THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
488 
March 23. 
summits of mountains, in populous cities, ami from the 
surface of the ocean, far away from land—but its composition 
was always found to be the same. The supply of its gases, 
therefore, is always equal to the demand made upon them 
by the animals and vegetables which tenant the earth.* 
Let us, however, proceed in our examination of some of 
the chemical phenomena which attend the sustenance of 
animal life from its first existence, and in its progress to 
maturity. Let us see how the elements are made subser¬ 
vient to our comforts and our enjoyment. 
Follow a young animal from the period when it first 
inhales the breath of life—when the atmospheric air first 
rushes into its lungs. Witness the wonderful adaptation of 
those lungs to the separation of the vital portion of the air 
from that which is to be rejected—the nitrogen, which 
dilutes and modifies the action of the oxygen gas ; a gas 
the action of which upon the lungs would otherwise be too 
povverful. Mark the chemical composition of the muscles, the 
blood, and the other fluids of that.body, allintended, and, by 
their peculiar chemical composition, adapted to the nourish¬ 
ment of the animal. Notice the bones, placed in the midst of 
those muscles, lubricated by various fluids, which if those 
bones were composed of soluble substances would infallibly 
dissolve them. Notioe, I say, the chemistry of those bones— 
how the phosphate of lime, and the carbonate of lime, two 
salts which, when united with the cartilage of bones, are 
totally insoluble in the fluids of animal bodies. See how 
; wretched is the plight of those rieketty children from whose 
bones these salts are withdrawn; and yet, how rare is it to j 
find these earthy salts removed from the bones, even by the j 
effects of disease ; such a withdrawal is ever an exception to | 
■ the rule, which we notice for its singularity. Is not this i 
! constitution of bones evidence of the most exalted wisdom, ' 
and the most Fatherly benevolence ? 
Examine still further the progress of the young animal’s 
life ; the power imparted to it of enjoying the light of heaven ; 
the sweet flower-scented air; the pleasures of warmth; of | 
satisfying its hunger; all of which might have been received, | 
had God so ordained, without the least pleasurable sen- ! 
sation. Reflect on the plight of those who have been by 
accident or by disease deprived of their palates. They 
still eat, it is true; hunger occurs as usual, but the pleasure 
I of eating is gone with the power of taste. On the contrary, 
the atmosphere might have caused irritation and pain when 
breathed; a very slight difference in the proportion of the 
gases which constitute the atmospheric air might produce a 
mixture strangely differing in its action on the lungs. In 
fact, by considerably increasing the proportion in which the 
oxygen of the atmosphere is united with its nitrogen, a \ 
corrosive acid, the nitric, or aquafortis, is the result. The 
very proportions of the ingredients, therefore, were regarded 1 
so as to constitute that precise mixture the best adapted to 
the wants and the pleasures of animal life. 
As soon as the young animal begins to digest its food, so i 
soon does it begin to increase in size, its muscles enlarge, 
its bones extend. The chemistry of these enlargements, as | 
far as we are capable of understanding them, is full of 
interest. The muscles are composed of only four substances. ! 
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, arid nitrogen ; the food given to I 
the babe, in its milk or its bread, contains all these. They i 
are digested and assimilated with almost unerring regularity, ; 
in a way we can neither imitate nor comprehend. 
The presence of the totally insoluble salt, the phosphate | 
of lime, or bone earth, both in the milk of animals, and in 
the flour of Wheat, is most remarkable. It is certain that ■ 
its presence is essential to the growth of the young animal, i 
to supply the solid matter required for the enlargement of j 
its bones, and it is equally true that God has provided that 
supply in its mother’s milk, and in the bread it eats; but ! 
how the phosphate of lime is.absorbed from the soil by the | 
green plant of the Wheat, how held in solution by the milk, 
are facts which can only be classed with the many other 
unexplained phenomena of organic chemistry. 
The moment that organised beings existed on the earth, 
it became necessary to combine with their substances a 
certain portion of heat. Animals, in fact, had to be furnished 
with the power of generating, or, at least, developing a 
certain portion of heat, for without that supply the in- 
1 sensible vapour of the atmosphere, so essential to the 
existence of vegetables and animals, could no longer exist. 
Life would be immediately extinct; the fluids of vegetables 
and animals become solid; the earth, in fact, tenantless; 
the ocean a quarry of ice. To place a living body in a 
temperature and in a medium in which he could continue 
to exist, required a foresight and an Omniscience of which 
we, who only reason from the results of experience or com¬ 
parison, can form little idea; and we are, indeed, not in the 
least degree aided in our endeavours to grasp the difficulties 
of the ease by concluding, with some very few credulous 
persons, that all this extraordinary arrangement of organised 
life originated from a miraculous accumulation of chances. 
But heat is not the only imponderable which betrays the 
wisdom and foreknowledge of the Deity. Light, too, operates 
in an essential degree upon organised beings. In its absence, 
plants lose their green colour, their fluids become more 
watery, they no longer contain them usual proportion of 
nutritious ingredients, they cease to absorb the carbonic 
acid gas of the atmosphere. Wants, therefore, were evi¬ 
dently created with a designed reference to the medium in 
which they were to vegetate; their health, their green colour, 
their nourishing properties, as regards animals, were all 
made with a reference to the medium in which they were 
destined to dwell. As relates to animals, the construction 
of their bodies bears evident testimony to the enjoyment 
they were intended to derive from the presence of light. 
The yellow, sickly appearance of those persons who dwell 
in the deep back-woods of America, or in other places where 
light is only present in very diminished proportion, is 
generally known. That light also effects the healthy tone 
of the human body, is well understood; the gloom of dark¬ 
ness, the cheerfulness and exhiliration produced by the 
glorious light of Heaven are almost household proverbs. 
That light was intended for the use of animals, in its 
mechanical properties, the existence of the eyes of all 
animals proves ; for without light, in what would consist the 
use of eyes ? A thought will readily suggest itself to the 
mind of the intelligent, when dwelling upon the phenomena 
of light, what a chaotic world ours would be without its 
vivifying presence. Its importance is not confined to its 
most obvious properties, the assistance of vision. Without 
light, many other chemical changes, besides those to which 
I have already alluded, would not take place at all; “ the 
blythe blink ” of our firesides would be unknown; almost 
all vegetation would expire, and man would be as ignorant, 
as degraded, and less powerful than the brutes around him. 
There is no doubt but that light acts upon all living 
creatures as a gentle, but enduring stimulus. Who does 
not feel more active in body, more vigorous in mind, amidst 
the brightness of summer than in the darker seasons of 
the year? 
A dismal climate, a dark November and melancholy, are 
associated in our language; while widely different scenes rise 
to the imagination with the name of bright summer skies. 
Mr. Stuart, the celebrated pedestrian tourist, has recorded, 
that he never was so healthful, or in such spirits, as when 
in a high northern latitude at that period when the sun 
sinks not below the horizon for successive months. Yet the 
importance, the necessity, the blessedness of light, its adap¬ 
tation to the physical welfare of the whole creation, is 
seldom reflected upon, notwithstanding that this seems, as 
it where, held up to our attention by the sublime command 
which preceeded the creation of any organised being. 
“ Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that 
it was good.’’ 
(To be continued.) 
CANKER JN PIGEONS. 
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* This fact may be used as another corroboration of the truth of the 
sacred historian’s statement, that vegetables and animals were created 
about the same period ; for otherwise the consumption of carbonic acid 
gas by plants, without the presence of animals to restore it, would 
speedily have exhausted the air of this gas—a gas so essential to their 
vegetation. 
1 have frequently had Pigeons attacked with canker in 
the mouth and throat, and have adopted various methods ; 
to cure, it, but with little success, until 1 tried the following. 
If the Pigeon has it very severely, the canker is loose, j 
and a portion of it may bo removed, which is advisable as I 
