2l6 



MANURES. 



Sect.X. 6.^* 



lock ; and may I fuppofe fupply a nutritious fubftance by uniting with 



mucilage or oil, eith 



the earth at the roots of vesfetabl 



& 



or ou 



th 



e 



fii 



of the foil, which may be gradually walhcd down to 



them. 



If a folution of foap be poured into lime-water, the oil of the foap 

 combines with the calcareous earth, and the cauftic alkali is fet at li' 

 berty, according to the experiments of Mr. Bertholet ; (fee Nichol- 

 fon's Journal, Vol. I. p. 170,) who concludes, that oil has a ftronger 



affinity to calcareous earth than it has to fixed alkali. At the fame 

 time it appeared, that a folution of the mild or efFervefcent fixed al- 

 kali poured on this calcareous foap would decompofe it by twofold 

 ele6live attradion; as the carbonic acid of the mild fixed alkali unites, 

 with the calcareous earth of the calcareous foap, and the oil unites 

 with the pure or cauftic alkali. 



Many arguments may be adduced to fhew, that calcareous 



earth 



th 



fome of the ftates of combination above m 



ed, may contribute to the nourifhment both of animals and vegeta- 

 bles. Firft, becaufe calcareous earth conftitutes a confiderable part 

 of them, and mufl therefore either be received from without, or 



formed by them 

 organic life, wh; 



, or both. Secondly, becaufe from the analogy of all 

 tever has compofed a part of a vegetable or animal, 

 may again after its chemical folution become a part of another vege- 

 table or animal -, fuch is the general tranfmigration of matter ! 



5. There are other ufes of lime in agriculture, which may not be 

 afcribed to it as a nutritive food for vegetables, but from its produc- 

 ing fome chemical or mechanical effeds upon the foil, or upon other 



man 



ith which it is mixed ; as firft, from its deftroy 



a 



Ihort time the cohefion of dead ve2;etable fibres, and thus reducing 



them 



earth 



hich otherwife is efiedled by a flow procefs, eith 



by the confumption of infe6l 



by a gradual putrefad 



on. This 

 faid to be performed both by mild and by cauftic calcareous earth, 



in the experiments both of Pringle and Macbride. It is faid that 



unburnt 



/ 



