occurs in nature, but is produced also as a result of de- 
ere Metabolism in organisms. Heretofore it has been 
e 
Pate, but is frequently produced by and in organisms. It 
_ toohas been called inorganic. But the substances antecedent 
: in the descending scale of oxidation in the or- 
ganism Were called organic. The illogical nature of sucha 
distinction is evident, at least in the case of CO,. : 
and s not conceive it to be possible to use the terms organic 
sj norganic with scientific accuracy, because they are not 
ntific; but if we endeavor to use them as correctly as our 
: Sigg knowledge demands, we can not say that the food of 
~ Plants is inorganic, except in so far as the mineral salts, 
Possibly the water, are concerned. 
thoy i. porcver, may be considered a mere juggling of weg 
- Pottance 100k upon the correct use of words as of especial 1m- 
| i teaching. I propose to show, however, that neither 
'., ,~ Hor mineral salts can properly or logically be con- 
Sood of green plants. 
ei these substances are obtained by chlorophyll-bearing 
Rective are from the atmosphere and from the soil re- 
tor do.2?, they do not exist as two independent compounds, 
d ; penc 
| ot the is). simply enter into solution in the water. On 
tonic a id. &@ New substance, H,COg, is formed, which is car- 
i rbon ic : * 
the stable wo 
| 
s far more readily decomposable than either 
Compounds from which it originates. By the 
Protoplasm of the chlorophyll bodies, under the 
