Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-02-10

and three pounds Of oxygen. A man
by breathing twenty-four hours, takes ou
two pounds of oxygen, Or all the air abov'
two-t thirds of q square inch of the earth
surface. In seventy years he uses all tn,
oxygen over one hundred land eighteel
square feet. Besides he yitiates or poisoni
ten times as much; sothatin seventy year,
he has in fact used up all the air over 19,
600 feet. A steamship in crossing thu
Atlantic consumes about 30,0 900 square
feet. We have the entire animal world
cooperating with the w lid of combustion
in changing the composition ofthe atmos
phere. Every demonstration Of force, ev.
cry movement of the piston rod, every
waive of the hand affects the condition O.
the air. Processes Of decomposition, 60
ing ON everywhere, do the same thing
Death and decay join in with the living
forces to rob the atmosphere ofits oxygen
And yet it continues perfectly respirable,
pure, and unaltered from age to age.
The lecturer here explained the dia-
grams, showing the correspondence be-
tween the action of the human body and
the steam engine, as regards consumption
of fuel, production of heat and the result
ant of force and the causes of derange-
ment. He did not propose to call man a
mere steam engine; on the contrary. it was
a high compliment to his intelligence that
he had been able to devise a machine SO
wonderfully analogous to the process ofna-
ture, as developed in his own structure.
Why does the air remain unaltered not
withstanding all the influences at work
upon it? How is the equilibrium main
tanned? Sir Isaac Newton copjectured that
it is the business of the comets to carry
and fetch whatever is required for the
planets, and that, perhaps, they bring the
vital air, and carry away whatever we do
not want. Newton was too early for this
discussion. 1t is remarkable that with all
the intellectual force Of the past, this prob
lem of the composition Of the atmosphere
has only been solved In our day Men are
now living who remember when oxygen
gas was first discovered by DR.. Priestly-
when the air was first taken to pieces
The same materials once consumed in the
air are restored and used over again. Go
to the vegetable world and we get the So
luton. Vegetation is the opposite-the
complement Of combustion.
What is the import of a plant-the ar
chitecture of srtree? Everylittle seed con-
tains an infant plant or tree within it,
which is revealed by the microscope. -
When the tree grows up it expands into
branches and boughs, and finally into lit
tie huttering thin plates, called leaves, ar
ranged on elastic stems and spread out
apart so as best to take theair. Evidently
there is something to be done to the air or
by the air. Now the chemistry Of the
leaf is simple as is the chemistry of the
fame, and its action is just the reverse
1t draws in constantly from the air hydro
gen and oxygen, in the form of water anu
carbonic acid. The la...syoo, exists in the air
in the proportion Of only one in two thou
sand parts, but the leaf is provided with
thousands of little mouths, and we know
that it seeks out the acid and absorbs it,
although it may acquire some through the
roots. From these absorbed elements it
manufactures new substances, but sets
free the oxygen into the air The leaf
produces oil, starch, sugar., wood, coal,
and other substances AL nearly or quite
destitute of oxygen, and therefore combus-
tible-restores the oxygen to the air, pro-
viding the materials for renewed combus-
ton. All this, with the chemist, is set
tied thing-a mere matter of experiment.
The vegetable world is only link in
the chain of forces. No chemist has pow
er with fire, electricity, and all the forces
he can command, to tear asunder carbonic
acid and oxygen, when they have once got
together. There is chemistry going on
in the vegetable world far more powerful
thap art. Carbon and oxygen stay togeth-
er with the same enormous force with
which they combine. for if they were to
combine with force Of 100, and separate
with force of only 80, you would clear
ten per cent. at every revolution, and this
would give perpetual motion, which is for
hidden in the nature Of things. Nature
has established an inalienable equation in
all her works. You cannot create or de-
stroy either force Or matter; you may only
change the form of the one and the di-
rection of the other.
The leaf does not create force; it is the
passive agent for receiving and impartine
forces. Now what is the intrinsic source
of force impaired to the leaf? II is the
sunbeam, All over the surface of the
earth we have vegetable carpet Of green
All the leaves Of all the trees are green
and all contain the same chemical sub
stance appropriate for receiving the suns
rays.
We know that vegetation languishes il
the shade and pushes on with vigor wher,
the rays Of the sun are intense. At tn,
equator it is luxurlant; at the poles i
scarcely exists. 1t is fully proved that til,
leaf decomposes carbonic acid only in tn,
day time. There may be subordinate
changes going on in the trees and a sort o
growth at night, but the leaf rests from ii
labors until the return of light and the in
Auences Of the solar ray. Thus we hay,
animal power derived from the leaf. Gu
off the air and you stop all life; cut off til,
oxygen derived from the leaf, and the al
becomes poisonous and dead. Oxygen j
derived from the leaf only through TIL
force of the sunbeam, with which il is di
i ract1v connectad eo thot oil animal ,,,,,va