Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-04-16
FOrthe Freeman,
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ABOUT THE CIRCULATION OF MATTER.
No, 3.
by AGRICOLA.

| NO. D.
Carbonic acid is constantly restored I,
the air. The trees of the forest and fiel,
yearly shed their leaves. These leaves
decay, restoring to the atmosphere DOR
lion of the same carbon which the livine
tree, while yet growing, extracted from
the atmosphere. Every plant on hill Oh
in valley, the grass of the fields, the tree.
of the forest, and all vegetables consumed
us feed, return, ere long, to carbonic acid
and disappear in the atmosphere. What
is withdrawn from the air by living plants
is restored when these plants perish.
Both men and animals contribute to this
restoration by the consumption of food.
1t is digested in the stomach, and after
| wards breathed out from the lungs and
skin, in the form of carbonic acid and wa.
ter. To be more definite-the living leaf
sucks in carbonic acid from the air, and
gives off its oxygen. Carbon alone is re-
tanned. The roots drink in water from
the soil, and this carbon and water 90 to
form starch sugar, fat and other SUBJ
stances. These are taken into the stom.
ach, and the animal inhales oxygen from
he air, and both the starch and the oxy-
gen are delivered back again, from the
lungs and skin, in the form of carbonic
acid and water. Soon the fat laid up in
the body for awhile is breathed away in
carbonic acid and water and so this end.
less round is carried on The same min
erals are circulated over and over again.
To-day this matter forms part of the
vegetable; tomorrow it is built into the
body of II man, and week hence it NAV
have passed through another plant into
another animal, There can, therefore, be
no private property in matter which can
be long held as such.
But the carbonic acid removed from the
air by growing plants is not all restored
Immediately. 1t is laid up, for instance,
in the peat-bogs of Scotland and ireland,
and in the coal beds of the old and the new
worlds. These were laid away for fuel,
and when burned the carbon is restored.
United with the oxygen of the air, it dis
appears in carbonic acid. Perhaps n
million Of years ago it was sucked up by
the growing plant; to-day we are burning
the peat or coal, and restoring the waste
of ages gone by. 1t is estimated that
more than two hundred million tons OF
coal are yearly consumed, all over the
globe, and this produces an immense
amount Of carbonic acid. There is still
mother method of depositing and restor-
ng the wasted carbon. In the bosom of
he ocean myriads of little insects are
building new houses, and the common
toll for their defence and shelter.
md as they die, each contributes to the
'eds Of limestone which are constantly
on the bottom of the seas. The
oral build their massive halls all along
he coast and about the islands. As these
title insects die, generation after genera
ion, they leave in rocky beds the coraline
two-Glths of whose weight is
arbonic acid. All this was drawn from
ne atmosphere. Hence the sea is ever
loring the carbon of the air; and this
recess has been going on since the world
egan. Now the earth brealhes through
racks and assures, for the very purpose l
returning this carbonic acid gas to the
tmosphere, and is constantly restoring I
art, at least, of that which has been daily
ntombed. And in this constant change s
lere is no destruction, or diminuton or t
lcrease of the original matter us it came I
ON the hand of the Creator.