THE ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES.
We have thus far discovered that this terrestrial globe is composed
of sixty-four elementary substances; that fifty belong to a class
called metals, and the remaining fourteen are non-metallic and are
called metalloids.
We know with absolute certainty the elementary chemical composition
of all the substances known to man; everything within the reach of
man has been analyzed, whether of inorganic or of organic origin.
We also know the principal elements that enter into the composition
of organic substances, animal or vegetable.
But a thing that is not generally known is the wonderful role certain
elements play in nature, especially in the life of plants and animals.
If we examine the extraordinary display of combination or composition
of some of the elements--especially those that enter into the
composition of organic substances--we shall find how few of these
elements are essential for the production of life, and its maintenance;
and we shall be surprised to find what force or power, and phenomena,
they are capable of producing. We shall be surprised to see how nicely
and delicately these elementary compositions are adjusted--with what
precision the elements enter into combination with each other--and
with what astonishing result.
The union of the elements that enter into the composition of living
matter, must always be very accurately balanced, to insure a healthy
or normal condition of either plant or animal. A very slight deviation
or change may prove either injurious or destructive to the living
organism.
In order to obviate writing the names of the elements, we propose to
use symbols. The elementary substances that enter into the composition
of living matter being few, it will not be difficult to recognize
the meaning of the symbols. The four vital elements mentioned in a
previous chapter are
Carbon. Hydrogen. Nitrogen. Oxygen.
Symbols: C H N O
The atmosphere we breathe, for example, is what is called a chemical
mixture, and is composed of O22N77, with traces of ammonia, etc.
The water we drink is a chemical composition, and is constituted by
O H2.
The number placed against each element indicates the quantity of each
one requisite, or found, in the composition, or chemical combination,
of the substance indicated.
Take water for example. O1 (one) and H2 (two), that represents
a chemical compound. It is most abundant, and is by far the most
essential, in the formation of organic life.
Air, water, fire, are represented by the four elements C H N O.
Every power, every force known to man is dependent upon these. Every
kind of life is made up of these. Of every phenomenon manifested
by nature, whatever the display may be or where it may occur, these
elements are the fundamental basis.
Protoplasm, which is acknowledged to be the base of physical life,
is nothing more than a homogeneous mass of albuminous matter which
is composed of C H N O--with a greater or less quantity of each of
these elements.
These elements enter into the formation of all gases, fluids, and
solids. They are invisible at one time and visible at another. Without
taste or color or odor in a free state, or even in combination, they
assume taste, color, and odor when the elements combine in certain
proportions. They become either harmless or poisonous; create,
maintain, or destroy life.
Oxygen is a tasteless, colorless, and inodorous gas.
Hydrogen is a colorless, tasteless, and inodorous gas.
Nitrogen is destitute of color, taste, or odor.
Carbon is a solid but becomes gaseous in combination with either
Oxygen or Hydrogen.
The diamond is one of the most remarkable substances known. It is
always distinctly crystallized, often quite transparent and colorless,
now and then having a shade of yellow, pink, or blue. Carbon is also
found as graphite or plumbago. It constitutes a large proportion of
all organic structures, animal and vegetable. Pure carbon, diamond, is
the hardest substance known. In combination with Oxygen and Hydrogen
it forms the softest of living matter, protoplasm. In combination
with Oxygen it is poisonous to all animal life, and beneficial to
vegetable life. Combined with Hydrogen, it forms the gas we burn,
and is destructive to animal life. It is the food-maker in the plant,
and it is the food-provider for the animal. It is the combustive
agent in nature, in vegetables and in animals. From a thunderstorm to
a flickering flame of a candle, carbon displays its power. From the
smallest and lowliest aquatic vegetable cell to the highest animal cell
tissue, it is the important solidifying, heat-giving element. These
elements when free have neither color, odor, nor taste. Combined,
however, they acquire odor, taste, and color.
O and N, the atmosphere, has no color, taste, or odor.
O and H, water, has no color, taste, or odor.
N and H, ammonia, has color, taste, and odor.
O and C is given off by animals, taken in by vegetables--carbonic acid.
C and H, the gas, has taste, odor, and color.
N and O produce a gas--laughing gas.
Any two of these elements may combine in the form of a gas, a liquid,
or a solid. And any one may combine with any other element known and
form a substance, a molecule.
O combines with all the elements known.
H ,, ,, many.
N ,, ,, some.
C ,, ,, many.
Two elements form a substance.
Three elements form vegetable life.
Four elements form animal life.
Common salt is used daily with our food; is harmless and useful;
it is known as the chloride of sodium. By analysis this compound is
separated, analyzed, into chlorine and sodium. Na stands for sodium,
and Cl for chlorine. Combine Cl with H. That forms hydrochloric acid,
a strong poison, strong enough to dissolve marble. Cl has little
attraction for O. Its chemical energies are principally exerted
toward hydrogen and the metals. Cl is one of the best disinfectants,
and makes excellent bleaching material. Na (sodium) combines with O,
and H, and C. These are some of the combinations:
Na Cl = common salt.
Cl H = hydrochloric acid, a poison.
O Na H = caustic soda.
Na2 N O3 = Chili saltpetre.
Na2 C O3 = sodium, carbonate, etc.
Phosphorus and sulphur and other elements enter into combination with
Oxygen and Hydrogen.
Both phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S) enter into organic life, but play
a subordinate role.
The vegetable cell contains liquid, solid, and air. The growing,
vitally active cells are filled with liquid, namely O and H, charged
with more or less nutritive assimilated matters, C, etc.
Sap--the liquid which is imbibed by the roots and carried upwards by
the stem--this is the water impregnated with certain gaseous matter
derived from the air, and minute portions of earthy matter dissolved
from the soil under the influence of light. Sap elaborated--from
this we obtain the ternary substances composed of three elements,
O C H; also substances composed of four elements, O C H N. The latter
represents protoplasm or protein.
Vegetable chemical compounds, organic substances, can be produced
only under certain vitalizing conditions and influences.
Wherever upon the surface of this earth, the sun's rays produce a
certain degree of heat, temperature, C H O may combine and evolve
vegetable life.
In tropical climates, for example, notwithstanding the sun's heat,
no vegetation grows on high mountain peaks that are covered with snow
and ice year in and year out; nor will vegetation grow in the cold
climate of the north. C H and O will produce vegetable life only in
the presence of heat. Heat is essential. And there is one source only
whence it can be obtained, that is the sun.
The climate, as the temperature, etc.; the quantity of elements, and
the quality of soil, vary the products of vegetation. That accounts for
the immense variety, the differences existing. The organic chemical
combinations in vegetable life are infinite. And all these varieties
depend on the numerical quantities of each of the elements C H O that
enter any composition.
The products of vegetation.
C H O N
Starch food substances, 18 13 15
Sugar, grape, 6 12 6
,, cane, H2O + 12 22 11
Oils, aniseed, etc., 10 12 1
Acids, tartaric, 4 6 6
,, , citric, etc., 6 8 7
Hydrocyanic, or prussic, acid, one of the
strongest poisons, 1 1 1
Tannin or tannic acid, 27 22 17
Turpentine oil (composed of carbon and
hydrogen only) 10 16
We have other vegetable products called alkaloids, that are principally
found in the bark and the leaves. A few examples will suffice:
C H N O
Morphia, 17 19 1 3
Strychnine, 21 22 2 2
Quinine (sulphate H2SO4), 20 24 2 2
The essence of coffee and tea, caffein or thein, 8 10 4 2
The alcohols, acids, ethers, and so on, are all composed of these
elements:
C H O
Alcohol, 2 6 1
Acetic acid, 2 4 2
The combinations are infinite. Volumes are filled with organic
chemistry. Mere mention only can be made, to show the wonderful power
these elements display when variously combined.
The products of destructive distillation of coal yield a remarkable
series of combinations:
Carb. Hyd.
Light carburetted hydrogen, marsh gas,
or fire-damp, is composed of 1 4 (C1H4)
Aceteline, another product, 2 2 (C2H2)
Heavy carburetted hydrogen, olefiant gas,
the gas we burn, ethelene, 2 4 (C2H4)
These may undergo a vast variety of changes and
combinations. Chloroform, alcohol, ethers, acids, oils and fats,
resins, balsams, etc., etc., all have these elements in combination.
Does it not seem strange that the different numerical combinations
of the same elements should have such different effects upon the
animal system?
Why should starch and sugar compounds be good for the sustenance
of animal life while other compounds of the same elements prove
destructive to life? Or, why should morphia have such a peculiar
effect upon the animal tissues--especially the nervous? And why
should alcohol have such a peculiar effect upon the master tissues
of the body? The difference in the chemical composition of quinine
and strychnine is not so very great, yet the action upon the system
is by no means the same. The effect upon the tissues is not the same.
Those who believe in a God easily dispose of these questions by simply
exclaiming, They are the wonderful works of God!
That one drop of hydrocyanic acid upon the tongue of an animal should
kill is very astonishing; that acid being composed only of one of
Carbon, one of Hydrogen, and one of Nitrogen (C N H). Why should it
paralyze the brain first, before it affects the heart, since it has
to be carried by the blood through the circulation to the brain? The
derangement of the functions of that center causes death.
The revelations of these important combinations and actions man had
to make for himself. They were not brought down to us on tablets of
stone by some supernatural agent, nor did spirits or angels communicate
the mysteries and the powers of these elements.
It is owing to the development of man's intellectual faculties, that
the combinations of these elements has been made possible. It was
quite a discovery when it was found that nitre, sulphur, and charcoal
made gunpowder. There are only five elements in that compound, viz.,
Nitrogen, potassium, Oxygen, Carbon, and sulphur. Chili saltpeter
is used for domestic purposes. Harmless to animal life, so is each
one of these elements when they enter into combinations that are not
destructive to life.
The forces and powers exercised by any compound depend on the number
and kind of elements that enter into the composition. And the influence
that bears directly upon their mutual activity again depends, when
in a state of nature, upon the presence of heat. When a seed, as
of wheat or of any starchy vegetable, is thrown into the ground,
it will not germinate except in the presence of a certain amount
of moisture, and heat, the heat varying from 50° to 80° Fahrenheit,
in addition to free communication with the air.
Temperature, moisture, air, electricity, kind and quantity of the
various elements in the soil present, cause the immense variations in
plant life and plant compositions. Yet the same elementary compositions
will be found in the same species, and the same conditions generally
will be required to reproduce them.
Each group of elements that enters into the composition of any
substance, carries with it qualities and capabilities peculiar to
itself, throughout the vegetable kingdom. Its influence upon the
animal economy will depend on the various atomic elements, and the
quantities of each, that enter its combinations. For example, the
atmosphere, the balance of power between O and N, is essential to
both plant and animal. So with water, O H2. And so with those foods,
starch and sugars, C18H30O15 or C6 H12O6; in each of these substances
Carbon has its complement of Hydrogen and Oxygen. That is, the Carbon
is, as it were, diluted in a sufficient quantity of water to make
it suitable for food. Rob it of its Oxygen and it becomes a poison,
an active poison. The less the quantity of Oxygen in any substance
of organic origin the more unfit it becomes as a food. And it becomes
poisonous to the animal system in proportion as the Oxygen is absent
or removed from the composition. We have representatives of poisonous
substances in alcohol, C2H6O, a mild poison; and in hydrocyanic acid,
C N H, the strongest poison known.
Moreover, we see already peculiar manifestations in vegetable life,
humble in character, low in degree. Plants not only rest from activity,
but have their sleep and exhibit sensible movement from irritation. The
foliage of the locust, and of most leguminous plants, and that of
oxalis and wood-sorrel, seem to have their sleep, as seen by the
position of their leaves and blossoms. Irritate the mimosa plant,
as by roughly touching it, and the leaflets will suddenly change
position. In the Dionæa muscipula, or Venus's flytrap, the touch
of an insect, alighting upon the upper surface of the outspread
laminæ, causes its sides to close suddenly, the strong bristles of
the marginal fringe crossing each other like the teeth of a steel
trap, and the two surfaces pressing together with considerable force,
so as to retain, if not destroy, the intruder, whose struggles only
increase the pressure which this animated trap exerts.
It is evident that the elementary combinations under certain conditions
and the influence of heat, will exhibit vital action, in an organic
form--manifest phenomena of life, that are only in degree, and not in
kind, inferior to the lowest plant life. The process is the same. The
mode of living differs in degree, though the results are different.
The combination and exchange of elements takes place in the simple
plant life as in the higher animal life. The watery portion of plant
life is composed of O and H2, the same as water in a free state or
water in animal life, and the combination of Oxygen and Hydrogen
with Carbon. The food substances are found in the vital machinery
of vegetation.
The characteristics of life exhibited in the lower grade of vegetation,
are seen in a more perfect degree in animal life--respiration,
exchange of gases, imbibition, absorption, assimilation, evolution
of heat and motion, the power of incorporating material in its own
substance, endosmosis, subjectibility to irritation, exhaustion,
spontaneous movement, rest and sleep, capability of being influenced
by various stimuli, etc., etc.
The combination of O, C, and H, organized and vitalized, in conjunction
with a few other less important elements, manifests in conformity
with the laws of nature all functions and activities that plant lie
is capable of realizing. It would neither be extravagant, nor an
exaggeration, considering the important role these elements play in
vegetation, if they were rightfully termed the soul-life of plants.