THE CULTIVATOR. 
191 
What are the other 'properties of carbon ? 
Carbon has the property of de-oxidizing the oxides of 
metals and other combustible substances (2), and with 
this view it is often used in the arts. These purposes 
are effected by means of fire, the carbon uniting to the 
oxygen to form carbonic oxide, or carbon acid (3) ; and 
the metal thus deprived of oxygen, is left in its pure 
state. 
Does carbon enter into any other combination ? 
Carbon is found in large proportions in bitumen, pe¬ 
troleum, and pit-coal; it seems to be ready formed also 
in all vegetables, and in most animal substances; and 
combined with oxygen, enters into the composition of a 
great variety of the products of the mineral kingdom. 
What is the proportion of carbon in pit-coal ? 
Pit-coal vary in quality, according to the different pro¬ 
portions of carbon and bitumen which they contain (4) ; 
but carbon is the chief ingredient in all. What are called 
slaty coals hold also from 10 to 40 per cent, of earth (5) ; 
and some coals likewise contain a considerable quantity 
of the sulphuret of iron, known by the name of martial 
pyrites. 
What is the use of carbon in the vegetable kingdom.! 
Carbon is not only a component part, but it forms 
nearly the whole of the solid basis of all vegetables, 
from the most delicate flower in the garden to the huge 
oak of the forest(fi). 
the workmen with great care, that the largest may be se¬ 
cured for the sovereign prince. Notwithstanding, they are 
frequently conveyed away clandestinely by the workman, 
who will swallow them.” Von Wurmb’s History of Bor¬ 
neo. ■ 
The usual method of calculating the value of diamonds, is 
by squaring the number of carats, and then multiplying the 
amount by the price of a single carat: thus, supposing one 
carat to be worth £2. a diamond of 8 carats is worth £128 
being 8x8x2. A carat is four grains. Polished diamonds, 
without blemish, are worth about £6 per carat. 
In the year 1772, the empress of Russia purchased a dia¬ 
mond that weighed 779 carats, nearly 6J ounces troy. She 
paid the immense sum of twelve tons of gold for it, and 
granted a pension of 4,000 roubles per annum to the vender. 
(2.) Charcoal has such a powerful affinity with oxygen, 
that in a proper degree of heat it will abstract it from all other 
substances. 
(3.) The merit of the discovery of carbonic acid is due to 
the illustrious Dr. Black of Edinburgh. Those who have 
not been in the habit of reading the early chemical writers 
can have no idea of the service which this great man has ren¬ 
dered the science by his very accurate investigation of this 
compound gaseous substance. 
(4.) The immense quantity of pit-coal which is deposited 
beneath the surface of the earth is truly astonishing, and af¬ 
fords abundant matter for reflection. This kind of fuel is 
consuming day after day in incalculable quantities; and so 
great is the store, that there is no probability of its being ex¬ 
hausted for ages yet to come. Supposing the formation of 
pit-coal to be owing to the deposition of vegetable and ma¬ 
rine animal matter; the same process must be still going on, 
and the inmost recesses of the present seas may be receiving 
the materials of fuel for the inhabitants of new continents in 
the most remote periods of the world. The wise economy 
of the great Author of Nature, in this constant circulation 
of the elements of matter, is equalled by nothing but his own 
infinite beneficence; 
“Who, not content 
By one exertion of creative power 
His goodness to reveal; through every age, 
Through every moment up the tract of time 
Adjusts, accommodates, and blesses all.” 
(5.) There are four species of coal, very distinct from each 
other: the graphite of Werner, or plumbago; the anthracolite, 
the jet, or pitch coal: and the common coal. 
One hundred parts of plumbago contain, according to Ber- 
thollet, about 90 per cent, of charcoal and 10 of iron. That 
of tiie best quality, and which is found at Keswick in Cum¬ 
berland, is used in making pencils. Plumbago has also been 
found lately in considerable quantities in an estate about 7 
or 8 miles north of the town of Ayr in Scotland, and in some 
parts of that neighborhood it even occurs at the surface of 
the ground. 
Anthracolite, or anthracite, is distinguished from other 
coal by burning without flame. It is composed of 64 char¬ 
coal, 33 silica, 'and 3 parts of iron. 
Jet occurs in Scotland, at Whitby in Yorkshire, in Bava¬ 
ria, &c. and in France near the Pyrenees. At the latter place 
more than a thousand men, it is said, are constantly em¬ 
ployed in fabricating it into ornaments of dress, drinking ves¬ 
sels, rosaries, &c. It is composed of bitumen and charcoal: 
76 parts charcoal, 22 parts bitumen, and 2 parts earth. 
Common coal is composed of bitumen and charcoal in dif¬ 
ferent proportions, according to its quality, and the places 
whence it is procured. At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, martial 
pyrites are often found mixed with the coal, in such abun¬ 
dance as would render the coal unsaleable; but persons are 
employed to pick out these pyrites and remove them to a pro¬ 
per situation, where in process of time they become acidified, 
and fit for the production of green vitriol. See an account of 
this process in Chapter X. under the article Salts of Iron. 
This species of coal, when, in contact with water, is apt to 
be decomposed, and to burn spontaneously. Ships at sea 
have sometimes been suspected to have been lost by this 
means. His Majesty’s ship Ajax, of 74 guns, took fire a few 
years ago in the middle of the night on a station in the Medi¬ 
terranean, and no cause for that dreadful catastrophe has yet 
been assigned. 
(6.) ft has been discovered that air which has been spoiled 
by the breathing af animals is peculiarly fitted for the vege¬ 
tation of plants; and no doubt this is owing to its containing 
a larger portion of carbonic acid. By the analysis of soils it 
has been proved, that of all the substances found in the mix¬ 
ture of earths which constitute a soil, calcareous earth con¬ 
tributes most certainly , to its fertilization. An interesting ac¬ 
count of some experiments on manures, by Mr. Arthur Young, 
may be seen in the Retrospect of Philosophical and Chemical 
Discoveries, vol. i. page 118. There is an ingenious memoir 
If carbon forms so large a part of all vegetables, what 
occasions that infinite variety which we observe in the ve¬ 
getable creation ? 
We are in a great measure strangers to the economy 
of vegetables; but much of this variety may be attri¬ 
buted to the different modifications of carbon(7), as 
well as of the other principles which enter into their 
constitution(S). 
What products of vegetation are there which are in¬ 
debted to carbon for their formation ? 
Carbon not only constitutes the base of the woody fi¬ 
bre, but is a component part of sugar, and of all kinds 
of wax, oils, gums, and resins ; and of these again how 
indefinite is the variety! 
How are these substances formed by the vegetating or¬ 
gans of plants ? . 
All living vegetables have the power of decomposing 
water(9), and of combining in different proportions the 
hydrogen of the water with the carbon of the soil, as 
well as with that of the carbonic(lO) acid of the atmos- 
phere(ll), to form the numberless productions of vege¬ 
table nature (12). 
If carbon and hydrogen enter into the composition of 
all these substances, how is it that one vegetable affords 
gum, another resin, another oil, fyc. ? 
The infinite variety which there must be in the inter¬ 
nal organization of vegetables, to enable different or¬ 
ders to prepare such different substances from the same 
elements, renders this subject too intricate and minute 
for our investigation. We feel the insufficiency of our 
faculties—“The will of God is the ultimatum of all hu¬ 
man knowledge.” 
Is it known what other substances are employed by na¬ 
ture for the formation and growth of vegetables? 
All orders of vegetables are produced from four or 
five natural substances, viz. caloric, light, water, air, 
and carbon(13). Nature has required only these in or- 
by Dr. Paris on the application of mineral manure to land, 
and on the connexion which subsists between the geological 
structure of any particular district and its agricultural econo¬ 
my, in the 1st volume of the 'Brans, of the Roy. Geol. So¬ 
ciety of Cornwall, pages 168 200. 
(7.) Vegetables have the power to absorb oxygen from the 
atmosphere, and to transmit it to the absorbent vessels of the 
roots. It cannot be questioned but that this oxygen becomes 
useful in vegetation, by converting the carbon of manures 
into carbonic acid. See Additional Notes, No. 48. 
The operation of paring and burning turf, which is always 
found by farmers extremely serviceable to their lands, is 
doubtless rendered universally advantageous from the car¬ 
bonaceous matter, which is produced by the burning. 
(8.) When we consider the small number of simple sub¬ 
stances which enter into the composition of plants, how as¬ 
tonishing is the variety that has been given us by the pro¬ 
fuse hand of Nature ! The species of vegetables already 
known are more than 40,000, and large additions are daily 
making to this number by new discoveries. Is it possible 
that so bountiful a provision can have been made by Nature 
ultimately for the use of man?—Yes. “ for him she has co¬ 
vered the earth with plants; and though their species bo in¬ 
finite in number, there is not one but may be converted to 
his use. She has selected some out of every class to minis¬ 
ter to his pleasures, or his support, wherever he shall please 
to fix his habitation. Others serve for his bed, for his roof, 
for his clothing, for the cure of his diseases, and lor the fire 
of his hearth.”—St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature. 
Fourcroy has remarked that “vegetables may be consi¬ 
dered as beings intended by nature to begin the organization 
of crude matter, and to dispose the primitive materials of the 
earth and atmosphere in order to become the source of life, 
and consequently to establish a communication between mi¬ 
nerals and animals; from whence it follows, that plants are 
truly chemical apparatus employed by nature to produce com¬ 
binations which would not take place without them.—-Four- 
croy’s System of Chemistry. —Nature is as admirable in the 
simplicity of her means, as in the constancy and regularity 
of her operations. 
(9.) When we decompose water, we can do it only by ab¬ 
stracting its oxygen and liberating the hydrogen, which is 
easily effected by some combustible bodies. But vegetables 
perform this process in a different way: they preserve the 
hydrogen and set the oxygen free. This process of Nature 
in the latter instance, has been noticed in a former chapter. 
Berthollot has remarked that the decomposition of water 
must always take place to give rise to substances of a resin¬ 
ous character, when the vegetation is performed without the 
concurrence of foreign bodies. See his Essay on Chemical 
Statics, vol. ii. page 393. 
(10.) Van I-Ielmont planted a willow, weighing fifty pounds, 
in a certain quantity of earlh, covered carefully with sheet 
lead: he kept it in this state for five years, watering it with 
distilled water; and at the end of that time the tree weighed 
169 pounds three ounces: the earth in which it had vegeta¬ 
ted being weighed at the same time, was found to have lost 
only three ounces. This was repeated by Mr. Boyle with a 
similar result. 
(11.) Organized beings cannot live upon the matter in 
which they vegetate: Nature, therefore, by making the air 
their food, has afforded them nourishment, without offering 
violence to their tender organs. 
(12.) Sennebier found that plants watered by"w r ater im¬ 
pregnated with fixed air grew more luxuriantly than plants 
watered as usual; and that when insulated from every sub¬ 
stance which could afford it to them immediately, they ac¬ 
quired carbon by the decomposition of carbonic acid gas in 
the atmosphere. This they take in by the under surface of 
their leaves, as well as by their roots. 
It appears from hence, that it is not requisite to the growth 
of vegetables that matter should be presented to them in the 
solid form, but that they owe their increase chiefly to the 
decomposition of water and carbonic acid. 
(13.) It has been shown that water and atmospheric air are 
the natural food of plants. Caloric is necessary to enable 
vegetables to decompose water anti air; and light is equally 
requisite to give a part of the oxygen of these substances a 
der to form even the most exquisite of her productions— 
“ With hues on hues expression cannot paint, 
The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom.” 
How is it that such an inexhaustible variety of forms, 
colours, tints, odours, tastes, qualities, fyc. so conspicu¬ 
ous in this kingdom of Nature, can be produced from 
such a scanty number of natural substances ? 
The means by which all this is effected are unknown 
to us: but this we know, that “these wonderful har¬ 
monies are not by necessity in the nature- ol the ele¬ 
ments, but in the will of Him who has ordained them, 
in subordination to the wants and the enjoyments of las 
numerous creatures(14).” 
What is the office of carbon in the animal kingdom ? 
As carbon is a necessary part of sugar, of oils, &cc. 
it consequently enters into the composition of animal 
milk, and of animal oils and fat; it is also found in al¬ 
bumen, gelatine, fibrina, and in many of the animal 
secretions. 
Does carbon enter into any mineral combinations ? 
It is imagined that most of the metals may be com¬ 
bined with carbon: but at present we know only of its 
combination with iron. 
gaseous form, and to put it in a proper state to be thrown off 
by the leaves. The other portion of oxygen goes to the for¬ 
mation of sugar and the vegetable acids. The analysis of 
vegetables confirms this theory; for, however they may be 
examined, the result is always the production of oxygen, 
hydrogen, and carbon. Some plants yield also a portion of 
silica, and others lime; but these no doubt are taken up by 
the roots from the soil. See Sir Humphrey Davy’s paper on 
the silica found in the epidermis of reeds, &c. in Nicholson's 
Journal of Philosophy, &c. for May, 1799. 
When we consider that the many thousand tribes of vege¬ 
tables are not only all formed from a few simple substances, 
but that they all enjoy the same sun, vegetate in the same 
medium, and are supplied with the same nutriment, we can¬ 
not but be struck with the rich economy of Nature, and are 
almost induced to doubt the evidence of those senses with 
which the God of Nature has furnished us. That it should be 
possible so to modify and intermingle a few simple substances, 
and thence produce all the variety of form, colour, odour, 
&c. which is observable in the different families of vegeta¬ 
bles, is a phenomenon too astonishing for our comprehension. 
Nothing short of Omnipotence could have provided such a 
paradise for man. 
“ Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers, 
In mingled clouds to Him, whose sun exalts. 
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.” 
(14.) The various orders of vegetables provided in every 
part of the globe for the countless forms of animated exis¬ 
tence, are eminently illustrative of the provident care of the 
Creator, and show us how great and how good is the Father 
of the families of the whole earth. The following passage 
from St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature is so well calculated to 
impress this truth, that it is unnecessary to apologize for its 
introduction:—“ The sluggish cow pastures in the cavity of 
the valley; the bounding sheep on the declivity of the hill; 
the scrambling goat browses among the shrubs of the rock; 
the duck feeds on the water-plants of the river; the hen, 
with attentive eye, picks up every grain that is scattered 
and lost in the field; the pigeon, of rapid wing, collects a 
similar tribute from the refuse of the grove; and the frugal 
bee turns to account even the small dust on the flower.— 
There is no corner of the earth where the whole vegetable 
crop may not be reaped. Those plants which are rejected 
by one are a delicacy to another, and even among the finny 
tribes contribute to their fatness. The hog devours the horse¬ 
tail and hen-bane: the goat, the thistle and the hemlock.—- 
All return in the evening to the habitation of man, with 
murmurs, with bleatings, with cries of joy, bringing back 
to him the delicious tributes of innumerable plants, trans¬ 
formed, by a process the most inconceivable, into honey, 
milk, butter, eggs, and cream.” 
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