The Chemical Statics of Organised Beings. 55 



a cemetery is capable of being made, in order to stimulate the 

 curator to exertion, and to reward him by praise when he has 

 done his duty with taste and spirit. 



(To be continued.') 



Art. II. On the Chemical Statics of Organised Beings. 

 By M. Dumas. 



(Continued from p. 11.) 



III. Let a seed be thrown into the earth, and be left to ger- 

 minate and develope itself; let the new plant be watched until 

 it has borne flowers and seeds in its turn, and we shall see, by 

 suitable analyses, that the primitive seed, in producing the new 

 being, has fixed carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, azote, and ashes. 



Carbon. — The carbon originates essentially in carbonic 

 acid, whether it be borrowed from the carbonic acid of the air, 

 or proceed from that other portion of carbonic acid which the 

 spontaneous decomposition of manures continually gives out in 

 contact with the roots. 



But it is from the air especially that plants most frequently 

 derive their carbon. How could it be otherwise, when we see 

 the enormous quantity of carbon which aged trees, for example, 

 have appropriated to themselves, and yet the very limited space 

 within which their roots can extend? Certainly, when a hundred 

 years ago the acorn germinated, which has produced the oak 

 that we now admire, the soil on which it fell did not contain the 

 millionth part of the carbon that the oak itself now contains. It 

 is the carbonic acid of the air which has supplied the rest, that 

 is to say, nearly the whole. 



But what can be clearer and more conclusive than the ex- 

 periment of M. Boussingault, in which peas, sown in sand, 

 watered with distilled water, and having no aliment but air, have 

 found in that air all the carbon necessary for developement, 

 flowering, and fructification ? 



All plants fix carbon, all borrow it from carbonic acid ; 

 whether this be taken directly from the air by the leaves, 

 whether the roots imbibe within the ground the rain water 

 impregnated with carbonic acid, or whether the manures, 

 whilst decomposing in the soil, supply carbonic acid, which the 

 roots also take possession of to transmit it to the leaves. 



All these results may be proved without difficulty. M. 

 Boussingault observed that vine leaves which were enclosed 

 in a a;lobe took all the carbonic acid from the air directed 

 across the vessel, however rapid the current. M. Boucherie 



E 4< 



