Let our wealthy citizens build residences in the neighborhood of the city, and beautify their grounds by the cultivation of gardens, fruit and ornamental trees; and, unless they resist the refining influence of such objects, it will not be long before they and their families will enjoy a higher degree of pleasure at home than can be found by traveling in search of it upon any other part of the earth. Here is the proper place to begin the work of reform and refinement; for here the skill, and all the appliances, necessary for the commencement, can be more readily obtained than at any other point on the banks of the Mississippi.

If the cities and towns will enter upon this work in earnest, and prosecute it in a proper spirit of liberality, the rural districts will soon follow their example; and this broad valley will become the garden as well as the granary of the nation. Shall we continue to strip the land of the beautiful vestments by which it was clothed and adorned by nature; vex the soil with the plow until it ceases to yield bread to him that toils; and, having in the mean time exchanged its surplus products for the handiworks of other and less favored lands, abandon it, thus despoiled of nature's grace? Or, shall we 'subdue and replenish' it by the aid of science, and adorn it with whatever is beautiful, by the assistance of art?

Will our people continue the unnatural habit of severing, for months in succession, their most intimate and tender relations, and throng the highways and hotels of distant lands amidst a crowd of strangers of whose moral qualities they are ignorant, and for whom they have no sympathy? Or, remaining at home amidst their families and friends, surrounded by all that the wise and good can desire, cultivate the arts which refine their natures and strengthen the bonds of those relations which were ordained to compensate the loss of paradise?

Those who have contracted the habit of looking abroad for pleasure, and travel in pursuit of it, can possess no strong attachment for home; and their conduct, in this respect, raises the presumption that they derive but little happiness from their domestic and social relations.

We would not restrain people from travelling for recreation and amusement; it is profitable: it prevents the mind from being narrowed down and confined to the particular pursuit in which the individual may be engaged; it liberalizes and enlarges his views of society; and if he travels in search of well chosen objects he gene

rally returns to his avocations refreshed and better satisfied with himself, and with the world.

But in travelling, as in commerce, the intercourse should be mutual; or the balance of trade will always be in favor of those who remain at home. No people travel more perhaps than those of New England; but they travel among themselves. They enjoy all the benefits without incurring the evils arising from the southern and western custom of travelling east. Who ever saw or heard of a New Englander on the banks of the Mississippi, unless he came in search of a home, or to traffic in some commodity, out of the profits of which he expected to pay his way, and return with more money than he brought from home? We do not refer to this fact as a subject of reproach to the eastern people: so far from it we commend their policy, in part at least, to the people of the west. The valley of the Mississippi would afford room enough, one might suppose, to satisfy the travelling propensities of its inhabitants; and if they would travel more among themselves they would become better acquainted with the resources and interests of the different parts of the country; their social relations would be improved, and their political influence in the national councils strengthened.

It is with no unkind feelings towards the people of the east that we urge the consideration of this subject upon our western readers. Our eastern brethern are justly entitled to all they gain by our folly; but we should be unfaithful to the great interests which we have undertaken to promote, did we, with folded arms, remain silent in respect to the evils which we have attempted to portray.

The condition of the west in respect to this subject results from the circumstances in which the country has been settled. The early settlers were compelled to look to the east for many commodities necessary to their comfort; many of their friends and immediate relations remained there; it was necessary that they should go thither upon business, and natural that many should return to see their friends; but it would be unwise and unnatural that they should remain in this condition throughout an indefinite period.

The arts which enrich, and those which embellish a country, are of slow growth; they impart strength to each other and flourish most when cultivated together. If widely separated both decay; but in that case it is the nature of the latter to survive the former. Hence we hold that the encouragement of architecture, horticulture

and other arts calculated to embellish the country, is scarcely less important than the building of manufactories and construction of railways.

ARTICLE II.

Aliments.

The satisfaction which we received from reading the "Familiar Letters on Chemistry," by Professor Liebig, published some years ago, induced us to publish the 6th and 7th of the series in the May Number, 1851, of the Western Journal. And having learned that these were regarded with decided approbation by many of our intelligent readers, we have concluded to publish several others in the order in which they were published by the author.

In our opinion, these letters afford more valuable information upon the subject of physiology and agriculture, than can anywhere else be found in so small a compass.

ALIMENT.

CONSTITUENTS OF THE BLOOD. FIBRINE, ALBUMEN. INORGANIC SUBSTANCES. ISOMERISM OF FIBRINE, ALBUMEN, AND ELEMENTS OF NUTRITION. RELATION OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE ORGANISM.

MY DEAR SIR: Having attempted in my last letter to explain to you the simple and admirable office subserved by the oxygen of the atmosphere in its combination with carbon in the animal body, I will now proceed to present you with some remarks upon those materials which sustain its mechanism in motion, and keep up their various functions-namely, the Aliments.

If the increase of mass in an animal body, the development and reproduction of its organs depend upon the blood, then those substances only which are capable of being converted into blood can be properly regarded as nourishment. In order, then, to ascertain what parts of our food are nutritious, we must compare the composition of the blood with the composition of the various articles taken as food.

Two substances require especial consideration as the chief ingredients of the blood; one of these separates immediately from the blood when it is withdrawn from the circulation.

It is well known that in this case blood coagulates, and separ

ates into a yellowish liquid, the serum of the blood, and a gelatinous mass, which adheres to a rod or stick in soft, elastic fibres, when coagulating blood is briskly stirred. This is the fibrine of the blood, which is identical in all its properties with muscular fibre, when the latter is purified from all foreign matters.

The second principal ingredient of the blood is contained in the serum, and gives to this liquid all the properties of the white of eggs, with which it is indeed identical. When heated, it coagulates into a white elastic mass, and the coagulating substanance is called albumen.

Fibrine and albumen, the chief ingredients of blood, contain, in all, seven chemical elements, among which nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulphur, are found. They contain also the earth of bones. The serum retains in solution sea salt, and other salts of potash and soda, in which the acids are carbonic, phosphoric, and sulphuric acids. The globules of the blood contain fibrine and albumen, along with a red coloring matter, in which iron is a constant element. Besides these, the blood contains certain fatty bodies in small quantity, which differ from ordinary fats in several of their properties.

Chemical analysis has led to the remarkable result, that fibrine and albumen contain the same organic elements united in the same proportion—that is, that they are isomeric, their chemical composition-the proportion of their ultimate elements-being identical. But the difference of their external properties shows that the particles of which they are composed are arranged in a different order.

This conclusion has lately been beautifully confirmed by a distinguished physiologist (Denis,) who has succeeded in converting fibrine into albumen; that is, in giving it the solubility, and coagulability by heat, which characterize the white of egg.

Fibrine and albumen, besides having the same composition, agree also in this, that both dissolve in concentrated muriatic acid, yielding a solution of an intense purple color. This solution, whether made with fibrine or albumen, has the very same reactions with all substances yet tried.

Both albumen and fibrine, in the process of nutrition, are capable of being converted into blood. These facts have long been established by physiologists, and chemistry has merely proved that these metamorphoses can be accomplished under the influence of a certain force, without the aid of a third substance, or of its elements, and without the addition of any foreign element, or the separation of any element previously present in these substances. If we now compare the composition of all organized parts with that of fibrine and albumen, the following relations present themselves:

All parts of the animal body which have a decided shape, which

form parts of organs, contain nitrogen. No part of an organ which possesses motion and life is destitute of nitrogen; all of them contain likewise carbon and the elements of water; the latter, however, in no case in the proportion to form water.

The chief ingredients of the blood contain nearly 17 per cent. of nitrogen, and from numerous analyses it appears that no part of an organ contains less than 17 per cent. of nitrogen.

The most convincing experiments and observations have proved that the animal body is absolutely incapable of producing an elementary body, such as carbon or nitrogen, out of substances which do not contain it; and it obviously follows, that all kinds of food fit for the production either of blood, or of cellular tissue, membranes, skin, hair, muscular fibre, &c., must contain a certain amount of nitrogen, because that element is essential to the composition of the above-named organs; because the organs cannot create it from the other elements presented to them; and, finely, because no nitrogen is absorbed from the atmosphere, in the vital process.

The substance of the brain and nerves contains a large quantity of albumen, and, in addition to this, two peculiar fatty acids, distinguished from other fats by containing phosphorus (phosphoric acid.) One of these contains nitrogen (Fremy.)

Finally, water and common fat are those ingredients of the body which are destitute of nitrogen. Both are amorphous, or unorganized, and only so far take part in the vital process as that their presence is required for the due performance of the vital functions. The inorganic constituents of the body are iron, lime, magnesia, common salt, and the alkalies.

The nutritive process is seen in its simplest form in carnivorous animals. This class of animals lives on the blood and flesh of the graminivora; but this blood and flesh are, in all their properties, identical with their own. Neither chemical nor physiological differences can be discovered.

The nutriment of carnivorous animals is derived originally from blood; in their stomach it becomes dissolved, and capable of reaching all other parts of the body; in its passage it is converted into blood, and from this blood are reproduced all those parts of their organization which have undergone change or metomorphosis.

With the exception of hoofs, hair, feathers, and the earth of bones, every part of the food of carnivorous animals is capable of assimilation.

In a chemical sense, therefore, it may be said that a carnivorous animal, in supporting the vital process, consumes itself. That which serves for its nutrition is identical with those parts of its organization which are to be renewed.

The process of nutrition in graminivorous animals appears at