GARDENING AS A SCIENCE. 
227 
and on this point Faraday says, " I cannot refrain from recalling here the beautiful 
idea put forth, I believe, by Berzelius, in his development of his views of the 
electro-chemical theory of affinity — that the heat and light evolved during cases of 
powerful combination, are the consequence of the electric discharge which is at the 
moment taking place. The idea is in perfect accordance with the view I have 
taken of the quantity of electricity associated with the particles of matter." 
(P. 256, No. 870.) 
Hydrogen gas burns with a light, bluish flame, provided it have access of some 
air, but in the total absence of air, it is incombustible, and will extinguish a lighted 
match or taper. Blended with oxygen, and suddenly ignited, the mixture explodes 
with tremendous violence ; but if slowly consumed, with an appropriate apparatus, 
containing oxygen, hydrogen never burns without producing a quantity of water, 
equal in weight to that of the two gases consumed : hence its name, which implies 
the generator or base of water. Whence comes the flame v>^hich precedes the 
formation of water ? and how, we then ask, how does it happen that in the com- 
bustion of spirits, of oil, tallow, resins, wood, water in vast quantities is always 
produced ? Can we form any other reasonable conjecture than that the electricities, 
which " are naturally associated with," and give form to all material things, are thus 
liberated and become visible. Combustion is a mystery — that, we are prepared to 
admit ; but flame, and light, are realities, which appeal to the understanding, and 
aflbrd evidence not to be resisted, that they are not new creations, but developments 
of powers which had lain masked and hidden only, till called into activity by 
peculiar attractions. 
As water, the^fore, is always formed by the combustion of bodies which 
contain hydrogen and oxygen, we might be led to infer that it is, abstractedly, a 
product of combustion. But facts appear to militate against sucli a conclusion, 
and rather lead us to infer that water is itself primordial, and that the vegetable 
organization and its productions are mainly dependent upon the decomposition of 
water through the electrizing agency of solar light. At all events, decomposition 
and re-combination are ever proceeding in one eternal circle, and thus decay is but 
one of the many conditions which lead to re-construction. 
The gardener, who supplies his drooping plant with this " simple element " of 
the olden time, presumes that it inhales the refreshing stream, and there an end. 
But, with the spread of knowledge, he will learn that two, at least, of the elements 
of the organs, and all the organic products of every plant in nature, are furnished by 
this insipid fluid. This view of the subject alone will confer importance on the 
science of horticulture ; and we therefore earnestly impress the consideration of the 
vast utility — nay, of the essential necessity, of applying electro-chemistry to the 
practice of both agriculture and horticulture, for by it alone can any rational idea 
of causes be obtained. Other opportunities will, however, occur to revert to this 
consideration. 
A question has arisen on the comparative applicability of hard and soft- waters 
