72 REPORT — 1859. 



other irrigation, was, of course, entirely separate from the one here under considera- 

 tion. 



So far as the chemical composition of hay was concerned, it appeared that — the more 

 the produce was Graminaceous, the more it went to flower and seed ; and the more it 

 was ripened, the higher would be the percentage of dry substance in the hay. Under 

 the same circumstances, the higher will be the percentage of comparatively indurated, 

 and therefore probably effete, cellular or woody matter — and the lower will be that of 

 the total crude nitrogenous compounds, of the impure green fatty matter, and of the 

 mineral matter, in the dry substance. On the other hand, a large proportion of wow- 

 Graminaceous herbage, over luxuriance, succulence, a large proportion of leaf, and 

 unripeness, were likely to be associated with a small proportion of the more refractory 

 cellular or luoody matter, but with a large one of nitrogenous substance in a questionable 

 degree of elaboration, a large one of impure fatty matter of doubtful nutritive capacity, 

 and a large one also of mineral matter, in the diy substance of the hay. 



From the results of the investigation as a whole, it appeared, that the proportion, 

 and the relative feeding value, of the various chemical compounds of which the 

 complex substance — hay — was made up, depended on such a multiplicity of circum- 

 stances, that, even supposing there were no question as to the proper relationship 

 to one another of the different elaborated compounds in our stock-foods, it would 

 still be impracticable to get a true and unconditional estimate of comparative feeding 

 value of such crude vegetable produce, by the simple determination of the percentage 

 amount of one or two important constituents, as was frequently assumed to be suffi- 

 cient for that purpose. The next step in advance in such inquiries could only be 

 attained, when our knowledge of the proximate compounds — of lower or of higher 

 condition of elaboration — into which the ultimate constituents of our food-stuffs were 

 grouped, had been much extended ; and when the digestibility, and applicability to 

 the purposes of the system, of the various proximate compounds, had been experi- 

 mentally determined. 



On the Analysis and Valuation of Manures. 

 By S. Macadam, Ph.D., F.C.S. 



On the Organic Molecules and their relations to each other, and to the Medium 

 of Light, illustrated by Models according to the Author s Theory of the 

 Forms and Structures of the Molecules of Bodies. By the Rev. John G. 

 Macvicar, D.D. 



An analogy of function in the entire series of chemical agents being admitted, it 

 follows that an analogy of structure is to be looked for; and the author of this com- 

 munication, building upon this principle, proceeded to unfold his theory, which infers 

 that what has been proved of a vast number of molecules is true of them all ; and that 

 whether in the actual state of analysis they be decomposable or not, they are all com- 

 pound and constituted each of its own peculiar group of lesser atoms, the ultimate 

 atom being the same in all. Jt is not hydrogen, however, that the author looks to as the 

 mother element or ultimate atom, and that which would be obtained from all bodies in 

 the last analysis, if such analysis were possible ; not only because such hypothesis 

 is excluded by the fact (which meantime must be respected) that the atomic weights 

 even of some of the most abundant molecular agents in nature (chlorine for instance) 

 are not multiples of that of hydrogen, but yet more, because nature herself presents 

 another element, one with which all space is filled, and whose position in nature is 

 such, that, analogically viewed, it seems the common vapour of all bodies considered 

 as mere matter, viz. the particles of light or of the ether, respecting the existence of 

 which there can be no doubt, as every ray of light (not to speak of the retardations 

 and tails of comets) demonstrates. 



The principle on which the author conducts the synthesis of these particles into 

 permanent groups, representing, according to his theory, the molecules of bodies, is 

 that of statical equilibrium or balance of mutual attractions and repulsions, which, 

 however, is always one and the same with the principle of symmetry. And thus, as the 

 first symmetrical species, the first that possesses a single axis terminated by poles 



