not apply. The extent of our enlightened country's influence will reach every field of intellect; and our distinctive language will be entrenched in the minds of the nation throughout the length and breadth of the land. Picturesque America will have her poets, orators, authors, artists and philosophers. She will be no longer considered as "a province of England in the matters of art and science." Original and powerful efforts in general literature, philosophy and the fine arts, will beam forth; and a democracy will prove itself, not inimical to intellectual advancement, but favorable to independence of thought and action; and fitting and invigorating to the operations of the mind. Beauties of diction and excellencies of expression, with exquisite combinations of thought, will appear-forming the idiomatic characteristics of our vernacular and the standard literature of our confederacy. Millions of the rising generation will continue to have our stores of science and erudition before them, which will exhibit a lingual vocabulary, in written and vocal use, not surpassed by any country on the globe. The Eagle of America, borne by the inspiring genius of a lofty nature, kindles "her endazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam" far above where the Lion of the Old World roves; and the more phlegmatic "mother country" may be outstripped in the march of mind, as in that of Commerce, by the more animated sons of Columbia.

No "living language" is ever destitute of a perceptible mutation or gradual adaptation. Such a language is tractable, and in its attachments and formations accommodates itself to the conditions and circumstances of a community. Language varies to suit occupations, improvements and science and arts of life; and differences of climate and classes of objects. Some words become obsolete; some change in signification; and others, that are exotic or new, are introduced into the language. As Commerce, Learning, and the arts and sciences advance in a country and the magnificent phazes of enlightened refinement, genius and invention break forth to the people's gaze-a resort is had to corresponding words, and expressive modes of speech, in unison with the surrounding and influencing circumstances.

4

Doubts can not dissipate the fact that a silent and irresistible course of rivalry prevails between Great Britain and the United States in regard to a supremacy in the matter of language. Superior commercial powers, activity and wealth, in the one or the other, will enforce decisive influence in the eventual mastery. Unsurpassed energy, rapidity of action, fertility of invention, vigor and scope of mind and enterprise, render it not otherwise than apparent that the lingual powers, with the commercial powers of our Republic, will exert unprecedented influence upon the world. Kept active and concentrated by the electric telegraph, an influential press and general educational institutions, and other channels, within certain limits, we see the illuminating influences of our ver

nacular piercing and circulating in the wilds of the Continent, subduing the languages of the aborigines and others introduced around them; sweeping away the Spanish and other tongues in the California regions; chosen by the Canadian schools in preference to the vernacular of Great Britain; settling in Africa, and becoming the language of the intelligent descendants of our manumitted slaves; and borne by every American missionary and enterprising expedition among the Heathen, and other countries of the globe: while it is at home entrenching itself in the fundamental truths of every science and arming and equipping itself with the most inspiring emanations of genius within the intellectual scope of mankind.

A. H. R.

ARTICLE IV.

ALLIANCE OF CHEMISTRY WITH PHYSIOLOGY.

DIVISION OF FOOD INTO NOURISHMENT, AND MATERIALS FOR COMBUSTION EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERIC OXYGEN. BALANCE OF CARBON AND OXYGEN.*

One of the most remarkable effects of the recent progress of science is the alliance of chemistry with physiology, by which a new and unexpected light has been thrown upon the vital processes of plants and animals. We have now no longer any difficulty in understanding the different actions of aliments, poisons and remedial agents-we have a clear conception of the causes of hunger, of the exact nature of death; and we are not, as formerly, obliged to content ourselves with a mere description of their symptoms. It is now ascertained with positive certainty, that all the substances which constitute the food of man must be divided into two great classes, one of which serves for the nutrition and reproduction of the animal body, while the other ministers to quite different purposes. Thus starch, gum, sugar, beer, wine, spirits, &c., furnish no element capable of entering into the composition of blood, muscular fibre, or any part which is the seat of the vital principle. It must surely be universally interesting to trace the great change our views have undergone upon these subjects, as well as to become acquainted with the researches from which our present knowledge is derived.

The primary conditions of the maintenance of animal life, are

The following article is copied from the "Familiar Letters" of Professor Liebig on chemistry. These letters have been before the public for several years, but as few, except the learned, read such works, we have concluded that his theory respecting the alliance of chemistry with physiology, would be found both interesting and profitable to the general reader." EDITORS.

a constant supply of certain matters, animal food, and of oxygen, in the shape of atmospheric air. During every moment of life, oxygen is absorbed from the atmosphere in the organs of respira tion, and the act of breathing cannot cease while life continues.

The observations of physiologists have demonstrated that the body of an adult man supplied abundantly with food neither increases nor diminishes in weight during twenty-four hours, and yet the quantity of oxygen absorbed into his system, in that period, is very considerable. According to the experiments of Lavoisier, an adult man takes into his system from the atmosphere, in one year, no less than 746 pounds weight of oxygen; the calculations of Menzies make the quantity amount even to 837 pounds; but we find his weight at the end of the year either exactly the same, or differing one way or other by at most a few pounds. What, it may be asked, has become of the enormous amount of oxygen thus introduced into the human system in the course of one year? We can answer this question satisfactorily. No part of the oxygen remains in the body, but is given out again, combined with carbon and hydrogen. The carbon and hydrogen of certain parts of the animal body combine with the oxygen introduced through the lungs and skin, and pass off in the forms of carbonic acid and vapor of water. At every expiration and every moment of life, a certain. amount of its elements are separated from the animal organism, having entered into combination with the oxygen of the atmosphere. In order to obtain a basis for an approximate calculation, we may assume, with Lavoisier and Seguin, that an adult man absorbs into his system 323 ounces of oxygen daily-that is, 46,037 cubic inches 15,661 grains, French weight; and further, that the weight of the whole mass of his blood is 24 pounds, of which 80 per cent. is water. Now, from the known composition of the blood, we know that in order to convert its whole amount of carbon and hydrogen into carbonic acid and water 64.102 grains of oxygen are required. This quantity will be taken into the system in four days and five hours. Whether the oxygen enters into combination directly with the elements of the blood, or with the carbon and hydrogen of other parts of the body, it follows inevitably-the weight of the body remaining unchanged and in a normal condition that as much of these elements as will suffice to supply 24 pounds of blood, must be taken into the system in four days and five hours; and this necessary amount is furnished by the food.

=

We have not, however, remained satisfied with mere approximation: we have determined accurately, in certain cases, the quantity of carbon taken daily in the food, and of that which passes out of the body in the fæces and urine combined—that is, uncombined with oxygen; and from these investigations it appears that an adult man, taking moderate exercise, consumes 13 ounces of carbon, which pass off through the skin and lungs as carbonic acid gas.* The account is deduced from observations made upon the average daily con

It requires 37 ounces of oxygen to convert 13% of carbon into carbonic acid. Again: according to the analysis of Boussingault (Annales de Chim. et de Phys., Ixx. i., p. 136) a horse consumes 79 ounces of carbon in twenty-four hours, a milch cow 70 ounces; so that the horse requires 13 pounds 3 ounces, and the cow 11 pounds 10 ounces of oxygent

As no part of the oxygen taken into the system of an animal is given off in any other form than combined with carbon or hydrogen, and as in a normal condition, or state of health, the carbon or hydrogen so given off are replaced by these elements in the food, it is evident the amount of nourishment required by an animal for its support must be in a direct ratio with the oxygen taken into its system. Two animals which in equal times take up by means of the lungs and skin unequal quantities of oxygen, consume an amount of food unequal in the same ratio. The consumption of oxygen in a given time may be expressed by the number of respirations; it is therefore obvious, that in the same animal the quantity of nourishment required must vary with the force and number of respirations. A child breathes quicker than an adult, and consequently requires food more frequently and proportionably in larger quantity, and bears hunger less easily. A bird deprived of food dies on the third day, while a serpent, confined under a bell, respires so slowly that the quantity of carbonic acid generated in an hour can scarcely be observed, and it will live three months, or longer, without food. The number of respirations is fewer in a state of rest than during labor or exercise; the quantity of food necessary in both cases must be in the same ratio. An excess of food, a want of a due amount of respired oxygen, or of exercise, as also great exercise (which obliges us to take an increased supply of food,) together with weak organs of digestion, are incompatible with health.

But the quantity of oxygen received by an animal through the lungs not only depends upon the number of respirations, but also upon the temperature of the respired air. The size of the thorax of an animal is unchangeable; we may therefore regard the volume of air which enters at every inspiration as uniform. But its weight, and consequently the amount of oxygen it contains, is not conAir is expanded by heat, and contracted by cold-an equal volume of hot and cold air contains, therefore, an unequal amount

stant.

sumption of about 30 soldiers in barracks. The food of these men, consisting of meat, bread, potatoes, lentils, peas, beans, butter, salt, pepper, &c., was accurately weighed during a month, and each article subjected to ultimate analysis. Of the quantity of food, beer, and spirits, taken by the men when out of barracks, we have a close approximation from the report of the sergeant: and from the weight and analysis of the faces and urine, it appears that the carbon which passes off through these channels may be considered equivalent to the amount taken in that portion of the food, and of sour-crout, which was not included in the estimate.

† 16 ounces= kilogramme.

of oxygen. In summer, atmospheric air contains water in the form of vapor; it is nearly deprived of it in winter. The volume of oxygen in the same volume of air is smaller in summer than in winter. In summer and winter, at the pole and at the equator, we inspire an equal volume of air; the cold air is warmed during respiration and acquires the temperature of the body. In order, therefore, to introduce into the lungs a given quantity of oxygen, less expenditure of force is necessary in winter than in summer, and for the same expenditure of force more oxygen is inspired in winter. It is also obvious that in an equal number of respirations we consume more oxygen at the level of the sea than on a mountain.

The oxygen taken into the system is given out again in the same form, both in summer and winter; we expire more carbon at a low than a high temperature, and require more or less carbon in our food in the same proportion; and consequently more is respired in Sweden than in Sicily, and in our own country an eigth more in winter than in summer. Even if an equal weight of food is consumed in hot and cold climates, Infinite Wisdom has ordained that very unequal proportions of carbon shall be taken in it. The food prepared for the inhabitants of southern climes does not contain in a fresh state more than 12 per cent. of carbon, while the blubber and train oil which feed the inhabitants of polar regions contain 66 to 80 per cent. of that element.

From the same cause it is comparatively easy to be temperate in warm climates, or to bear hunger for a long time under the equator; but cold and hunger united very soon produce exhaustion.

The oxygen of the atmosphere received into the blood in the lungs, and circulated throughout every part ef the animal body, acting upon the elements of the food, is the source of animal

heat.

ANIMAL HEAT, ITS LAWS AND INFLUENCE ON THE ANIMAL FUNCTIONS. LOSS AND SUPPLY. INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. FUEL OF ANIMAL HEAT. AGENCY OF OXYGEN IN DISEASE. RESPIRATION.

The source of animal heat, its laws, and the influence it exerts upon the functions of the animal body, constitute a curious and highly interesting subject, to which I would now direct your attention.

All living creatures, whose existence depends upon the absorbtion of oxygen, possess within themselves a source of heat, independent of surrounding objects.

This general truth applies to all animals, and extends to the seed of plants in the act of germination, to flower-buds when developing, and fruits during their maturation.

In the animal body, heat is produced only in those parts to which arterial blood, and with it the oxygen absorbed in respiration, is