2.3 3.7 Nitrogen. 114 22 26 37 5 Tiptree, the clear.... Ditto, the muddy.. From such data the farmer can readily estimate the value of the solid matters contained in the liquid manure in his possession; but then he should also take into account the value of the mere water of the liquid. This must be often of considerable importance -thus, when Mr. Mechi pumps only 200 tons per acre of liquid manure on to his land, he in fact supplies his crops with an amount of rich moisture equal in depth to a rainfall of two inches." And as regards the kind of soil to which these liquid manures are best applied, the same distinguished chemist, to whose labours I have just alluded, when giving his evidence during the present year before a Committee of the House of Commons, remarks: "My experience, which is based on an extended observation of various parts of this country, as well as what I have seen in districts on the Continent, where the liquid manuring system is very generally adopted by farmers, is that liquid manure may be applied with great advantage on light porous soils, and all soils resembling more or less in character such land; but that on heavy clay land it cannot be applied with advantage, especially when the land is so cultivated as to produce in dry weather large cracks through which the liquid manure necessarily will flow, as it follows the easiest passage, and does not go through the stiff clay. With more or less disadvantage, liquid manure, especially when highly diluted, may be used on all soils which are not in an extremely highly cultivated mechanical state of cultivation, a state of cultivation which is not easily attained in many heavy soils. For this reason, on heavy soils the application of liquid manure, even when much more concentrated than sewage, is attended with loss to the person who applies it. "When the qualities of the soil have been so much improved that you get a porous surface soil through which the manure filters, without going, as I believe is the case with some of Alderman Mechi's land, into chinks through which it will of course flow off coloured, then it is a proper soil; but when heavy land is in such a condition that it is stiff and cracks, it is then unfit for the application of liquid manure; it is extremely difficult to bring heavy soil altogether round so that it loses its natural character. I have seen the manure run from the surface on heavy grass land; if you would come into our neighbourhood, in Gloucestershire; where we have heavy land, you would find, in very rainy weather, the ditches almost as black as liquid manure, showing that heavy rains wash off the droppings of dairy cows from the land, and that the manure does not pass through the soil. I believe that a very small quantity of soil, six inches of clay soil, perfectly deodorises and decomposes a very heavy dressing of manure, provided the soil and manure are well mixed together; therefore, as a practical test, I would say that all soils from which the manure runs coloured into the drain or conduit are in an improper cultivation to receive liquid manure, for in such a condition many clay soils are at present, and will remain so for many years to come. "You have in liquid manure a small quantity of solid matters, amounting to 70 or 80 grains in a gallon, and a large quantity of water. By applying a limited quantity of the liquid, it penetrates a large body of the soil, incorporating a large body of soil with a small quantity of real fertilizing matter; if we could extract that small quantity, and apply it as a top-dressing, so as to keep it entirely on the surface, we should manure that small portion of the soil, and it would there produce an effect upon the crop; but being all washed into the soil, it produces no effect unless we use a large quantity. And for this reason, I am a strong advocate, I must plainly confess, on theoretical grounds, for the application of large quantities of liquid manure. When we apply a large mass, say 7,000 or 8,000 tons, to a soil which is naturally porous and deep, we incorporate with a large body of soil a considerable quantity of solid, real fertilizing matter. By using such large doses upon grass crops grown on poor soil, these solid manuring matters which are disseminated through a large body of soil by capillary attraction are brought within reach of the roots of the plant. The evaporation which takes place from the leaves of grass-crops is very considerable; the moisture from a considerable depth is drawn up, and with it all the solid matters dissolved in it. Then we see a marked effect upon vegetation, which will explain in practical experience why quantities of 300 to 400 tons an acre, even applied to grass, lead to no practical result, whilst large quantities applied to the extent of 8,000 or 9,000 tons (and I am not sure that even larger quantities may not be used with advantage) produce a good result. That is a matter which is clearly determined by experiment." Several of the remarks of Professor Voelcker have been confirmed by observations made on the extensive sewage-irrigated meads at Beddington, which are situated about a mile and a-half from Croydon. The soil on which the sewage irrigation works are there so successfully carried on is of chiefly a light gravelly nature, resting on a substratum of porous gravel. The system pursued there has been well described during the present summer of 1862 by Mr. J. Fenton, the engineer and surveyor to the Croydon local board of health. It was under the direction of this gentleman that these irrigated meadows have been laid out; and it was when giving his evidence before the Sewage Com mittee of the House of Commons that he had occasion to make the following remarks; and I give these obscrvations nearly in his own words, since I well know that they will be useful in places far distant from Croydon. The quality of the sewage or other liquid manure employed is, of course, the primary question to be determined. Now the strength of the town sewage water depends so much upon the system which is carried out, that you can form no opinion as to its value unless you know the mode in which the sewers are laid, and the nature of the land through which they pass; the strength of the sewage water is so different in strength in different places, that the quantity applied to the land cannot be determined in any way whatever without a regular analysis of the contents of sewer water. At Croydon it is a system of pipe house drainage almost exclusively. The consequence of this is, that the sewage water and its solid matters are delivered in such a very short time into the tanks at the mouth of the sewer that no putrefaction takes place. At our outfall into the tanks at Croydon the soil and paper are actually delivered without being separated in any way whatever, and the water is comparatively clear, with a mass of solid matter suspended in it. In 1857, two-thirds of the sewage of the town were running on to about 15 acres of land, and the sewage of houses containing about 16,000 inhabitants. The consequence was, that the whole surface of this land was covered by the soil, not by sewer water only, but by soil, and that was very offensive. At Croydon, though there are 30,000 inhabitants, at the present time the only part of the sewer water which we use for the purpose of profitable sewage irrigation is derived from houses containing 18,000 persons. In the year 1857, after the sewage had been put over the land, the land was ploughed up, and a crop of mangold-wurtzel was obtained from it. The mangold-wurtzel roots produced were three feet high, and of very large size, showing that the sewage manure which was on the land was quite adapted for the purpose of growing roots. By the present system adopted at Croydon, the water is run into filter-tanks, and there the solid matter is taken out-not the whole held in suspension, but all the offensive solid matter is taken out; it is then run, by means of the irrigation channels, at the head of every field on to the land; the irrigation channels are put along the higher surface of the land, and then there are smaller channels about 40 or 50 feet apart leading from these irrigation channels, and there are certain stops in these smaller channels so as drive the whole of the water through the grass and over the land before it goes into the clear water channels. The water is never turned only over one plot of land, and then run into the stream. It is found invariably necessary to turn it again over a second plot of land before it is allowed to fall into the river, so that auy ammonia which may be still left in the water, or any of the manuring qualities, should be taken out by turning it over a second plot of land before it is allowed to pass into the stream. A great deal of the sewage filters into the gravel, and through the gravel into the lower level; but a portion goes over the surface of the second field, as well as over the surface of the first field, into a clear water channel. The effect produced by the grass in a short period in purifying the sewage of Croydon is very satisfactory. It flows on to the fields, of that black peculiar colour which ordinary town sewage possesses; in the course of an hour or two it leaves the meads bright, tasteless, and scentless. The sewage of Croydon, when in a very diluted 'state, was examined, in November, 1861, by Messrs. Way and Thomson-1, as it flowed on to the grass; 2, as it streamed off the land into the river Wandle at the opposite extremity of the fields. The following is the result of their analysis of these waters, the matters they contained being given in grains per imperial gallon. On the 16th of November, at 11 o'clock a.m., a gallon of the sewage of Croydon, as it issued from the mouth of the sewer, contained—foreign matters of all kinds 39.10; this contained of organic matter 12.80. As it flowed off the irrigation fields, a gallon of the sewage contained, at 12:30—foreign matters 27.75, organic matters 6.50; at 2:30-foreign matters 28.70, organic matters 2.40; at 4:30-foreign matters 28.95, organic matters 3.45. The solid matters contained in the sewage of towns well supplied with water are not so considerable as in sewage of great cities. In the sewage of Rugby, the commissioners found, on an average of 26 samples, 78 grains of solid matters per imperial gallon; that of Edinburgh, when examined by Cooper, also 78 grains per gallon; but that of London is far more impure, yielding, from two specimens examined by Mr. Way, 209 and 492 grains per agllon. to our senses. The operations continually going on at Beddington presents to our view, on a considerable scale, one of the many marvels of vegetable chemistry. We are all aware what alchemical changes are accomplished by the plants which grow around us-how from the selfsame gases, only three in number (the carbonic acid, hydrogen, and oxygen), the same plant produces sugar, starch, gum, acids, &c. These phenomena everywhere present themselves; but they are only partially evident At Beddington, however, we see, as it were, the transmutation going on. At one end of the farm we behold a foul, noxious stream continually pouring on to the land, diffusing itself amongst the growing grasses; and at the other end of these meads we find this purified stream, joining the Wandle, bright and sparkling, and tenanted with fish. The gases and ammonia of putrefaction have been absorbed from the sewage and assimilated by the grasses; its mechanically suspended matters have been deposited, and the water thus rendered free from every source of annoyance. For very nearly a twelvemonth we have had, at Croydon, the use of 240 acres; it is not all perfectly prepared for irrigation at the present time. The land irrigated at one time varies from 20 up to 50 acres, according to the rainfall. We find it necessary, during heavy rains, to turn the water over a larger quantity of land, so as to purify it, than in dry weather. We have known, during the last summer (1861), that ten acres of land would take the whole sewage-water of Croydon, amounting to 800,000 gallons a day of 24 hours, without being perceived at all in any of the lower land, or in the lower irrigating channels; it will absolutely absorb that quantity during dry weather for a whole day, but the increase of sewage is enormous after rain. It is with the agricultural advantages of sewage irrigation that many of the readers of this magazine are interested. Still it is a question whose success will certainly promote the public health. The old system of house-drainage into miserable cesspools, or into a drain having its outlet into some ditch or passing stream, was much too disgusting to be continued. The present system of house-sewerage brings to the surface of the land what was formerly allowed to mingle with the surface or underground waters which we consumed; and thus being brought to the surface of the soil, it next became necessary to purify that sewage before it was returned to the river. For this purpose all kinds of deodorizers have been tried, almost all of which have, for some reason or other, failed; so that it is, indeed, fortunate for us all, that in the grasses of our fields we possess invaluable deodorizers, whose operations are always successful, and who, so far from being expensive, return us a revenue-turning to food for our live stock what once diffused around us disease and death. TEXTLESS NOTES. BY A CROTCHETY FARMER. able saving is the result. To drill turnip-fashion, two to four pounds per acre will be required: in seed-bed eight ounces will raise a sufficiency of plants for an acre. For more reasons than one it is "a good thing to ❘ point, as with a well-cleaned seed-bed the plants are have two strings to one's bow." It is this belief which much more vigorous than if allowed to grow in a foul is giving a growing tendency amongst go-a-head, new-soil. When the seed-bed system is adopted, a considerschool farmers to introduce a greater variety of cultivated crops than has been the wont or usual practice for many years. In presence, for instance, of the diseases which afflict the turnip crop, and the uncertainty When the plants are sufficiently advanced, the stem which is now attached to it, the cultivation of about the thickness of a quill, they should be taken careother roots for feeding purposes is becoming yearly fully out of the seed-bed, the strongest plants only bemore and more common. Of the roots grown as sub- ing selected, and placed in a basket, the roots all lying stitutes for the turnip I know of none so deserving of one way. If a choice of weather can be had, choose the attention of the farmer as that of KOHL RABI. It moist or damp-after a shower of rain is the best time. is possessed of numerous valuable properties; it is little So much anxiety, however, for the plauts "taking" to liable to disease, stands transplanting well, can bear any the soil need not be entertained as in the case of cabdegree nearly of drought or frost, and, generally speak-bage, as the kohl rabi will be found to droop or fret ing, of extremes of weather, and can be knocked much less. As before stated, it is a hardy plant. In about, cut, or bruised, without going immediately to transplanting, take especial care to see that the dibbledecay. In feeding value it is twice the worth hole is deep enough to permit the root of the plant to go of common turnips, and surpasses that of swedes, freely in without its being doubled up; and let especial cattle are fond of it, and when I add that dairy cows care be taken to press the earth well round all the parts are also fond of it, and that its consumption by them of the plant in the soil. Some, in transplanting, seem gives no taint to the milk which they produce, I think to be quite satisfied if the earth is pressed, and that but I have given a pretty long list of valuable adjuncts slightly, round the neck of the plant, or at the level of which this root, I am sorry to say unknown to many, the ground. This is, I am convinced from some expepossesses. There are two ways of growing it-in rience, a grand mistake in transplanting; I consider it "drill," after the fashion of swedes and mangolds; or an essential point to have the whole root embraced by in seed bed, and transplanting the plants in drill at an and in contact with the soil. To ensure this, I find it after-stage of their growth. My experience with the the best way, after the root of the plant is inserted in plant, as, I may say, that also of other growers-although the dibble-hole, to press the dibble into the soil as deep not of all-is, that the transplanting system is the best. as the original hole, and at some distance from it. I Nor need one wonder at this, when we consider that it insert the dibbler at an angle, the point nearest the plant, is of the cabbage tribe; all of which grow best when and the upper end outwards; I then bring the dibbler transplanted from the bed in which the seed has been up to a perpendicular position while still in the soil, or grown. I have had the root grown on the two plans, rather beyond the perpendicular, that is, inclining toand the transplanted plants have in every instance wards the plant. By this means, I find that I make turned out the best; and not only the best, but a very the soil embrace the root fairly, so much so that a good marked superiority has characterized them, as com- pull at a leaf of the plant shows that it is well held down. pared with those sown in the drill, and only thinned This trial, indeed, of the fixity of the plant by pulling out. The seed, when the transplanting system is at one of the leaves I always make. The operation of adopted, should be sown in a well-prepared seed-bed in dibbling my readers will, I dare say, think I am making March; and not later than the last week. This is the most of. But I presume that the end of the work is for the first crop. For a succession of plants, the second to get a good stock of roots, and anything that can crop should be sown in the first or second week of April, secure this is surely worth making the most of. I have and for the third crop the beginning of June. The had some experience in the right way and wrong way of plants of these successional sowings are to be trans-putting plants in the soil, and I know which is the best. planted in May, June, and July. The seed may be broadcasted in the seed-beds; I prefer it in drills nine inches apart, as facilities are thus afforded to weed the plants during their growth. This is a most important I know that the careful way I have described invariably ensures the best roots. They take to the ground quickest; and taking the lead, keep it. It involves trouble, doubtless; but what work does not? Besides, if any work is not worth the trouble of doing well, it is not worth the trouble of doing at all. I may aver that, surely, with all safety, and yet not be considered for that reason crotchety. I may remark, en passant, that the carefulness in transplanting which I have insisted upon is equally noteworthy in the matter of cabbage cultivation. The distance of the drills for khol rabi should be 27 inches; the plants being dibbled in at distances of 15 inches apart. As soon as the plants have taken fairly to the soil, and started into fresh and vigorous life, I have found it give them an amazingly quick development to top-dress, or rather to throw along the tops of the ridges or in contiguity with the roots, an artificial manure of salt (this is an important part, or should be, of a manure for all plants of the cabbage tribe), nitrate of soda, or guano, and coal ashes, in equal proportions. If available, one part of superphosphate will also be beneficial. The aftercultivation of the crop is simple, if laborious-hoeing and weeding. Let these be carefully done; and let the hoeing be done in dry weather, never in wet. Although I have a strong belief-in which, by the way, I am not alone-that transplanting from seed-bed is the best for the kohl-rabi, as it is for all members of the Brassica tribe, still some very successful cultivators sow the seed in drills, 27 inches apart. Mr. Bennett, of Cambridge, a well-known agriculturist, drills in May. He remarks, however, that it might be allowable to sow a fortnight earlier. In thinning, Messrs. Lawson recommend them to be thinned by the hoe, so as to leave the plants in tufts, taking care at the same time to clear off all weeds. A twelve-inch space should be left behind each tuft. When the plants in the tufts have grown a little further, the final thinning is effected, one plant only being left in. In these tufts, I may remark, one plant will always, or nearly always, be stronger than the others; this, which is termed the "king plant," and is of course the one to be left in. us. gestiveness in it-suggestive more especially of matters of physiological interest. We believe that there is truth in the saying or proverb we have quoted, when applied to ourselves. We know that there is truth in it; why it is so is another thing. We know that there is such a thing as electricity, but what it is we know not. Life! We can pronounce the word, and as we talk of its sacredness we act in a thousand heartless cruel ways which show we in reality too seldom believe in it. But what life is, puzzles our cleverest men to tell. Read any work or paper which explains-Professor Tanner's paper on the breeding of cattle will do it as lucidly as any one you can meet with-the internal organism of the ruminating animals, as the cow. From the entrance of the food at the mouth, through a certain number of stages, all the process is clearly stated and easily followed up; but, just as we come to the point on which we wish the fullest information, nothing is left us but conjecture, and but little of that can be offered. At the stage where the mechanism, so to speak, of the organism ends, and life begins, we are left to grope in the dark. What is life? We know amongst ourselves, and comparing notes with this one and that one, that although we all live, life is not carried on in the same way with all of We have all our own peculiarities of form, habits, modes of feeling, and different grades mayhap of robust strength, maylap of a sickly want of it. We are all of the same kind; yet we are not similar, but diverse in everything that gives character and individuality to us. The same, but yet how different! Not only in our modes of feeling and of thinking are we different each from our neighbour, but in our habits of body is the diversity as apparent. Take, for instance, the matter of "living"-as eating and drinking are, oddly enough, distinguished, as if man lived by these alone, and this only was life. It would be a comparatively easy matter for the chemist-taking the result of his most careful analysis as the guide-to say, "This food has so much of nutritive matter; this has so much;" and so on through the list of edibles which he might choose to confine us to. They all possess the requisites to build up the body and maintain the waste of its tissues; therefore, what saits one will suit all. Partake ye of them, my brethren!" But we know that, however closely chemistry may thus define the nature of the food, it cannot-and wherever it has tried, it has failed-define the mode in which it is to act upon all. The food which agrees with me so well, just in like degree acts as banefully with you. I get lean upon what fattens you; I loathe at the food you delight in. Nay, more-the effects change even in single cases; so that the food I love to eat to-day, I loathe and turn from with dislike, if not disgust, to-morrow. How is this? "It all depends," says a fluent speaker, " upon the state of the digestive organs." Does it? We know what the organs are; but, not to make light of a serious subject, we may nevertheless ask, in sober seriousness, How are they played? Let me ask the wisest of our agricultural scavans, How is food assimilated in the system? The wisest amongst them is not ashamed to confess-true genius is always humble-that, in truth, we know very little about digestion or assimilation of "What is one man's meat is another man's poison" food, and how taking that, gives life. How is it carried -a strong, graphic, if not very "genteel" expression on? What effects it? How is it modified by this truly, and one which has a world of suggestiveness in it, agency and by that? What, in fact, is it? If we do and that too of special interest to agriculturists, as per- not know what it is, we, at all events, know that it haps my readers will accede to before they finish this seriously affects us, and that it is seriously affected by note; if, indeed, they honour me so far by reading it; us-that is, by what we live upon, and how we live. for it does not at all follow-nay, it is just as likely to Seeing, then, that our farm-stock belong to the same be the reverse-that because I think it worth my while tribe-the mammalia-as we do, and that it is reasonto write, therefore they should think it worth theirs to able to suppose, in the absence of direct proof, that they read what I have to say upon any point I may take up. also have their peculiarities of life, their likes and disI have said above that the phrase has a world of sug-likes, would it not be as well if we breeders thought a Although I have stated that the roots can stand almost any degree of frost-I have rarely come across a root unsound through the effects of frost-still they should be taken up and stored when at maturity. This will be somewhere about five or six months after planting. But, if time or circumstances prevent their being pulled up and stored before winter sets in, the farmer may keep his mind comparatively at ease on this score. I have spoken, at the commencement of my note, of "having two strings to one's bow," in the matter of crops for cattle-feeding; I rather incline to think that a third will not be amiss. Perhaps this third will be met with in CABBAGES. This is a most valuable crop for dairy farmers; the cows relish it extremely, it increases the flow of milk, and gives no disagreeable taste to it. Much of what I have said respecting the kohl-rabi is applicable to the cabbage. It is sown in seed-bed in March, and transplanted in May. The Drum-head, or Cow cabbage, is the variety most useful. I have also grown the Jersey, or Thousand-headed cabbage, with mach profit. The distances between the plants should be 25 to 30 inches, if the Drumhead is used. The soil should be well manured; and do not neglect to apply a dressing of salt before turning in the manure. 46 1 little more of this than we do? and if variety of food and tickling of palates are shown to be good at times for us, will they not be equally so for the animals we lord it over? We act with our animals as if analyses alone were to decide what they should have, and what they should not have. "To the chemist," says an able physiologist, "there may be little or no difference between plant and flesh as food; to the physiologist the difference is profound. He sees the lion perishing miserably of inanition in presence of abundant herbage, which to the elephant or buffalo furnishes all that is required. The ox eats the grass, and the tiger eats the ox, but not the grass. The flesh of the ox may contain little that is not wholly derived from the grass. The chemist analyzing the flesh of both may point out their identity; but the physiological question is not, What are the chemical constituents of nutritive substances? it is, What are the substances which will nourish the organism? If the animal will not eat, or having eaten cannot assimilate a certain substance, that substance is no food for the animal, be its chemical composition what it may." Just so! this hits the nail on the right head. And this "hit" must commend itself to the common-sense notions of my readers. And it certainly is surprising how tardily this truth has made its way; nay, how almost universally is its existence, with the value it possesses in a practical point of view, unknown; or if known, ignored amongst breeders and feeders of farm stock. A certain kind of food, easily cultivated on our farms or easily obtained from other sources, has been established as the food best adapted for our stock; and accordingly they are fed upon this at all times, and under all circumstances of health and condition, just as if they had no likes and dislikes, no habits of body to be consulted-as if they were, in fact, furnaces, into which a certain amount of fuel had to be pitched, and from all of which an equality of results is looked for. Whereas, it is completely and altogether overlooked that the animals are in fact animals, and not machines or masses of inert matter. It is no use to say that our stock like this invariable food; remember, reader, that with them it is Hobson's choice in the matter of food-this or none. It is no use further to say that they thrive well under a uniform style of living; reserve this opinion till you try whether under another they will thrive better. Begin-if you have not already begun to do so-to test the likes and dislikes of your animals, and you will soon see that these exist, and just in as marked a degree, as with ourselves. Each animal has got its own peculiarities of life, and these must be studied if we wish to promote its health and maintain it. Seeing, then, that there is a diversity amongst our animals, should not there be a diversity of their treatment? It is not by any means a philosophical way to have a cut-and-dry plan, which all must give in to. Let us, while we admire and give all heed to the teachings of chemistry in the matter of cattle feeding, remember at the same time that chemistry can only lead us up to a certain point; there, where we need guidance most, it leaves us. Chemistry tells us that the constituents of certain food being so-and-so, they must be good, and must nourish. Experience in our own case tells us another and a very different story; and the voice of opinion gives it forth in the proverb which I have placed at the head of my note, and which I now repeat "What is one man's meat is another man's poison." Let chemistry say what it will-and in stating thus I do not limit its power, but have full faith in it when working in its own sphere-as to alimentary substances being valuable in virtue of their containing carbon, nitrogen, and the like: common sense, if not a higher science, tells me that these nutritive properties, in the strictest sense of the term, are modified by and depend upon the relation which they bear to the organism which they nourish. It must be so. "Only gross ignorance of physiology" says Mr. Lewes, in his "Physiology of Common Life" (Blackwood and Sons), a work I would like to know was more frequently read by agriculturists-" only gross ignorance of physiology, an ignorance unhappily too widely spread, can argue that because a certain article is wholesome to many, it must necessarily be wholesome to all. Each individual organism is specifically different from every other. However it may resemble others, it necessarily in some points differs from them, and the amount of these differences is often considerable. If the same wave of air striking upon the tympanum of two different men will produce sounds to the one which to the other are inappreciable, if the same wave of light will affect the vision of one man as that of a red colour, while to the vision of another it is no colour at all, how unreasonable is it to expect that the same substance will bear precisely the, same relation to the alimentary system of one man as to that of another !" Experience tells us that it is not so. "A glance at the animal kingdom," continues the author, and on a point closely connected with agritwo closely allied organisms in their capability of asculture, "reveals the striking differences manifested by similating the same substance. There are two species of rhinoceros, the black and the white. The black feeds on the graceful but deadly plant, Euphorbia candelabrum, and converts it into its own substance; but if the white species happens to eat thereof, it is inevitably the first subsisting on a variety of plants, the second poisoned. The herbivora are divided into two classes, on one kind only. But even the various feeders will not touch certain plants eagerly devoured by others. Thus the horse passes over almost all the cruciferæ, the ox all the labiates; goats, oxen, and lambs refuse almost all the solaneæ. The poisons are food to many; the rabbit devouring belladonna, the goat hemlock, and the horse aconite. The dog will feed on bread or biscuit, which the wolf would starve rather than touch. The cat, although preferring animal food, will eat bread and milk, which the tiger will not look at ;" and yet the wolf is the congenor of the dog, the tiger of the cat. Still further, chemists seem frequently to lose sight of the important influence which the condition or state in which the nutritive substances of a food are has upon its nutritive properties. Thus, for instance, an artificial food may be made, in which all the nutritive substances may be given. Take, for instance, muscular flesh : a dog will live and thrive upon this; but as it is known that in this gelatine, albumen, and fibrine are combined. let these substances be given artificially mixed, and the food thus formed will no longer support life. What, then, constitutes nutrition in the flesh? The combination of the artificial food is perfect, chemically, and ought to be nutritious: physiologically, it fails. There is, therefore, something in the natural combination of substances of food which gives nutrition; and, this absent, nutrition is also absent. What this something is, is a difficult matter to define in all cases. But we know enough to know that we cannot, by any artificial means, concoct a food, from a chemical knowledge alone of its component parts, and be able to say positively that it will be nutritious. We may put the parts of a steam-engine together; but, without the steam, we cannot make it work. So we may put all the substances together which chemistry tells us ought to make a nutritive food, and yet be unable to obtain a food which is really nutritive, because we fail to have in it that combination which imparts vitality to it, so to speak. A clever artist may make the semblance of an organism-nay, form it of the very substances of which |