ee ANALYSIS. 
| 
of organized being, without imparting one ray of 
compensating illustration. 
But analogy has, by some phytologists, been 
restricted wholly to resemblances amongst plants 
themselves, and distinguished from what they 
call afimity. Analogy, according to this class of 
theorists, is a correspondence between certain 
parts of two groups of plants, which differ in 
general structure and belong to different series ; 
while affinity is a correspondence of individual 
structures of any one group or series. Thus, the 
correspondencies between Acrita and Protophyta 
constitute an analogy ; and those between any 
two species of Acrita or any two species of Pro- 
tophyta constitute an affinity. But, though these 
distinctions have been magnified by one or two 
writers into great importance, “they do not’”’— 
to adopt the words of Professor Lindley—* ap- 
pear to possess the value that is attached to them, 
as cases must be continually occurring in which 
the terms are convertible,—thus, the genera Ber- 
| beris and Bocagea are in analogy if considered 
with reference to Berberideze and Annonacee, 
but in affinity if viewed as a part of Thalami- 
floree.” 
ANALYSIS. The reduction or separation of 
compounds into their component ingredients. 
The word is applied, in a logical sense, to the 
reduction of complex arguments and intricate 
reasonings to their several premises and propo- 
sitions ; in a metaphysical sense, to the reduction 
of compound ideas, involved thoughts, and even 
the mental powers themselves, to their consti- 
tuent parts or their several phases; in a mechan- 
ical sense, to the separation by force of mineral 
or vegetable mixtures into their several ingredi- 
ents; and in a chemical sense, to the reduction 
of a compound substance, whether animal, vege- 
table, or mineral, by means of heat, electricity, 
decomposition, and recombinations, or generally 
by means of what are termed chemical affinities, 
into either less compound substances or its ab- 
solute elements. Logical and metaphysical ana- 
lyses are quite beyond the sphere of the farmer; 
but both mechanical and chemical analyses are 
of exceedingly high value to him for the testing 
of ashes, animal manures, vegetable composts, 
and especially soils. Mechanical analysis always 
brings the ingredients of a mixture into a state 
of separation from one another; but it rarely 
reduces them to their elements, or is capable 
of reducing any compactly compound substance ; 
and it is effected by bruising, sifting, washing, 
filtering, weighing, and similar gentle and wily 
applications of force. Chemical analysis encoun- 
ters every kind of compound substance from a 
commingled gas to a metalliferous rock, and from 
the leaf or the sap of a tree, to the bone or the 
secretions of an animal; it sometimes brings the 
ingredients or elements into a severally separate 
condition, but much more frequently reduces and 
ascertains them by causing them to enter. into 
new combinations; and it usually achieves its 
163° 
results by means of a number of simple substan- 
ces, in a state of great purity, of well-known and 
thoroughly established chemical affinity, and usu- 
ally designated chemical reagents. The analysis 
of soils and manures is of prime value in agricul- 
ture, and ought to be well understood by every 
farmer who makes pretensions to even a moderate 
scientific knowledge of the principles of his art. 
The apparatus for performing it is neither costly 
nor very complex; it consists principally of a 
balance, a set of weights, a compound or serial 
sieve, an argand lamp and stand, some glass bot- 
tles, some fire-proof crucibles, some evaporating 
basins, two or three filters, a series of vessels for 
collecting and measuring gases, one or two re- 
torts, and small quantities of a few chemical re- 
agents; and it ought to find a place ina small 
room or laboratory of every home-farm, every 
model-farm, and every ordinary farm of any con- 
siderable extent. Or when the entire apparatus 
is, In any instance, thought too complicated for 
the scale of the farm or the means or leisure of 
the farmer, at least the portion of it required for 
mechanical analysis ought to be provided and to 
be in frequent requisition. 
tuents of soils, manures, and subsoils require to 
be well understood before any judicious analysis 
of them can be attempted, we reserve a detail 
of principles and processes to the article Sorzs 
(ANALYSIS oF); and shall here insert a general 
outline of the principles of chemical analysis. 
Chemical analysis embraces two distinct parts: 
1st, to find the different ingredients of which a 
substance is composed; and, 2d, to determine 
the quantity in which they exist in it. The for- 
mer is designated by the name of qualitative ana- 
lysis, and must always precede the latter, which 
is termed quantitative analysis. As matter can- 
not be destroyed, the weight of all the component 
parts must equal the weight of the whole body. 
If the latter, therefore, be the result of the quanti- 
tative analysis, it confirms greatly the correctness 
of the qualitative analysis that no ingredient has | 
escaped our notice; but not absolutely so, since 
two or more ingredients resembling each other, 
and following together in the quantitative esti- 
mation, may have been mistaken for one; while, 
on the other hand, if the joint weight of all the 
component parts do not equal that of the whole 
body, and this deficiency cannot be accounted for 
by any imperfection in the methods employed, 
it proves conclusively that some ingredient has 
escaped our notice. 
To analyze a substance, does not necessarily 
imply the separation of the substance into its 
component parts, so as to have them all in a 
perfectly free state; for some of them would be 
found endowed with such powerful affinities, that 
it would be a matter of extreme difficulty to ob- 
tain them in their free state, and still more diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, to retain them so. In 
most cases, therefore, we merely transfer the com- 
ponent parts of the substance under analysis to 
But as the consti-_ 
