71 
But besides the influence of snow as a guard, it is supposed, says 
Miller, in his Gardeners Dictionary, to abound with “ dalifLc ’ and “fertile 
particles.” 
Snow, says Evelyn, is to be reckoned among the manures, as contain- 
ing a quantity of u nitrous particles,” which is the oxygen of modern phi¬ 
losophy. The motto we have selected is a further corroboration of the 
prevalence of this notion. 
Nor is this conclusion far from the truth, since the latest experiments, 
and most remarkable discoveries, which have contributed in the highest 
degree to the rapid progress of physics, have proved that snow and ice are 
waters possessing an high degree of oxygenation. 
Hasseneratz being engaged in the examination of the nature of snow, 
found, when comparing this with rain water, a striking difference, which 
arose from the superior oxygenation of the snow. 
“ I put,” says this philosopher, “ 1000 grammes * of snow in a jar, and 
the same quantity of distilled water in another. 
“ I poured upon each of the jars an equal quantity of the same solution 
of turnsole. 
“ I placed both jars in a warm temperature, and after the snow melted, 
I remarked that the tincture was redder in the snow water than in the 
distilled water. 
“ I repeated this experiment, and with the same result. 
“ I next put into ajar 1000 grammes of distilled water, and into another 
the same of snow. 
“ In each of these jars I put 6*5 grammes of very pure and clean sulphat 
of iron. 
“ In the first there was precipitated 0T50 of a gramme of the oxyd of 
iron, and 0-010 of a gramme in the other. 
“ As the oxyd of iron is precipitated from a solution of sulphat of iron 
solely by the quantity of oxygen, which meets it, and as the tincture of 
turnsole is reddened from the same cause, hence it follows that /mow contains 
more oxygen than rain water.” 
Now a very considerable number of the plants which we have the art of 
appropriating for our nourishment, are sown in the month of Yendemaire, 
* A gramme is equal to ] 5*4457 grains Troy. 
