ON CHEMISTRY. 
299 
believing that radiation, without any other exciting cause, effects 
these miracles ! I hesitate not to suggest that the proximate cause 
of the precipitation of the dew must be referred to the peculiar struc¬ 
ture of vegetable bodies,—a structure which constitutes them, indivi¬ 
dually and collectively, not only perfect instruments of electric con¬ 
duction, but also an assemblage of myriads of points at which the 
ascending and descending electrical currents meet and neutralise 
each other, in exact conformity with the laws of electric induction,— 
depositing the aqueous particles which, till then, they had held in a 
state of repulsion, or of infinitely minute division. It does not ap¬ 
pear that grass and herbage are endued with the power of radiating 
or conducting heat in a degree by any means equal to that of metals 
—substances which, it is said, do not become dewed , at a time, and 
under circumstances wherein the circumjacent herbage is covered 
with minute drops of water,—a fact which is not only very remarka¬ 
ble in itself, but one which affords convincing proof that plants do 
not become dewed, solely, by their power or radiating heat. 
The mysterious phenomena of the Dew and its disappearance, 
can therefore be solved, by referring them to the conjoint attraction 
of the etherial electric essence of light, in the earth and atmosphere. 
How this acts, our limited powers of perception may never be able 
to detect; but in its operation we find a beautiful, and never-failing 
instrument of attraction, repulsion, condensation and attenuation. 
We view thereby, heat as an effect, produced bv the chemical energy 
of this all pervading etherial fluid: all is harmonious—all is in con¬ 
formity with fact and experience, and all is magnificent. We 
therein see how important is the agency of the atmosphere, not only 
as a vehicle of respiration, but as the solvent of watery vapors, as 
part of which it simply holds in solution, while that which would be 
redundant, it assimilates with itself. We see also the beauty and 
exquisite adaptation of the vegetable organisation, which fits it to be 
the medium of conduction between the earth and air; in the per¬ 
formance of which, the structure itself is enlarged and its parts de¬ 
veloped by growth, i shall not amplify now, for as all must, I con¬ 
ceive, be referred to the agency of light, I shall reserve what remains 
to be said, to the article which I shall devote to the consideration of 
that primary and most mighty agent. 
April . 1834 . 
