249 Moubray on Poultry. 



sary to form water, ^56.45 



' Lavoisier concluded from his experiments that sugar is com-' 

 posed of the following elementary proportions in a hundred parts: — " 



28 carbon, 



.8 hydrogen, 



64 oxygen. 



Then to turn starch to sugar it is nierely necessary to subtract 



from the carbon of the starch, to wit, 43.55, 15.55, and it will 



stand 28 cai-bon. 



To add to the oxygen of the starch, to wit, 



49.68, 14.32, and it is 64 oxygen. 



To add to the hydrogen of the starch, to 



witj 6.77, 1.23, and it is 8 hydrogen. 



Thus, by adding oxygen and hyidrogen to starch, in certain pro- 

 portions, and by subtracting or driving off as much carbon as wilt 

 be equivalent to the additions, starch is changed to sugar. Water 

 is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, and, together with the sul- 

 phuric acid, furnishes the elements necessary for the change, by 

 the agency of the same heat which expels a part of the carbon. 



' Should any person still doubt whether water can exist in a solid 

 state, combined with other substabces, but not frozen, let him 

 take the trouble to weigh a small quantity of quicklime, then slake 

 it with water, and mark its increase of weight. 



' Braconnet, a celebrated chemist, raised vegetables in pure river 

 sand, in litharge, in flowers of sulphur, and even among metal, or 

 common leaden shot; and in eyery instance nothing was employed 

 for their nourishment but distilled water. The plants throve, and 

 passed through all the usual gradations of growth to perfect matu- 

 rity. The author then proceeded to gather the entire produce, 

 the roots, stems, leaves, pods, <^o. These were accurately 

 weighed, then submitted to distillation, incineration, lixiviation,- 

 and other ordinary means used in careful analysis. Thus he ob- 

 tained from the vegetables all the materials peculiar to each indi- 

 vidual species, precisely as if it had been cultivated in its own 

 natural soil; — viz. the varions earths, the alkalies, acids, metals, 

 carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, nitrogen, hydrogen, ^c He con- 

 cludes this importsfifit paper with these remarkable words: — "Oxy- 

 gen and hydrogen, with the assistance of solar light, appear to be. 

 the only elementary substances employed in the constitution of 

 the whole universe; and nature in her simple progress, works the. 

 most infinitely diversified effects by the slightest modification of 

 the means she employs." 



' This chemist entertained an opinion founded on experiment, 

 that the elements of water composed plants, the decay of plants 



