NUTRIMENT OF PLANTS. 
23 
vapours of the new chloride show a very interesting spectrum, 
consisting of two blue lines, one of which, the fainter, 
almost corresponds with the blue of strontium; the other, 
also a well-defined blue line, is situated a little further 
towards the violet extremity of the spectrum, and rivals the 
lithium line in brightness and distinctness of outline. 
The same authorities assert that lithium is one of the 
widest-spread elements. The water of the Atlantic was 
found to contain it. It was also found in the ashes of plants 
grown on a granite soil, in the vine, in tobacco, and also in 
milk and in human blood. In the mother liquors of tartaric 
acid manufactories, the lithia is found to be so concentrated 
as to be worth commercial extraction ; and the same may be 
said of certain mother-liquors of saline springs. 
ACCUMULATIONS IN THE STOMACH AND INTESTINES OE 
ANIMALS. 
Masses of amalgamated silver, from one to two pounds in 
weight, are occasionally found in the stomachs of the mules 
that w T ork in the silver mines of Mexico. Salt being used 
largely in the reduction of the metal, the animals eat the 
mud, and the quicksilver and the silver are thus taken in 
and accumulate in the alimentary canal. In this country it 
is by no means uncommon to find in the rumen of cattle, 
and the gizzards of fowls, masses of lead-ore, and these be¬ 
coming acted on by the secretions are sometimes productive 
of serious consequences; paralysis, partial or complete, being 
a common result. 
NUTRIMENT OE PLANTS. 
Essentially to the true constitution of nutriment in 
vegetables is the presence of nitrogen; and Boussingault 
has ascertained that such as are rich in this element are also 
rich in phosphates. The same philosopher is convinced that 
when vegetables have produced seed, they contain less of 
these principles, and consequently are then deficient in nu¬ 
triment as forage. 
