WATER IN THE ECONOMY OF ORGANIZED BEINGS. 
219 
bably by a substitution of aliments that some water-plants, which are acrid and poisonous, be¬ 
come, in dry soils, mild, palatable and nourishing food. The properties of all cereals are 
somewhat changed by aliments, or by the soil, and it is possible to favor by cultivation the 
predominance of gluten or starch in wheat. But it should not be inferred that these changes 
are unlimited. Here is a wide field opened for analysis—the correct determination of aliments 
and their influence on the properties of plants, and the most effective means of imparting to 
plants the properties we desire, or rather I should say, to modify those properties so as to 
make them more useful to man. To do this will require an accurate knowledge of the com¬ 
position both of the soil and plant. 
The application of the precept of giving select food to the cultivated plants and fruits, as 
well as grains and roots, extends itself through the whole field of husbandry. The value of 
many, and perhaps all fruits, is very much diminished when they are produced upon certain 
soils, and their value greatly increased by proper food and culture. There is a great difference 
in the quality of uncultivated fruit and nuts. It has its application too to stock-growing and 
stock-feeding : the texture and flavor of meat is altered, in a sensible degree, by the quality of 
the food; pasture lands, by draining, become so far ameliorated in their grasses that mutton 
and beef is sensibly changed for the better. In the husbandry of this country these subjects 
are only beginning to receive attention. The field is interesting and important, but no one 
can successfully prosecute a refined husbandry who is ignorant of the composition of his lands, 
the wants of vegetables and animals, and the physiology of organized beings. 
IMPORTANCE .OF WATER IN THE ECONOMY OF ORGANIZED BEINGS. 
It is a question whether water should be regarded as an aliment. Its importance can not 
be over estimated ; and yet it is impossible to say whether it contributes to the matter of the 
cell. If the water was removed from the tissue of an organ, it would not be difficult to pre¬ 
serve the form and shape of the organ ; air would distend and fill the cells and insinuate itself 
between the molecules. One of the important offices of water to organized beings, is to dis¬ 
solve the elements. Water is the only agent which can separate the atoms of bodies, and so 
far divide them as to enable them to pass into the tissues of the body. I have already noticed 
some of the facts in regard to the amount of water in plants. By a reference to the table 
we may learn something of the importance of water, provided we admit that quantity is a test 
of importance. When we see that grasses and roots or herbage, in their growing state, con¬ 
tain from 70 to 90 per cent of water, we can not but believe that it plays an important part; 
it seems to be a solvent and a diluent : food, as has been remarked, must undergo solution ; 
these solutions can not be concentrated. The constitution of bodies is such that nutritive matter 
must be dilute : when it is too much concentrated in the solution, it acts mechanically, and fills 
up the pores and channels of circulation. The remark is scarcely necessary that plants differ 
greatly in the amount of w T ater which they require ; and it may be true also, that some plants 
admit a more concentrated solution without injury. Water plants are exceedingly spongy and 
