FOOD, 
‘mucilage, oily and faline matter, by which the plant “is 
ena mae to provide food for throwing out and nourifhing 
ranches, flowers, and fruits. He thinks it difficult 
ee conceive haw a large tree finds, during pe 
‘ment on the fame fpot, on the fappofition of M. Haffen- 
fratz, ne its principal food is and that this ae is 
not derived fro 1e decompofition of the carbonic acid 
_ (of whic Bester conftitutes cca one-third a ing to 
M. Lavoi 3). r ntleman admits r Inge 
thoufz’s difeovery as well founded, that plants erodes car- 
nic acid in the dark ; and that Toots, eee always de- 
mon air; ond common air alone is, the doctor s, fuffi- 
cient to furnifh, as he has proved before, carb acid even 
without plants. Thus there is no difficulty in tracing the 
Jource of this coal, and of ee how thel tree find, 
during stad a - menfe quantity of foad it requires 
for its main » growth, aa paien production of 
fruit or feed, derived in part from 
ail ehh is certainly 
the foil; but he ftill believes chiefly fon the atmofphere, by 
means s the a abforbing aud decompofing the air in 
contact with them. 
Itis ftated, hae the oo of common air into aie 
ferent folid bodies , isa very ancient doctrine. 
Pythagoras and Epicu writer fays, for an 
“ ubted fact ; and La who be adorned his poem 
“De Rerum Natura’? with this do€trine, afferts that air 
o diffetent other fubftances, and 
exilt, every thing 
w e been i eee i air, which, of 
weuld have been. at laft the only fub{tance exiting. 
aidnienee alfo aflerted = all bodies are made en air. 
or ‘formed of aerial matter 
It is nggeie oe in a 
a 
Gardini). 
Though this theory may perhaps be erroneous, 
ret, as it is fup 
—? ona real fa&, he afferts further that 
e dark more dad piace: air into car- 
bonic acid than thes can ae eft, t ney t sie a lar 
ith chen 
hele ref{pira able 
atmofpheric air fo: 
oxygen which has thus bee lis la 
which vital air, though not yet obtained y plants in fe 
greateft purity, is however in itfelf full as pure as tha 
which we cbtain from the beft canine or any other 
ingredient. Ina ies to fir John Sinclair, i in 1794, he 
quoted as a proof of carbonic acid pee the principal food 
of plants,-the fa& he difcovered, that ie wonderful ap- 
which a plan 
se reduc! 
18 gicuche ae led to the knowledge of t 
food of vegetables ; 3 and it may be faid as a further illuf- 
tration, that if we were defirous to know what is the natural 
young. Ww 
y grains, re a fallow by 
‘By a fimilar conclufion, it is inferred that the true, 
z 
or principal aliment of plants j is sefbiable air is decompoted, 
By. examining the air thus deco 0 c 
filted of cae fabftances, viz. of feed Ce or carbonic eid 
Bas, and ‘phlo ogifticated air, or azote 3 but as carbonic acid 
ontains two iting {ubitances, Vik. coal er carbon, and 
enfratz thinks it is- 
principally ¢ coal : hough iis age is that the oo does" 
oS derive ang coal from the carbonic acid, but from the 
oi 
not agen as me y ‘they were mixed, and in the 
e, the carbon and the 
tease within the plant at ee time. Though he thinks 
t probable that the azote enters, in bagi hale or other; 
ie the compofition of i i 
oe neceffary for a 
e, howevery 
the os may be atte conlidered as if it were choaked’ 
wit nowever, acknowledges very readily, that 
the jut mention patel has not all the clearnefs he could 
wifh to giv e facis quote pee eek it, ae 
oinidel. oe ae years, w, it is affer 
admitted, even ae thofe who have a fhe chief capi 
of the doétrin 
e Dr. Darwin have furnifhed a 
nd obfersations on: ° 
th 
dae, 
— 
ao 
ba 
2. 
S 
Laie 
abforbed a the la€teals without its tae hr oe coa- 
gulated, and again diffolved in the ftomach by the power 
f digeftion. Hence it happens, that i ai of all 
animals, a very kind of od which they take into 
ena much pa ee and oil, which exift in ‘chyle; 
e may, a 1s » be other materials, which - 
ivf ‘fro 
on “e able thet ‘oie ac lat 
are formed and: fecreted by animal procefies, as well as fe- 
le&ted 
