CONCLUSION, 
343 
The volume contains original analyses ; and the composition of most of these substances 
had not been previously investigated in this country, except to a very limited extent. In 
preparing the work for publication, I could not feel satisfied with giving the results of 
others; although they may have been obtained by chemists before whom I could lay no 
claim to distinction, still our own soils and grains, our own products, were the ones which 
required this kind of labor. This view of the subject has always been entertained by my¬ 
self ; and though I felt an interest in the analyses which have been made in Europe, still 
they do not, as it appears to me, give that full information which we want. I have been, 
as will be seen, influenced by this view of the subject in taking up for analysis so many 
kinds of food, and other productions of the earth, and attempting thereby to furnish that 
kind of information which seemed so important respecting their composition. I have not 
attempted to deduce, from these analyses, all the inferences which may clearly be drawn 
from them. Hence they stand more as facts, which may be vised in various ways for 
illustrating the economy of the vegetable kingdom. 
