Book Description
Excerpt from London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 1849, Vol. 35 The inorganic constituents of vegetable and animal substances have received more attention during the last few fears than was formerly the case; and in consequence of Liebig's exertions especially, numerous investigations of the ashes of organic substances' have been made; but their principal object was only technical. It was soon perceived, that as plants derive the inorganic constituents, without which they cannot exist, from the soil, it was of the greatest importance to determine these constituents with accuracy, so as to be enabled to judge whether the soil was capable of yielding them; and if not so, to allow of their being added in the form of a suitable manure. Hitherto almost all these investigations have been directed to the determination of the relative proportions of the inorganic constituents of the ash. Occasionally, indeed, the presence of certain inorganic constituents, especially salts, has been detected by microscopic examinations; but scarcely any one has expressly taken up the question which is somewhat closely connected with this point, viz. in what manner are the inorganic substances combined with the organic? Whether they form with each other the same kinds of combinations as those which are artificially prepared in our laboratories, or whether peculiar compounds, existing only in living organic bodies, are formed by the mutual influence of the inorganic upon the organic matters, are questions which must be of great importance, especially in animal and vegetable physiology, and which have not hitherto been accurately investigated. In very few instances only have researches of this kind been attempted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.