The chemical and physiological balance of organic nature : an essay / by J. Dumas and J.B. Boussingault ; edited by D.P. Gardner.

  • Dumas, J.-B. (Jean-Baptiste), 1800-1884.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The chemical and physiological balance of organic nature : an essay / by J. Dumas and J.B. Boussingault ; edited by D.P. Gardner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    it is so remote that our gratitude is little. There is another service, so immediate, so intimate, that did it fail but for a single year, the earth would be depopulated ; it is that which these same vegeta- bles confer in preparing food for us, and for the whole animal creation. It is here especially that the connection of the two kingdoms of nature is remarkable. Annihilate vegetation, and forthwith animals perish of hunger; the entire realm of or- ganization must necessarily disappear with that of vegetation. Yet we have said that the carbonic acid of the atmosphere varies from Youths to jolooths °flis bulk. These variations are easy to observe, and they occur very frequently. May not this be a phenomenon proclaiming the influence of animals which introduce this acid into the air, and that of plants which abstract it ? No ; you are aware of the fact that the pheno- menon in question is simply meteorological. It is with carbonic acid as with watery vapor, which is formed at the surface of the ocean to be condensed elsewhere, to fall back as rain or dew, and to be raised again in the form of vapor. This water, which is condensed and falls, dis- solves and precipitates the carbonic acid; the water which evaporates, raises and abandons the same gas to the air.