276 
LIEBIG^S THEORY OF THE MOTION OF JUICES. 
taught to dispose themselves into a tableaux vivant , 
at whatever point of view the tasteful eye may 
deem desirable. No one with a very limited range 
should attempt to keep them at all. But where 
they can be kept, they should be collected in con¬ 
siderable numbers, that their dazzling effect may be 
as impressive as possible. It should be understood, 
however, that no vineyard be at hand. The green¬ 
ness and sourness of the grapes, which caused the 
fox to refrain, would be but a weak argument with 
them. 
A second objection to them is their alleged wan¬ 
ton destructiveness towards the young of other 
poultry, a propensity respecting which, the accounts 
are very contradictory. It is believed, however, 
that the peacock becomes more cruel as he ad¬ 
vances in life, although they often vary in their dis¬ 
positions. A writer on this point, says : “ I have 
known them to kill from 12 to 20 ducklings, say 
from a week to a fortnight old, during one day; but 
if they came across a brood of young chicks or 
ducklings a few days old, they would destroy the 
whole of them.” And yet, in the face of all this 
condemnatory evidence, we now and then see a fa¬ 
vorite bird, with neck of lapis lazuli, back of eme¬ 
rald, wings of tortoise shell, and tail outshining the 
rainbow, in some old-fashioned farm yard, the pet 
of his mistress, who is, perhaps, the most success¬ 
ful poultry woman in the neighborhood, and whose 
stock shows no sign of any murderous thinning. 
The peahen, which, when she has eggs or young, 
seems.really a more guilty parly, is not in general 
•Wen suspected. So true is it that one man may 
steal a horse Avhile another must not look over the 
hedge. 
Nervous and fastidious persons object to their cry, 
or, call, which, indeed, is not melodious ; and a strip 
of woolen cloth is sometimes hung round their 
necks in the fashion of a collar, to silence them; 
die appendage, however, is anything but an orna¬ 
ment, and the effect is not permanent. But it must 
De regarded as an unhealthy symptom, when any 
natural, or rural, sound is displeasing to the ear. 
The bleating of sheep, the .pattering of rain, the hum 
of bees, the pealing thunder, the laughter of children, 
the breezy rustling of a grove, the lashing of wintry 
waves, and the sighing of summer winds, have 
til been felt by listeners in their happiest moods to 
be most musical—to have an effect more touching 
than any music; and should, therefore, be welcome, 
.instead of distasteful, to the healthy sense. And 
even the screams of pea fowl, ringing from a dis¬ 
tance, on a summer’s evening, w T ill suggest an abun¬ 
dance of images and recollections that cannot fail 
& interest any but the most dull and unimaginative 
minds. 
If fatted, the pea fowls should be shut up to¬ 
gether with any turkeys they may have been in the 
Labit of associating with, and fed exactly the same. 
If confined alone, they pine. They are, however, 
an excellent viand at a much more advanced age, 
• jid without anymore fatting, provided they have 
oeen well fed, and killed at a proper season; that is, 
when they are not renewing their plumage, and are 
zi the larder hung up a sufficient time before cook- 
tag. A disregard to these points has probably led 
*o their being so little appreciated as a dainty dish. 
r. ork, in the dog days, and illegal oysters, might, in 
a similar manner, give a bad repute to other good 
things, did we not manage them better. When 
dressed for table, they should be larded over the 
breast, covered with paper, roasted by a gentle fire, 
and served with brown gravy, exactly like partridges 
or pheasants. When moulting, extra diet and varie¬ 
ties of food, including hemp seed and animal sub¬ 
stances, are most desirable. 
LIEBIG’S THEORY OF THE MOTION OF 
JUICES. 
Take a horseshoe-shaped tube, fill it with pure 
water, close both ends with bladder, then place 
one end in a vessel containing brine, colored blue. 
We observe, after a few hours, that a blue stratum 
forms within the tube, which constantly increases, 
till at last the brine is all drawn up into the tube. 
* * Bile, or oil, will be drawn up in the same 
way. This is effected by the evaporation of the 
water through the bladder, which is exposed to the 
air; and as this evaporation goes on, the brine is 
gradually forced through the other bladder. * * 
The quickness of this process is directly propor¬ 
tionate to the rapidity of evaporation, and, conse¬ 
quently, to the temperature and hygrometric state 
of the atmosphere. That the skin of animals, and 
the cutaneous transpiration, as well as the evapora¬ 
tion from the internal surface of the lungs exert an 
important influence on the vital processes, and 
thereby on the state of health, has been admitted 
by physicians ever since medicine has existed; but 
no one has hitherto ascertained precisely in what 
way this happens. 
The result of the previous investigations would 
seem to be, that one of the most important func¬ 
tions of the skin consists in the share which it takes 
in the motion and subdivision of the fluids of the 
body. The surface of the body of a number of 
animals consists of a covering, or skin, permeable 
to liquids (like the bladder in#the experiment), 
from which, when in contact with the atmosphere, 
an evaporation of water, according to the hygromet¬ 
ric state and temperature of the air, constantly goes 
on. If w r e now keep in mind that every part of the 
body has to sustain the pressure of the atmosphere, 
and that gaseous fluids and liquids contained in the 
body oppose to the pressure a perfectly equal re¬ 
sistance, it is clear that, by the evaporation from 
the skin and lungs, these parts lose their moisture , 
which is again drawn by capillary attraction from 
the part beneath —thus causing a steady flow to¬ 
wards the surface. This close connexion, which 
the previous remarks show to exist between the 
pressure and hygrometric state of the atmosphere, 
and the motion of the vital animal juices, at once 
explains the influence which a residence in dry or 
moist air, at great elevations, or at the level of the 
sea, may exert on the health. * * The blister¬ 
ing of the skin, and the sunburnings to which men 
are exposed at great elevations, arise from the ex¬ 
traordinary dryness of the air, the increased evapo¬ 
ration, and the pressure by which the fluids, filling 
the vessels, are forced towards the surface. 
In a precisely similar manner is the sap forced up 
the stems of trees, &c. By the evaporation of the 
water from the surface of their leaves a vacuum 
arises within them, in consequences of which, 
