FOOD. 
‘of, or which nobody underftood any thing of before. The 
new difcoveries in the nature o eae alr, wid &c. open 
the door to an infinite number ar iety 0 v difcove- 
The identity of the fame pnd of all ca. called 
oxygen, which the French chem have eftablifhed, 
throws new light on the difference which exifts ia the 
various acids already known, and on the changes which 
thefe acids eG Se Thus, the fame acidifying principle 
attce's to a differeat bafis, becomes either nitrous, 
vi niche. a er any other acid. 
cor carbone acl s, with fulphur it 
becomes vitriolic or fulphuric acid; with phofphorus it 
becomes phofphoric acid 3 wat te i ecomes nitrou 
acid, &c. ‘Whe lait was.a di feover made by Mr. Cavendith. 
e 
Mr 
It may thus, the writer thinks, be reafonably fuppofed, that 
fome acids taken into our body may lofe in the various 
operations of our organs their former radical and combine 
one, an is So pee e change 
‘our bodies, (which ac 
eminent chemitte of pee acid,) principally in our bones? 
Whereas we find no _ the marine acid, though of all 
acids we take in tue greateft stcee of it. We find in 
feveral liquids its balis, the fofil alkali ; as in bile, urine, 
& 
really exifts in fome of our foods, yet the quantity of it 1s 
but triflin 
It is farther contended that if plants imbibe fixed air, o 
carbonic acid gas, it is net more difficult to believe that 
this fubftance may be transformed, elaborated, or modified 
he plants, than it is difficult to believe that the above- 
mentioned changes take place in the human y. Who 
can believe, witho monftrati piece that the aerial 
fluid, the carbonic acid gas, eae re about 54°. of lime- 
of 
ftone ; and see this ftone having loft its hardnefs, by being 
deprived of this aerial fluid, regains its former confiftency 
by soapy this fluid? As the carbonic acid is compofed 
ef the ac 
ifying principle, the oxygen, and the carbon or 
coal, alems may “derive from thefe two principles fome of the 
moft eflential fubfances we find in th 
ela Here in bos organs, fomewha analogous to the 
erf gh to ie Luman underftandiug incom- 
preheat elaboration and combinations which we ob- 
i a bedi dies fe a inimals. M. Haffe; regs ¥ three 
a n tl of plants, Pe eee in 
the Royal Aen ar Paris, have met with sal “general 
apprebation ; s and tHe pn incipal part of the doétrine con- 
tained in then viz, that coal, or carbon, ee the i 
sa ney Subfiance fp! ants; has been adopted b 
ce ; Mr. Kir de : his 7 ierauien on Minwes” 
ome free ince prefented to the attenti f the agri- 
eulturalift. _e = 
Tn the firft it is contended that water and airare not alone 
‘ung 
veyed 
Bu 
.fufficient to nourifh plants, but that the developement or 
he ¢ 
on, wh: ch 
oe dark 
the water secompo fed by — Kirwan, 
m M, Halffenfratz, and thinke 
ee with wh’ ch the 
of carbon is given to the 
which remains after the water is cvaporated or con- 
away by the action of heat, &ec. 
t the doétrine contained in thefe memoirs, as well as 
the important experiments to which they Acid require, in 
Dr. Ingenhoufz’s opinion, farther invehigntio » before it 
can be proved or clearly underftood. acne hints 
and confiderations may, it is fuppofed, ae fhew the way © 
true myftery of the manner which nature em- 
ploys to feed the plants. All feeds contain a certain quan- 
tity of food, by a plant may be kept alive in the 
; fome have a Soe gees per rtion ° 
have, befides this mucilage, ery t 
which the feed is forromded, fac as aes feed of 
ers, 
"All Ane i uies by which many 
grains are thickly covered, yield a great quantity of fixe 
r, or carbonie acid gas, when the feed lodged in them be- 
ins to vegetate 5 but this fubftance, being exhaufted at the 
and putrefacu the embryo 
A 
when in the womb, aud of uri 
prepared in the pedtoral tand of the child; as it is wel 
known that all children, male as well as female; come irto 
the world with a portien of true milk elaborated in their 
breafts. = the egg is fare into the 
cady to break its prifon, by 
means of which = itis pee till it has acquired 
firength enough to go in fearch of food. The mothers of 
animals, endowed with breafts, feed, during a cera in time 
their offspring by their milk. Many animals, fuch a 
birds of different kinds, wander about in fearch of food rs : 
be catried to their young. Very few _— ae on the 
{pot where they exift, every aie they want. tall 
plants are deftined by nature to remain on the ve fpot, ‘and 
therefore muft polite fuch faculties as- prepare into foo 
with them, as foon as 
ope- 
