FOOD OF PLANTS. 
585 
He describes a case in which it is probable that the needle 
passed through the vena cava into the substance of the heart. 
—Journal de Medecine Veterinaire de Lyons, 1949? p. 425. 
“ Murray records a case in which a headless brass pin, 
three inches in length, had transfixed the pericardium and 
left ventricle, causing death.— The Veterinary Record, and 
Transactions of the Veterinary Medical Association for 1849, 
p. 244. 
“ Several other such cases are alluded to in the e Dic- 
tionnaire de Medecine, de Chirugie,etd’HygieneVeterinaires, J 
par M. Hurtrel D’Aboval. Tome 1°, p. 578, et seq. Article 
6 Corps etrangers/ 33 
THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 
0 Continued from page 526.) 
Vegetable mould is a loose black mass, obtained from 
plants putrefied in the open air without any mixture of 
animal matter; it causes plants to grow with great vigour, 
and must contain or constitute of itself a great source of 
nutriment. New countries owe their fertility to this sub¬ 
stance. When exposed to continued cultivation it is dissi¬ 
pated, and the soil is impoverished. Two hundred grains 
of oak mould distilled, and the same quantity of undecayed 
oak, gave as under: 
Mould. 
Oak. 
Inches ( Fr.) 
Carburetted hydrogen gas 
124 
116 
Carbonic acid 
34 
29 
Grains (Fr.) 
Water containing pyrolignate of ammonia 
53 
80 
Empyreumatic oil 
10 
13 
Charcoal .... 
51 
41* 
Ashes .... 
8 
o* 
Mould, and the vegetables from which it is derived, give 
nearly the same results; but mould contains more charcoal 
than the vegetables, and more ammonia, and consequently 
more azote. 
Plants contain but few elements in their construction and 
organization, and are chiefly composed of charcoal and 
aeriform matter. They give, by distillation, volatile com¬ 
pounds, of which the elements are pure air, inflammable air, 
xxxii. 77 
