The Chemical Statics of Organised Beings. 7 



presence, and consequently reduced into form with the hesitation 

 which so often accompanies the first enunciation of our thoughts. 

 II. Since [the causes of] all the phenomena of life are exerted 

 upon matters which have for their base carbon, hydrogen, azote, 

 oxygen; since these matters pass over from the animal kingdom 

 to the vegetable kingdom by intermediary forms, carbonic acid, 

 water, and the oxide of ammonium ; lastly, since air is the 

 source whence the vegetable kingdom is fed, and the reservoir 

 in which the animal kingdom is annihilated ; we are led to take 

 a rapid survey of these different bodies with a special view to 

 general physiology. 



Composition of Water. — Water is incessantly formed and de- 

 composed in animals and plants; to appreciate what results from 

 this, let us first see how it is composed. Some experiments 

 founded on the direct combustion of hydrogen, and in which I 

 have produced more than two pounds of artificial water, — ex- 

 periments which are in truth very difficult and very delicate, but 

 in which any errors would be unimportant with regard to the 

 circumstances which we are engaged upon, — make it very pro- 

 bable that water is formed, in weight, of 1 part hydrogen, and 

 8 parts oxygen, and that these whole and simple numbers express 

 the true relation according to which these two elements combine 

 to form water. 



As substances always present themselves to the eyes of the 

 chemist by molecules, as he always endeavours to connect in his 

 thoughts, with the name of each substance, the weight of the 

 molecule, the simplicity of this relation is not unimportant. 



In fact, each molecule of water being formed of one molecule 

 of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen, we arrive at these 

 simple numbers, which cannot be forgotten. 



A molecule of hydrogen weighs 1 ; a molecule of oxygen 

 weighs 8 ; and a molecule of water weighs 9. 



Composition of Carbonic Acid. — Carbonic acid keeps inces- 

 santly forming, in animals, and is continually undergoing decom- 

 position in plants ; its composition, therefore, deserves a special 

 notice in its turn. 



Now carbonic acid, like water, is represented by the most 

 simple numbers. Experiments founded on the direct combustion 

 of the diamond, and on its conversion into carbonic acid, have 

 proved to me that this acid is formed of the combination of 

 6 parts by weight of carbon and 16 parts by weight of oxygen. 



We are therefore led to represent carbonic acid as being 

 formed of one molecule of carbon weighing 6, and two molecules 

 of oxygen weighing 16, which constitute one molecule of car- 

 bonic acid Weighing 22. 



Composition of Ammonia. — Lastly, ammonia, in its turn, 

 seems formed in whole numbers of 3 parts of hydrogen and 14 



b 4 



