32 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
larger than it was in the original material; for since many of the non- 
nitrogenized constituents of plants — such as the acids, sugars, coloring 
matters, and some gums—are more soluble and more diffusible in 
water than most of the nitrogenous matters that are found in plants, the 
non-nitrogenous matters might sometimes be washed out first, and in 
larger amounts than the nitrogenous matters, when the plants were 
exposed to the action of water. The fact that there is so little differ- 
ence between the amounts of nitrogen found in the fresh and spent 
barks and woods, as given above, points, indeed, to this same conclu- 
sion. But it is plain that, in order that any very large proportion of 
nitrogen may accumulate in the leached product, the original wood 
must itself be tolerably rich in this element; and I am wholly unable 
to find that there is much nitrogen in freshly ground logwood. My 
friend, Mr. C. E. Avery, was good enough to have some logwood cut 
into small fragments, at the factory, under his own eye, and to bring 
me immediately a considerable quantity of the material, which he 
regarded as a very fair sample of fresh-cut wood. It was examined 
next day for nitrogen, with the following result : — 
Moisture expelled at 110° . . . . . . . « » 12.81% 
Nitroven iy ket) 82 8 oO27 Le ee 0.121 — 0.155% 
Or, nitrogen in the fresh logwood, dried at 110°,. 0.1388 — 0.177% 
A portion of this new sample of logwood was afterwards placed in 
a burette, and percolated with distilled water until the water came 
through colorless. The wood thus thoroughly leached was then dried 
and subjected to analysis. ‘There was found: — 
Nitrogen in the percolated wood, dried at 110°, 0.172 — 0.238%, 
The proportion of nitrogen in various strongly dried woods has been 
given by Chevandier,* as follows: Aspen, fir, willow, hornbeam, 
and birch, from 0.81 to 0.88%. Oak, beech, alder, and spruce, from 
1.04 to 1.15%. But even these results seem unduly high in compari- 
son with those of Boussingault and Payen,f who found 0.54% of 
nitrogen in oak sawdust, 0.16 to 0.239% in fir sawdust, and 0.23 to 
0.29% in acacia sawdust, all taken in the air-dried state; or 0.72% ; 
0.22 to 0.81%; and 0.31 to 0.38%, respectively, in the thoroughly 
dried condition. So, too, Steeckhardt ¢ reports only 0.3% of nitrogen 
* “ Jahresbericht der Chemie,” 1847-48, 1. 1098, note. 
t “Annales de Chimie et de Physique,” 1841, 3. 102. 
t In his “ Chemische Feldpredigten,” 1856, 2. 110. 
