1 878.] 
Economy of Nitrogen. 
15 ^ 
hand, in its free gaseous state, as present in the atmosphere 
it is the very type of indifference and negation. We can 
merely say what it will not do. But on the other hand, 
when existing in its solidified combined condition, and espe- 
cially in its organic compounds, it has more striking positive 
attributes than perhaps any other of the elements. No 
longer azote, as our French neighbours persist in calling it, 
it might rather be termed “ z ote,” — if such a word may be 
framed, — the very essence of life. It is an indispensable 
constituent of every vegetable seed and of every animal 
ovum. Without it blood, muscle, nervous tissue are impos- 
sibilities. But in addition to its functions in the processes 
of life, and therefore to its necessity in our diet, nitrogen — 
combined nitrogen, we must remember — has other properties 
which render it useful, or rather necessary, in numerous 
arts and manufactures. As a rule we shall find that if any 
organic compound, whether existing naturally or only pro- 
duced by human intervention, possesses very striking attri- 
butes, such compound is nitrogenous. The most valuable 
fibres available for our clothing, the richest dyes procurable 
for their embellishment, the most precious medicines, the 
deadliest poisons, and last, though not least, those explosives 
so largely prescribed by modern humanitarianism in treating 
the diseases of bodies politic, — all these various bodies con- 
tain nitrogen as an essential constituent. Such manifold 
utilisation, in the present imperfedt state of our knowledge, 
and in our still more imperfedt disposition to make a rational 
application of what knowledge we possess, leads to a waste 
equally manifold. We say manifold in appearance, but still 
resolvable into one common principle — the conversion of 
solidified combined nitrogen into the free, inert, gaseous 
nitrogen which exists in the atmosphere. How vast are 
some of these forms of waste we will endeavour to show in 
some detail. 
Let us, first and foremost, look at the very defedtive 
economy of nitrogen in the maintenance of human life, 
under existing conditions. In speaking of phosphorus we 
have already adverted to the truth so perseveringly and 
authoritatively enforced by Liebig, — that in growing crops 
upon land we take away from the soil certain constituents, 
and that its crop-producing power can only be prevented 
from diminishing by a systematic return of such constituents 
in the shape of the excretions of all living beings fed on the 
produce of the soil. Our negledt in fulfilling this condition 
is, perhaps, even more conspicuous in the case of nitrogen 
than of phosphorus itself. On an average the daily 
