3 182201710 1684 
 
 Central University Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 Please Note: This item is subject to recall. 
 
 Date Due 
 
 tt 
 
 Cl 39 (7/93) 
 
 UCSDLiJ.
 

 
 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 A SERIES OF 
 
 POPULAR SCIENTIFIC ESSAYS UPON SUBJECTS 
 CONNECTED WITH EVERY-DAY LIFE. 
 
 JAMES R. NICHOLS, A. M., M. D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "CHEMISTRY OP THE FARM AND THE SEA," AND EDITOR OF 
 " BOSTON JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY." 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. 
 
 1872.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 
 
 JAMES R. NICHOLS, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE ! 
 H. 0. HOUGUTON AND COMPANY.
 
 TO 
 
 THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 WHO BY *Y OWN FIRESIDE HAVE LISTENED TO THE READING OF 
 THESE ESSAYS AS THEY CAME FRESH FROM THE PEN, 
 
 / DEDICATE THIS LITTLE VOLUME.
 
 PEEFAOE. 
 
 nnHE essays contained in this volume relate to 
 the science of home life, and the every-day 
 affairs of individuals and families. It has been the 
 aim of the author to present some of the facts of 
 science in their bearings upon hygiene, the arts, 
 agriculture, etc., in a way to interest and instruct 
 those who gather by the fireside, and those who 
 labor in the workshop and the field. In order 
 not to weary and confuse the minds of readers, the 
 essays have been made as brief as possible. It 
 is certain that the general reader cannot be held to 
 the perusal of scientific treatises, if they abound 
 in extended discussions, or are presented with 
 much minuteness of detail. Science can only be 
 attractive to the busy men and women of our 
 time when its facts and instructions are unincum- 
 bered with abstract reasonings and technicalities; 
 and also it is needful, if the popular mind is to be 
 interested, that the facts bear upon some definite 
 point or topic. It will not do to skirmish over a 
 wide field, and attempt to bring under one head a 
 dozen branches of a subject. It is manifestly better
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 to give each special consideration, and endeavor 
 to have the statements clear, brief, and accurate. 
 This is the general plan adopted in the preparation 
 of these essays, and it may be stated that it is no 
 untried experiment. Most of them have appeared 
 in the columns of the " Boston Journal of Chem- 
 istry " during the past three or four years, and 
 they have been received with favor by many read- 
 ers in all sections of the country. The longer 
 essays upon agricultural topics have formed the 
 basis for addresses before State Boards of agri- 
 culture, farmers' meetings, etc. They give some 
 of the results of the author's observations and ex- 
 periments at his farm at Lakeside, in Essex County, 
 Massachusetts, and as evidence is afforded that 
 they have supplied valuable facts and hints to those 
 who have listened to the reading of them, it is 
 possible they may serve a useful purpose in aiding 
 other husbandmen in their important labors. 
 
 The essays which have been published in the 
 journal in charge of the author have been thor- 
 oughly revised, and some portions have been re- 
 written ; and it is hoped that both these, and others 
 found in the volume, will prove entertaining and 
 instructive to the new class of readers to whom 
 they are now introduced. 
 
 BOSTON, November, 1871.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 MM 
 
 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS 1* 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEN'S EGG 18 
 
 REBREATHED AIR 30 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A CIGAR 36 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE 48 
 
 THE LOST ARTS 61 
 
 THE HUMAN HAIR 73 
 
 MICHAEL FARADAY 86 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A LUMP OF SUGAR 90 
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE 101 
 
 WHAT SHALL WE USE FOR WATER-PIPES ? . . . .135 
 
 THE CLOTHING WE WEAR 150 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF WATER TO AGRICULTURE . . .156 
 
 THE SKIN AND BATHING 186 
 
 DIAMONDS AND DIAMOND CUTTING 193 
 
 AMONG THE COAL MINERS 203 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE HUMAN BODY 215 
 
 ABOUT QUICKSILVER 222 
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH AIR FURNACES 228 
 
 FARM PENCILLINGS AT LAKESIDE 234 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF AN EXPERIMENTER 245 
 
 INFECTIOUS GERMS 255 
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS . . . 262
 
 FIEESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 
 
 O PKINGS of water are possible upon our earth 
 only from the fact that its various strata or lay- 
 ers have been upheaved from their original beds by 
 internal or volcanic forces. It is indeed curious, 
 that the sparkling spring or brook which breaks 
 from the hillside and meanders through the meadow, 
 an emblem of purity and peace, is born of the' earth 
 quake, and exists only in consequence of the terri 
 ble havoc which fire and gases have made of the 
 rocky ribs of mother earth. 
 
 The elementary facts of geology are sufficient to 
 make plain to every one the truth, that the crust of 
 the earth is not composed of a homogeneous mass of 
 rock with a thin covering of soil superimposed upon 
 it, but rather, that it is made up of a series of strata 
 lying one over another, these having been formed 
 from the deposition of sedimentary matter at the 
 bottom of oceans and seas in former epochs of the 
 world's history. The layers have solidified from 
 various causes, and become rock of one kind and 
 1
 
 2 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 another, and they all rest upon the great mass of 
 igneous rock which forms the mighty framework of 
 the earth's crust. Now it is apparent that if the 
 various strata of the sedimentary rocks had never 
 been disturbed, but had remained in their original 
 level position just as they were formed, rivers, 
 lakes, and springs could have had no existence. 
 There would have been no hills or mountains or 
 valleys, and the waters upon the earth must have 
 rested in vast holes or excavations upon its surface. 
 The rain would have managed to escape by soak- 
 ing into the porous strata, and remaining there un- 
 til, in part, driven off by evaporation from internal 
 or solar heat. It could not have formed definite 
 channels or rivers, as it does now, on the slopes 
 found upon every continent. The porous strata or 
 coatings, consisting of the mould, sand, and gravel, 
 would have received the rain, as has been said, and 
 a part of it would undoubtedly have been removed 
 by the agency of heat ; but a large portion would 
 . have penetrated downward, until it met with strata 
 wholly impervious, and there it would remain until 
 it acquired sufficient pressure to be forced out in all 
 directions into cavities constituting the seas. What 
 an oozy, damp condition of things must have existed 
 during the carboniferous and oolitic epochs, or be- 
 fore the great rock upheavals occurred ! 
 
 Let us look for a moment at another point of no 
 

 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 3 
 
 little importance, in the geology of springs and riv- 
 ers. The various strata of sedimentary rocks are 
 by no means alike in physical or chemical constitu- 
 tion : some of them are hard, refractory, insoluble 
 in water ; others are soft, easily disintegrated, or 
 worn by the action of water moving over their 
 surfaces. Upon this difference in the structure or 
 solubility of rocks as now arranged, depends, in a 
 great measure, the formation of crevices and gorges, 
 the sources of springs and rivers. The debris 
 formed from aqueous action constitute for the most 
 part the material which makes up soils upon the 
 earth's surface, and hence it is plain to see, that 
 with undisturbed strata, the present arrangement 
 of arable soils could not have existed. It is the 
 solution of the constituents of different rocks in 
 percolating water, which renders a mineral spring 
 possible. Of course none of these could have been 
 found if everything was at a dead level, and the 
 strata were quietly reposing as originally deposited. 
 The breaking up, tilting, contorting, overturn- 
 ing of these rock layers has been complete ; and 
 consequently mountains, hills, valleys, precipices, 
 gorges, and rock fissures have been formed, 'and 
 from them and through them the springs flow, and 
 among them, often at high altitudes, beautiful lakes 
 repose. The number and the distribution of springs 
 in any section depend not only upon the inclination
 
 4 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 of the strata but upon the character of the rock 
 which prevails. The arrangement of percolating 
 streams below the earth's surface is of course en- 
 tirely unseen, but it must be, nevertheless, very 
 wonderful and interesting. The water which flows 
 out of an orifice in a rock or in the soil at a given 
 point, may have fallen as rain upon a surface ten, 
 twenty, or five hundred miles distant, and the sub- 
 terranean river may have wandered in darkness down 
 the sides of distant mountains through sand, marl, 
 and rock fissures, into the valleys below. From 
 thence, it may have been forced up the sides and 
 over other mountains of less altitude, by the well 
 known law which governs fluid equilibrium, until 
 it reached the surface at a favorable opening, and 
 escaped as an ever gushing spring. The geological 
 formations which prevail in any section govern the 
 conditions under which water flows from the earth, 
 whether it be with eruptive force, or feebly, as do 
 most springs that come under our observation. 
 We must remember that the great bulk of the sed- 
 imentary rocks, and all of the unstratified, are 
 wholly impervious to water, and in their upheaved 
 condition, it is only through the breaks and seams 
 which prevail that it can find its way into the great 
 subterraneous sand deposits and cavities which ex- 
 ist in many localities. If the geological conditions 
 are such as to afford insufficient surface drainage,
 
 . ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 5 
 
 so that a water supply is not afforded, it may be 
 possible to reach the reservoirs in the deep strata 
 below by borings, and these extensive perforations 
 are called artesian wells. They are not always 
 successful, as it is impossible, from geological obser- 
 vations, to determine whether the different strata 
 are favorable or unfavorable. It may be that there 
 exists a porous stratum at a distant point of suffi- 
 cient area to collect the rain-fall, and that there are 
 seams between the impermeable rocks, so that it 
 can pass along down to a lower level ; but it is not 
 certain that it is held in the deep basins where we 
 might expect to find it. Dislocations in the strata 
 are common, and through them the water may leak 
 out and seek a lower stratum, or a natural vent, by 
 which it can rise to the surface at a point lower 
 than the well. Any one who engages in deep bor- 
 ings for water does so at considerable risk, as no 
 geologist or chemist can give him positive assur- 
 ances of success. In this country we have numerous 
 artesian wells, some of them of great depth. The 
 famous St. Louis well is about 1,900 feet deep, and 
 the force with which the water rises is very great. 
 It is however entirely unsuited to domestic uses, 
 being charged with mineral constituents derived 
 from rocks and minerals over and through which it 
 passes in its course. Offensive gases are often 
 mingled with water coming from deep wells, and
 
 6 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 the temperature is uniformly high. The gases 
 present are usually carburetted hydrogen, and some- 
 times sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved freely, giv- 
 ing to the water the smell of stale eggs. The tem- 
 perature of the water depends in a great measure 
 upon the depth of the boring. The well at St. 
 Louis delivers water at a temperature above 100 
 F., and the water of most other wells is found above 
 70 F. In winter such water, if pure, would be 
 delightful for washing purposes, but for drinking it 
 would be vapid and nauseous. It is also without 
 atmospheric air, and would need not only to be 
 cooled but to be aerated to fit it for table use. 
 Altogether we may conclude that the deep springs 
 are not very promising sources from which to obtain 
 potable waters. 
 
 It has been remarked that the water from ar- 
 tesian wells is derived from great distances. This 
 was shown in a boring at Tours, France, from 
 which, when the borer was withdrawn, quantities of 
 sand and small snail-shells were ejected, which with- 
 out doubt found their way there from the moun- 
 tains of Auvergne, thirty miles distant. Eels and 
 small fish have been found in the water of artesian 
 wells, which shows that there is sometimes direct 
 communication through the strata with distant 
 ponds or superficial accumulations of water. The 
 water which falls upon inland mountains and hills,
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 7 
 
 and passes downwards through pervious strata, 
 often finds vent in the sea, and thus the curious 
 spectacle is afforded of a fresh water spring bub- 
 bling up through a mass of salt water. Humboldt 
 mentions such a spring as occurring at the mouth of 
 the Rio Sargartos, off Cape Caloche, four hundred 
 yards from land. The inhabitants of Syracuse ob- 
 tain excellent fresh water by rowing off in boats into 
 the salt sea, and dipping it up into vessels as it rises 
 to the surface from the orifice below. It is difficult 
 to conceive of anything more paradoxical than this. 
 . If the mean annual temperature of the air is 
 taken as a standard of comparison, it will be found 
 that a majoritv of springs are thermal, or warm 
 springs, the temperature being above the mean of 
 the air of the locality in which they exist. The 
 earth is a great reservoir of heat, and as a rule the 
 heat increases the deeper we descend, and there- 
 fore 'deep springs uniformly supply warm water ; 
 cold springs usually flow from superficial rock or 
 soil coverings among hills, and in the gorges of 
 mountains. The elevated points in which they 
 originate are constantly under the influence of cool- 
 ing winds, and the shade of rocks and trees pre- 
 vents the action of the solar' rays in elevating the tem- 
 perature. It is not true that the gradual increase 
 of heat in the earth's crust is 1 F. for every fifty 
 feet of descent, although this statement is persist-
 
 8 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ently made in school-books and popular journals. 
 Some years ago experiments were made in a large 
 number of Prussian mines, and it was found that it 
 varied between 1 F. in 21.3 and. in 155.5 feet. 
 Other experiments have been made in mines in 
 this country, Mexico, and South America, which 
 prove that the extremes are still greater. Undoubt- 
 edly much of this variation is due to the differing 
 conducting power, or specific heat of the forma- 
 tions through which the excavations were made ; still 
 it is clear that there is no uniform rate of increase 
 of temperature throughout the earth's crust. If it 
 were true that the rise equals 1 F. for every fifty 
 feet of descent, at a depth of twenty-five miles 
 every known substance would be in a state of fusion. 
 How intense must be the central heat of our globe ! 
 for it is impossible to doubt that these fires exist, 
 notwithstanding the cogent arguments which have 
 been urged against the theory. It is this great 
 central ocean of fire which warms the water of our 
 deep wells, and it is often brought to the surface 
 heated to a point actually above that of boiling 
 water. The Icelandic Geysers afford water heated 
 to 248 F., which is 36 above the boiling point. 
 There are springs in California and also in South 
 America, which supply water heated above 200 F., 
 and a very large number scattered over the surface 
 of the earth, which show a temperature of 175 F.
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 9 
 
 From these high temperatures we may find springs 
 exhibiting every gradation down to 33 F., or 1 
 above the freezing point. 
 
 It is natural to suppose that the warm water 
 which gushes from the earth in copious supply 
 would be turned to some practical account, and that 
 baths might be constructed in the vicinity of, or 
 over these outlets, or that the water might be used 
 for heating buildings. There are numerous cele- 
 brated bathing establishments in Italy, France, 
 Germany, and other countries, where the waters, 
 are heated by internal volcanic fires, and many of 
 these thermal springs have been used for bathing 
 purposes from the earliest times. There is a cel- 
 ebrated hot spring at Baise, near Naples, much fre- 
 quented by the ancient Romans, the waters of 
 which are hot enough to cook eggs, and other food 
 substances. We well remember the terrible per- 
 spiration into which we were thrown several years 
 ago while attempting to explore the cave in the 
 rock in which this spring is found. The air was 
 like that of an oven* and the blinding, scalding 
 clouds of steam rendered a prolonged stay in the 
 cave impossible. In the province of Auvergne, in 
 France, there is a small town, E'aux Chaudes, in 
 which all the houses are warmed during the winter 
 months, by hot spring-water conducted through 
 them in pipes. There are several towns in our own
 
 10 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 country which are lighted by the carburetted hydro- 
 gen gas which flows spontaneously from the earth ; 
 and there is good reason for believing that in these 
 localities water sufficiently warm for heating the 
 dwellings might be readily obtained by boring at 
 no great depth. It is quite reasonable to suppose 
 that there are localities in this and other countries 
 where it is possible to obtain from water and gas 
 springs sufficient material to light and warm build- 
 ings, and also sufficient mechanical power to work 
 machinery effectively. The surprising capabilities 
 of mother earth are as yet but imperfectly under- 
 stood, but in process of time, as our needs increase 
 and more knowledge is obtained of hidden resources, 
 we shall be able to avail ourselves of many salutary 
 agents of which we have not the slightest concep- 
 tion at present. 
 
 No class of springs have awakened greater 
 interest, or provoked more discussion, than what 
 are known as intermitting springs. Such, springs 
 are active or inactive for longer or shorter periods 
 of time, some of them having" an intermission in the 
 flow, of several minutes' or hours' duration, while 
 others stop flowing altogether for days. The spring 
 at Poterbrunnen', in Westphalia, ceases for six hours 
 and then flows again for sjx hours, and the volume 
 of water is such that it turns three mills in its 
 course. Another spring, in the Jura Mountains,
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 11 
 
 
 
 intermits every six minutes ; and there is still An- 
 other, in France, which flows for 36 minutes, and 
 then ceases for 33^ minutes. In England there 
 are several intermitting springs of an interesting 
 character, and in this country there are a consid- 
 erable number. In Vermont we have visited a 
 spring which intermits as often as every three min- 
 utes, but the flow of water is small. The new 
 spouting spring at Saratoga is an intermittent spring 
 of a rather peculiar nature, as the flow does not 
 entirely cease, and the intermissions are not for a 
 fixed period of time. This is obviously due to 
 obstructions in-the flow of water, caused by carbonic 
 acid gas. This gas in large quantities accompanies 
 the water, and sometimes it fills the tube and for an 
 instant holds the water back, or permits but a small 
 flow ; then the gas is forced out, and the water rises 
 again. Undoubtedly the irregular evolution of gas 
 causes many springs to intermit, but there are also 
 other causes which operate to produce such results. 
 When springs have a connection with the sea 
 through pervious strata, the tide would operate to 
 produce an irregular flow. At flood tide the press- 
 ure would cause a flow ; at the ebb, the condition 
 of things would be reversed, and it would cease. 
 Some of the spring-bearing strata conduct water 
 after the form or under the conditions of the siphon, 
 and consequently they flow intermittently. The
 
 12 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 grit Geysers in Iceland, to which allusion has been 
 made, are the most remarkable examples of inter- 
 mittent springs which the- world affords. The 
 smallest of these flows for fifteen or twenty minutes 
 every two hours, and the largest only once in 
 twenty-four or thirty hours. Some interesting pa- 
 pers have been written upon these springs, in which 
 ingenious theories have been advanced to account 
 for the phenomena* presented. The most reasona- 
 ble explanation is that vapor or steam holds back 
 the column of water at intervals in the same way 
 as does the gas in other springs, and that it is only 
 when this steam pressure is forced to 'give way that 
 the water flows, and thus the periodic accumulation 
 of steam in the pipes causes intermittent flow. 
 
 The term mineral or medicinal has been given 
 to a class of springs, the waters of which hold in 
 solution considerable quantities of mineral salts or 
 agents which are used medicinally. From the most 
 remote ages invalids have resorted to mineral 
 springs with the view of being relieved of certain 
 maladies, and in this country and other parts of the 
 world there are springs which have acquired a rep- 
 utation for extraordinary curative properties. The 
 arrangement of mineral springs at Saratoga is cer- 
 tainly wonderful, and we cannot recur to a group 
 in any part of the world which will at all compare 
 with these, in potency of medicinal character, or
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 13 
 
 singular variety of constituents. It is impossible 
 for any one, however unobservant or careless, to 
 visit these springs and not be impressed with the 
 singularity of the display which is afforded, of nat- 
 ural waters holding large quantities of mineral sub- 
 stances in complex combination. Many of the 
 agents contained in the waters are extraordinary 
 and rare, and in studying their composition it has 
 been found difficult to point out a dozen inorganic 
 substances used medicinally, which are not found 
 in the waters of some one or more of the group of 
 springs at Saratoga. Here are iron, iodine, bromine, 
 lithium, magnesia, lime, soda, potassa, sulphur, 
 baryta, strontia, alumina, and a great variety of other 
 agents, held in perfect solution in the waters, con- 
 ferring upon them a great diversity in appearance 
 and taste, and also a great diversity in medicinal 
 effects. T\\9 nature of the strata and rocks through 
 and over which these waters flow, in their course 
 towards the outlets, must be very singular in chem- 
 ical composition. The sources of many of the 
 springs are probably quite distant, and they bubble 
 up from considerable depths. They are artesian 
 in character, although a majority have come to the 
 surface through natural channels. It is probable 
 that the nature of the underlying strata and rocks 
 is such, at Saratoga, that it would be impossible to 
 make a boring at any point within a radius of half
 
 14 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 a dozen miles of Congress Spring without striking 
 a water supply holding a large quantity of mineral 
 matter. This interesting section seems to be a 
 point towards which waters of a remarkable char- 
 acter gravitate, and probably the supply will be 
 kept up for ages to come, as it has been in the ages 
 which have elapsed. There is wonderful uniformity 
 in the admixtures of mineral matters with the 
 waters, as the various analyses show. No sensible 
 variation in the amount of inorganic constituents 
 has been discovered during the years since chem- 
 ical science was sufficiently advanced to enable cor- 
 rect determinations to be made. The admixtures 
 are so complex and so perfect that it is difficult, or 
 in fact quite impossible, to imitate them in the 
 laboratory. Nature, in her chemical combinations 
 and admixtures, surpasses art, and it is not probable 
 that human science, turned in the direction of the 
 fabrication of mineral water, will ever become so 
 perfect in its imitations as to render the pilgrim- 
 age of invalids to Nature's fountain at Saratoga un- 
 necessary. 
 
 It is a singular fact that there are numerous 
 waters in this country and in Europe, medically in 
 high repute, which are distinguished among chem- 
 ists only for their purity. The celebrated waters 
 of Pfefiers, to which Martin Luther resorted and 
 was cured of terrible hypochondriasis, are almost
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 15 
 
 chemically pure, and so are those of Wildbad and 
 Baden, to which thousands flock from all parts of 
 the world. These fountains, as resorts for invalids, 
 date back to the time of the Roman Conquest, when 
 Caesar bathed in and drank the waters, extolling 
 their virtues. Several of the springs at Ballston 
 and Saratoga contain so few saline particles that 
 they should be reckoned as nothing in judging 
 of the source of the therapeutic influence of the 
 waters. 
 
 At this point the inquiry arises, From .whence 
 comes the remedial power of these fountains ? By 
 their use, are diseases ameliorated or cured ? or are 
 alleged beneficial effects purely imaginary, and 
 without foundation in fact ? The latter hypothesis 
 is unsatisfactory, and there is a vast amount of un- 
 impeachable testimony in the way of its ready 
 reception. Indeed, it is not necessary to resort to 
 this method of disposing of the difficulty. In the 
 examination, we find little more than pure water to 
 be the agent employed ; and, if remedial benefits 
 result, the pure lymph of the fountain, innocent of 
 salt, should have all the credit. And is not water 
 a medicine ? When drank in quantities beyond 
 the demands of thirst, in many diseases, especially 
 those arising from arrested metamorphosis, it pro- 
 duces marked salutary results. I venture the opin- 
 ion, derived from experience and observation, that
 
 16 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 simple water, as a therapeutic agent, is not suffi- 
 ciently well understood among educated medical 
 men. Its .employment has been long abused hy 
 empirics, and therefore has fallen into discredit. 
 In withdrawing attention from it, an important 
 auxiliary in the treatment of disease is overlooked. 
 
 The consideration of its internal use, in connection 
 .with the so-called mineral springs, leads to some 
 observations upon that form of employment. It 
 cannot be doubted that morbid accumulations of 
 effete matter in the tissues and alimentary canal 
 are more readily removed by draughts of water, at 
 proper times and in proper quantities, than by any 
 other agent ; and here we learn the secret regard- 
 ing the benefits obtained by invalids at mineral 
 springs. A large majority of those who resort to 
 them are suffering from atonic conditions of the 
 stomach and bowels. Constipation is almost cer- 
 tain to be a prominent trouble, and then follow 
 nervousness, hypochondriasis, and a long train of 
 evils. At home no more than a tumbler of water 
 may be drank in the twenty-four hours ; at the 
 springs, three or four are swallowed before break- 
 fast in the morning. The. faecal accumulations 
 of the intestines are softened, peristaltic motions 
 awakened, the food ducts are cleansed, and smiling 
 health returns. The " minerals " and the salts of 
 course get the credit, aqua pura none at- all. If
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SPRINGS. 17 
 
 the saline or solid constituents of a pint of almost 
 any of the aperient spring- waters are isolated, and 
 taken in a dry state, they seldom produce any 
 action upon the bowels ; but if they are redissolved 
 and drank, laxative effects follow. This would 
 seem to prove that a combination of water and salts 
 is needful ; but when it is found by further exper- 
 iment that the water produces intestinal motion 
 without the salts, aiew view presents itself. 
 
 It is quite evident that the benefits received by 
 invalids at mineral springs cannot be attributed 
 solely to any unusual condition of the waters, but 
 in a great degree to the liquid itself, taken medici- 
 nally, or at unusuafhours an in unusual quantities. 
 It must, however, be conceded that a change of 
 air, habits, society, etc., has much to do in the 
 work of restoration ; and- therefore, although the 
 water employed for domestic purposes at home *nay 
 be equally efficacious, a resort to springs should not 
 be discouraged, especially among those whose pecu- 
 niary means are ample. The proofs which science 
 affords that the physical and chemical character of 
 waters famous for their medicinal virtues differs in 
 no essential particular from those in ordinary use in 
 families, certainly favors the view that, having re- 
 gard to temperature, quantity, and time of employ- 
 ment, the home waters may be used medicinally 
 for the relief pf a large class of affections. 
 2
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEN'S EGG. 
 
 TT is presumed that but few of those who break 
 the shells of the cooked eggs of our common 
 domestic fowls, at the breakfast table, ever think of 
 the wonderful nature of the structure they crush, 
 or of the complex chemical nature of the contents 
 consumed as food. To a large majority of people, 
 an egg is an egg, and nothing more. If the multi- 
 tude were inclined to^jnquire into the composition 
 of this curious embryotic substance, the impatience 
 of hunger which universally prevails at the com- 
 mencement of the morning meal would render the 
 houn quite unpropitious, and therefore we hardly 
 expect to secure the reader's attention until the 
 time arrives for lighting the evening lamp. 
 
 Before proceeding to inquire into the ipterior 
 composition of the egg, we will consider the ex- 
 terior covering, or the shell, the physical and chem- 
 ical structure of which is exceedingly interesting 
 and wonderful. The white, fragile cortex called 
 the shell, composed of mineral matter, is not the 
 tight, compact covering which it appears to be, for 
 it is everywhere perforated with a multitude of
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEN'S EGG. 19 
 
 holes, too small to be discerned with the naked eye, 
 but which, with the aid of a microscope, are dis- 
 tinctly revealed. Under the microscope, the shell 
 appears like a sieve, or it more closely resembles 
 the white perforated paper sold by stationers. 
 Through these holes there is constant evaporation 
 going on, so that an egg, from the day that it is 
 dropped by the hen to the moment when it is con- 
 sumed, is losing weight, and diminishing in volume. 
 This process goes on much more rapidly in hot 
 weather than in cold, and consequently perfect 
 eggs are not so readily procured in summer as in 
 winter. If by any means we stop this evaporative 
 process, the egg remains sound and good for a great 
 length of time. Covering the shell with an imper- 
 vious varnish, or with mutton suet, or lard, aids 
 greatly in their preservation. The substance used 
 to stop transpiration must not be soluble in watery 
 fluids, or liable to be readily removed. By chem- 
 ical agencies, that is, by actually filling up the little 
 holes in the shell by lime placed in contact in solu- 
 tion (the solution holding the proper chemical sub- 
 stances to form an impervious coating of carbonate 
 of lime over the entire surface), we have pre- 
 served eggs for months and even years in a sweet 
 condition. Not long ago, eggs broken in our labo- 
 ratory were found to be quite fresh, which, accord- 
 ing to the memorandum made upon the vessel, were 
 placed in the solution in May, 1867.
 
 20 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The shell of the egg is lined upon its interior 
 everywhere with a very thin but pretty tough 
 membrane, which, dividing at or very near the ob- 
 tuse end, forms a little bag which is filled with air. 
 In new-laid eggs, this follicle appears very small, 
 but it becomes larger when the egg is kept. In 
 breaking ah egg this membrane is removed with 
 the shell, to which it adheres, and therefore is re- 
 garded as a part of it, which it is not. 
 
 The shell proper is made up mostly of earthy ma- 
 terials, oT which 97 per cent, is carbonate of lime. 
 The remainder is composed of two per cent, of ani- 
 mal matter, and one of phosphate of lime and mag- 
 nesia. Carbonate of lime is the same material of 
 which our marble quarries and chalk beds are com- 
 posed ; it is lime, or oxide of calcium, combined with 
 carbonic acid, and is a hard, insoluble mineral sub- 
 stance, which does not appear to form any portion 
 of the food of fowls. Now, where does the hen pro- 
 cure this substance with which to form the shell ? 
 If we confine fowls in a room, and feed them 
 with any of the cereal grains, excluding all sand, 
 dust, or earthy matter, they will go on for a time 
 and lay eggs, each one having a perfect shell, made 
 up of the same calcareous elements. Vauquelin, 
 the distinguished chemist, shut up a hen ten days, 
 and fed her exclusively upon oats, of which she 
 consumed 7,474 grains in weight. During this time
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEWS EGG. 21 
 
 four eggs were laid, the shells of which weighed 
 nearly 409 grains ; of this amount 276 grains were 
 carbonate of lime, Yl\ phosphate of lime, and 10 
 gluten. But there is only a little carbonate of lime 
 in oats, and from whence could these 409 grains 
 of the rocky material have been derived'? The 
 answer to this question opens up some of the most 
 curious and wonderful facts connected with animal 
 chemistry, and affords glimpses of many of the 
 operations of organic life, which, to the common 
 mind, seem in the highest degree paradoxical and 
 perplexing. The body of a bird, like that of a 
 man, is but a piece of chemical apparatus, 'made 
 capable of transforming hard and fixed substances 
 into others of a very unlike nature. In oats there is 
 contained phosphate of lime, with an abundance of 
 silica, and the stomach and assimilating organs of 
 the birds are made capable of decomposing or rend- 
 ing asunder the lime salt, and forming with the 
 silica a silicate of lime. This new body is itself 
 made to undergo decomposition, and the base is 
 combined with carbonic acid, forming carbonate of 
 lime. The carbonic acid is probably derived from 
 the atmosphere, pr more directly perhaps from the 
 bloodv These chemical changes among hard in- 
 organic bodies are certainly wonderful when we 
 reflect that they are brought about in the delicate 
 organs of a comparatively feeble bird, under the
 
 22 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 influence of animal heat and the vital forces. They 
 embrace a series of decomposing and recomposing 
 operations which it is difficult to imitate in the 
 laboratory. In the experiment to which allusion 
 has been made, the amount of earthy material found 
 in the eggs and the excrement of the hen exceeded 
 that contained in the food she consumed. This 
 seems paradoxical, and can only be explained upon 
 the ground that birds as well as animals have the 
 power, in times of exigency, of drawing upon their 
 own bodies for material which is required to per- 
 form necessary functions. 
 
 The shell of an ordinary sized hen's egg weighs 
 about 106 grains, that is, the inorganic portion of 
 it ; and if a bird lays 100 eggs in a year, she pro- 
 duces about 22 ounces of nearly pure carbonate of 
 lime in that period of time, which would afford 
 chalk enough to meet the wants of a farmer, or 
 perhaps even of a house carpenter of moderate 
 business, for a twelvemonth. 
 
 If a farmer has a flock of one hundred hens, 
 they produce in egg-shells about 137 pounds 
 of chalk annually ; and yet not a pound of the 
 substance, or perhaps not even* an ounce, exists 
 around the farm-house within the circuit of their 
 feeding-ground. This is a source of lime pro- 
 duction not usually recognized by farmers or hen- 
 fanciers, and it is by no means insignificant. The
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEN'S EGG. 23 
 
 materials of the manufacture are found in the food 
 consumed, and in the sand, pebble-stones, brick- 
 dust, bits of bones, etc., which hens and other birds 
 are continually picking up from the earth. The 
 instinct is keen for these apparently innutritious 
 and refractory substances, and they are devoured 
 with as eager a relish as the cereal grains or in- 
 sects. If hens are confined to barns or out-build- 
 ings, it is obvious that the egg-producing machinery 
 cannot be kept long in action, unless the materials 
 for the shell are supplied in ample abundance. 
 
 Within the shell the animal portion of the egg 
 is found, which consists of a viscous, colorless liquid 
 called albumen, or the white, and a yellow, globular 
 mass called the vitellus, or yolk. The white of the 
 egg consists of two parts, each of which is en- 
 veloped in distinct membranes. The outer bag of 
 albumen, next the shell, is quite a thin, watery 
 body, while the next, which invests the yolk, is 
 heavy and thick. But few housekeepers who break 
 eggs ever distinguish between the two whites, or 
 know of their existence even. Each has its. appro- 
 priate office to fulfil during the progress of incuba- 
 tion or hatching, and one acts, in the mysterious 
 process, as important a part as the other. If we 
 remove this glairy fluid from the shell and place it 
 in a glass, and plunge into it a strip of reddened 
 litmus paper, a blue tinge is immediately produced,
 
 24 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 which indicates the presence of an alkali. The 
 alkali is soda in a free condition, and its presence is 
 of the highest consequence, for without it the liquid 
 would be insoluble. A portion of the white of 
 egg when diluted with water, and a few drops of 
 vineo-ar or acetic acid added to it, undergoes a 
 rapid change. The liquid becomes cloudy and 
 flocculent, and small bits of shreddy matter fall to 
 the bottom of the vessel. This is pure albumen, 
 made so by removing the soda held in combination 
 by the use of the acid. A pinch of soda added to 
 the solid precipitate redissolves it, and it is again 
 liquid. There is another way by which the albu- 
 men is rendered solid, and that is by the applica- 
 tion of heat. Eggs placed in boiling-hot water 
 pass from the soluble to the insoluble state quite 
 rapidly, or in other words, the albumen both of the 
 white and the yolk becomes " coagulated." No 
 contrast can be greater than that between a boiled 
 and unboiled egg. Not only is it changed phys- 
 ically, but thjre is a change in chemical properties, 
 and yet no chemist can tell in what the change 
 consists. It is true that water extracts a little 
 alkali, and a trace of sulphide of sodium, but the 
 abstraction of these bodies is hardly sufficient to 
 account for the change in question. 
 
 The hardening of the albumen of egg by heat 
 constitutes the cooking process, and this deserves a
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEN'S EGG. 25 
 
 moment's consideration. Great as is the physical 
 and chemical difference between a fully cooked and 
 an uncooked egg, it is no less remarkable in the 
 degree of digestibility conferred upon it by the 
 process. Uncooked, it passes by the most simple 
 processes of assimilation from the digestive to the 
 nutritive and circulatory organs, and is at once 
 employed in nourishing or sustaining the bodily 
 functions. Unduly cooked, the egg resists the ac- 
 tion of the gastric juices for a long time, and be- 
 comes unsuited to the stomachs of the weak and 
 dyspeptic. A raw or soft-boiled egg is of all va- 
 rieties of food the most concentrated and nourish- 
 ing ; a hard-boiled egg is apt to trouble the diges- 
 tion of the strong and healthful, and its nutrient 
 properties are sensibly impaired. 
 
 The yolk contains water and albumen, but associ- 
 ated with these is quite a large number of mineral 
 and other substances which render it very complex 
 in composition. The bright yellow color is due to a 
 peculiar fat or oil, which is capable of reflecting the 
 yellow rays of light, and this oil holds the sulphur 
 and phosphorus which abound in the egg. If the 
 yolk be removed and dried, and the yellow oil sepa- 
 rated, it will be found to form two thirds of the 
 substance. The whole weight in its natural state 
 is about 300 grains, of which three fifths are water ; 
 of the white, more than three quarters are water.
 
 26 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The yolk and albumen of a fecundated egg re 
 main as sweet and free from corruption during the 
 whole time of incubation as they are in new-laid 
 eggs, and there is but little loss of water ; whereas 
 an unfecundated egg passes rapidly into putrefac- 
 tive decay and perishes. 
 
 Any one who eats three or four eggs at breakfast, 
 consumes that number of embryo chicks. All the 
 materials which enter into the legs, bones, feathers, 
 bill, etc., of the new-born chick exist in the egg, as 
 nothing is derived from outside. The little creature 
 that has just pecked his way out of his calcareous 
 prison-house, has lime and phosphorus in his bones, 
 sulphur in his feathers, iron, potash, soda, and man- 
 ganese in his blood, all of which mineral constit- 
 uents came from the egg, and are taken into the 
 stomach when it is eaten as food. The valuable or 
 important salts are contained in the yolk, and hence 
 this portion of the egg is the most useful in some 
 forms of disease. A weakly person, in whom nerve 
 force is deficient and the blood impoverished, may 
 take the yolks of eggs with advantage. The iron 
 and phosphoric compounds are in a condition to be 
 readily assimilated, and although homeopathic in 
 quantity, nevertheless exert a marked influence 
 upon the system. The yolks of eggs, containing 
 as they do less albumen, are not so injuriously af- 
 fected by heat as the white, and a hard-boiled yolk
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEN'S EGG. 27 
 
 may be usually eaten by invalids without inconven- 
 ience. The composition of a fresh egg, exclusive of 
 the shell, may be presented as follows : 
 
 Water 74 parts. 
 
 Albumen . . . . ' . 14 " 
 
 Oil or fat 10.5 " 
 
 Mineral salts . . . . 1.5 " 
 
 100~ 
 
 The whole usually weighs about a thousand grains, 
 of which the shell makes a tenth part. The chick- 
 making materials, exclusive of water, form only 
 one quarter of the weight of theliquid contents, or 
 only about 200 grains. This seems to be a small 
 beginning upon which to rear the full-grown 
 rooster. The bulk or quantity, as found in hens' 
 eggs, and indeed in the eggs of all birds, is wonder- 
 fully disproportionate to the size of the mother bird. 
 The laying of eggs must be regarded as a particu- 
 larly exhausting process, and yet fowls will keep it 
 up for a long time and not lose much in flesh. We 
 have a hen of the game variety, which has re- 
 cently laid 22 eggs in 22 consecutive days, and they 
 average in weight 1,000 grains each. This gives in 
 amount 22,000 grains, or rather more than three 
 pounds avoirdupois, of which about two and a quar- 
 ter pounds are water. The dozen or more ounces of 
 rich nutritive material, parted with in 22 days, 
 would seem to be a prodigious draught upon the
 
 28 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 small physical structure of the bird, but there were 
 no indications of exhaustion. 
 
 Whilst it is true that the quickening of an egg, 
 which results in the birth of a chick, is no more 
 marvellous a process or result than the embryotic 
 development of any creature endowed with the mys- 
 terious principle of life, yet there are some circum- 
 stances connected with it which make it a matter 
 of greater perplexity and wonder. Here is an oval 
 white body consisting of a calcareous shell, within 
 which there are some semi-fluid substances, consist- 
 ing mainly of albumen and water, without any signs 
 of life. In fact there is no life ; it is simply a mass 
 of dead, inanimate matter. Talk as much as we will 
 about the germinal principle involved in the struc- 
 ture of the egg, we are totally unable to recognize 
 it, or form any conception of its nature. There is 
 no evidence of the presence of any germ, or prin- 
 ciple of life whatever. The egg left to itself decays 
 like other organized substances, but with our assist- 
 ance in simply transferring it to a place where the 
 temperature is kept in a certain uniform condition, 
 in a few weeks the albumen, water, oil, and mineral 
 salts are transformed into a living chick, which 
 thrusts its little beak through the shell, and in ten 
 minutes is running about almost able to take care 
 of itself. Here is the development of life appar- 
 ently without the agency of the mother, and what
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A HEN'S EGG. 29 
 
 a marvel ! The chemist may place together in a 
 body, in a warm place, just such elements or sub- 
 stances ; he may carefully weigh the water, the al- 
 bumen, the phosphatic compounds, the sulphur, the 
 iron, soda, etc., and construct a very accurate egg 
 mixture, but out of it all there will never come a 
 living chick. In this we obtain some idea how little 
 we actually know about life, how dark is the region 
 where the life principle begins, or where the vital 
 forces originate. The indefatigable man of science 
 has pushed his inquiries close up to the boundary 
 between the inanimate and th.e animate, but he has 
 never been able to obtain the least glimpse of any- 
 thing upon the life side of the line. However 
 great may be our curiosity, our skill, or knowledge 
 in this state of existence, there is not the least 
 probability that we shall ever be able to endow mat- 
 ter with life, or know much more than we do at 
 present of its origin or nature.
 
 REBREATHED AIR. 
 
 TT is a matter of astonishment to those who un- 
 derstand the importance of a proper observance 
 of the chemical and physiological laws connected 
 with our existence, to observe how great abuse of 
 these laws the system is capable of withstanding. 
 Not a third of the race have any knowledge of, or 
 regard for, the important sanitary rules upon which 
 life and health depend. Men, women, and children, 
 in all parts of the world, huddle together in narrow 
 huts, cellars, and garrets, and breathe over and over 
 again the corrupted air, subsisting at the same time 
 upon the most unsubstantial and improper food; 
 yet they manage to live out many weary days, 
 and months, and even years, in these abodes. 
 
 The power of resistance to external and internal 
 disturbing and destroying forces, possessed by the 
 animal organism, is indeed marvellous. Great as is 
 this power, however, and constant as is the warfare 
 kept up by the vital forces against the unnatural 
 and evil influences of bad air and bad food, the 
 conflict is an unequal one. The inroads of disease 
 cannot very long be resisted ; the great fundamental
 
 REBREATHED AIR. 31 
 
 laws upon which life and health depend cannot 
 always be violated with impunity. 
 
 Among the many detrimental influences to which 
 human beings are subjected, no one is greater than 
 rebreathed air. Whilst there are tens of thousands 
 who suffer through this agency involuntarily, there 
 are other tens of thousands who might, if they 
 would, escape from its baneful influence. There is 
 bad air in churches, lecture-rooms, theatres, school- 
 rooms, parlors, bed-chambers, etc., which ought not 
 to be present ; or if, when occupied, the air of these 
 rooms must become vitiated, then they ought never 
 to be occupied. Certainly, enough has been written 
 regarding ventilation to arouse public attention to 
 its importance ; but, after all, little heed is given to 
 the matter in buildings, public or private. 
 
 Let us reflect a moment upon rebreathed air. 
 What is it ? It is, strictly speaking, one of the ex- 
 crementitious products of the human organism. It 
 is a mixture of gaseous bodies which have entered 
 the system, .been subjected to chemical changes, 
 then rejected as a waste product. 
 
 Rebreathed air is th only excrementary matter 
 thrown off by men or animals which is not posi- 
 tively abhorrent to all the senses ; which is not cast 
 away and shunned by all classes, the ignorant 
 and the learned, the cleanly and the uncleanly, the 
 civilized and the savage. A delicate and fastidious
 
 32 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 lady will spend hours in a crowded theatre, ball- 
 room, or lecture-room, and take into her lungs a 
 gaseous mixture which has already traversed the 
 air passages and impinged upon the lung cells of 
 perhaps hundreds of men and women. If she 
 should learn that her tooth-brush at any time had 
 come in contact with the surfaces over which this 
 air passed, it would be speedily cast aside, and a 
 new one purchased. 
 
 But it is the chemical change which results in air 
 when respired that renders it unfit for further use. 
 It is reasonable to suppose in fact, we know 
 that rebreathed air is little less than poison to the 
 blood. Consumption and scrofula are found in inti- 
 mate connection with imperfectly ventilated sleep- 
 ing apartments, school-rooms, living-rooms, etc. A 
 vigorous constitution may fight bravely and persist- 
 ently against the influence of the poison ; but the 
 crash comes at last. No one can subsist for many 
 years upon rebreathed air. 
 
 Animals suffer from it as unmistakably as man, 
 and similar diseases are produced in them. The 
 lions and tigers and bears and hyenas confined in 
 menageries, kept close and warm, die speedily of 
 consumption. True tubercle is produced ; weak- 
 ness, emaciation, death, results. It may be that 
 the carbon is retained unoxidized, and that, by fur- 
 ther chemical action, it is forced into new combina-
 
 REBREATHED AIR. 33 
 
 tions by which bodies are formed of a poisonous 
 nature, or which act the part of a ferment in the 
 blood. 
 
 We do not know precisely how rebreathed air 
 produces its deleterious influence, nor is it worth 
 while to stop to inquire, in this discussion. It is 
 certain that its effects are fatal to health. It would 
 be absurd to assert that the frightful prevalence of 
 consumption is due entirely to this agency ; as all 
 intelligent observers understand that there are many 
 causes operating to produce or develop this disease. 
 It is nevertheless probable that impure or re- 
 breathed air is the greatest agent of evil in induc- 
 ing, and rendering fatal, pulmonary affections. The 
 crowded, badly-ventilated school-room is often the 
 place where, early in life, rebreathed air commences 
 its deadly work. Not one school-room in a hundred 
 in this countrv is a fit place ^n which to confine 
 children six or eight hours of the day. The little 
 ones are herded together in a promiscuous crowd : 
 those of tender years* and those more advanced, 
 the feeble and the strong, the sickly and the well, 
 are all subjected to the same hours of study, the 
 same school discipline, and all breathe the same 
 deleterious air. The hardy and the strong may 
 be able to resist the influence of the poison ; the 
 weak and tender ones grow pale and haggard, and, 
 struggling on through their school-days, live per- 
 3
 
 34 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 haps to the age of puberty, and then drop into the 
 consumptive's grave. Will parents never awake to 
 the enormity of this evil ? 
 
 Small, ill-ventilated sleeping-rooms, in which re- 
 breathed air is ever present, are nurseries of con- 
 sumption. These are not found alone in cities and 
 large towns, or among the poor and lowly. Well- 
 to-do farmers' daughters and sons in the country, 
 those who live among the mountains of the New 
 England States, where God's pure air is wholly 
 undefiled, are often victims of consumption. 
 How is this explained? Look into their bed- 
 rooms ; examine into their daily habits of life ; and 
 the cause is made plain. Old-fashioned fireplaces 
 are boarded up ; rubber window-strips and stoves 
 have found their way into the most retired nooks 
 and corners of the land ; and the imprisoned moun- 
 tain air in country dwellings is heated to a high 
 point, and breathed over and over during the days - 
 and nights of the long winter months. It is cer- 
 tainly true that girls in the country take less exer- 
 cise in the open air than those residing in cities. 
 They appear to be more afraid of pure, cold air 
 than city girls. Consumption is not less rare among 
 females in the country than in cities, in the present 
 age. It was not so formerly. The declarations of 
 grandmothers and old physicians go to show that, 
 fifty years ago, consumption was hardly known in
 
 REBREATHED AIR. 35 
 
 the rural districts. The winds whistled through 
 the dwellings then, and the fire blazed and roared 
 upon the hearth. Half the time, in the cold win- 
 ters, " the backs of the inmates were freezing, while 
 the front parts of the person were roasting ; " and 
 yet there was less rheumatism than now, and no 
 consumption. 
 
 Whilst we have made changes in dwellings, 
 workshops, and public buildings, which operate to 
 sadly deteriorate and confine the interior air, the 
 outside atmosphere is just as pure, just as healthful, 
 as in the days of our ancestors. Let us adopt 
 means to secure a full measure of this " pabulum 
 of life," clear, undiluted, uncontaminated, day and 
 night, during the hours of sleep and study. Let 
 us live as much as we possibly can in the open air, 
 and the measure of health will be greatly increased, 
 and life prolonged.
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A CIGAK. 
 
 WHEN Columbus, three hundred and seventy- 
 five years ago, landed upon that verdant isl- 
 and of the tropics which proved the gateway to a 
 new world, he was struck with the strange habits 
 and customs of the people who flocked about him. 
 Probably no one of these habits excited his pity or 
 disgust more than that which was seen to prevail 
 among both sexes, of rolling together the dried 
 leaves of a plant offensive in taste and odor, placing 
 them in their mouths, and inhaling the smoke. If 
 he had been told that, within two or three centu- 
 ries, not only the descendants of those who com- 
 prised the Christian and polished court under whose 
 auspices his bold enterprise was undertaken, but 
 the whole civilized world would be imitating the 
 savages in the, seemingly filthy practice, he would 
 have ridiculed the idea as one most improbable and 
 preposterous. The prediction would have proved a 
 true one. The taste of the poor Indians for tobacco 
 was certainly not peculiar to them ; and wonderful 
 is the fact, that, the more advanced, Christianized, 
 and enlightened mankind have become, the larger
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A CIGAR. 37 
 
 the increase in the consumption of this pungent, 
 narcotic Indian weed. In the time of the great 
 navigator the plant was found growing wild upon 
 the heights of the island ; and not until a full cen- 
 tury had elapsed did it become the object of care 
 and cultivation. It was introduced into Europe," 
 and, in spite of the edicts and anathemas thundered 
 against it by popes and kings, its use rapidly in- 
 creased, until it became well-nigh universal. King 
 James, in his celebrated " Counterblast to Tobacco," 
 denounced the smoking of cigars as " a custom 
 loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful 
 to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and, in the 
 black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the 
 horrible stygian smoake of the pit that is bottom- 
 less." Pope Urban VIII. issued a bull against it. 
 The Russian Government threatened with death 
 all found puffing a second cigar. The Sultan of 
 Turkey declared smoking a sin against the religion 
 of the Prophet. In fact, tobacco came under the 
 ban of the powers, temporal and spiritual, of the 
 whole world ; and yet, altogether, they utterly 
 failed to suppress its use. 
 
 What is the nature of the plant whose history is 
 so extraordinary ? What strange elements enter 
 into its composition ? What is the chemistry of 
 those leaves which, when rolled into cylindrical 
 form, constitute the cigar, so highlv cherished by
 
 38 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 millions of smokers in all parts of the habitable 
 globe ? 
 
 Tobacco belongs to a suspicious and exceedingly 
 dangerous order of plants the solanacece, or night- 
 shades. The deadly nightshade, henbane, thorn 
 apple, belong to this order, and all are powerful 
 narcotic poisons. It is true that to its genera belong 
 the edible potato and tomato ; but we must remem- 
 ber that even the potato is possessed of poisonous 
 narcotic properties, which are only rendered harm- 
 less by cooking. To the farmer who cultivates to- 
 bacco, it proves a robber of the first magnitude. It 
 possesses a capacity for plundering the soil greater 
 than that of any other tree, shrub, or plant known ; 
 the amount of mineral constituents which it carries 
 off can be judged of by carefully examining the 
 ash, as it accumulates upon the end of the ignited 
 cigar. It often remains after the organic portion is 
 removed, showing the full size and outline of the 
 rolled leaves, and to the eye apparently nothing is 
 lost by combustion. If the wood burned in our 
 stoves and upon our hearths was as rich in soil con 
 stituents, we should need the services of extra ser- 
 vants to carry away, the ashes. Every one hundred 
 pounds of the dried leaves which the soil produces, 
 rob it of at least twenty pounds of its most valu- 
 able mineral atoms. In the exportation of tobacco, 
 immense quantities of the richest soil of Cuba and
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A CIGAR. 39 
 
 other tobacco producing countries are transported 
 to distant lands, and scattered to the wind and the 
 storm. The impoverishment thus produced must 
 be met, on the part of the cultivator, by heavy ex- 
 penditures for fertilizers ; else, a few years only suf- 
 fice to reduce lands, through its agency, to barren 
 wastes. The plant is hungry for potash, and of this 
 it consumes large quantities. In every one hun- 
 dred pounds of the dried leaves, there is contained 
 nearly five of this alkali. A bushel of ashes, such 
 as form upon the end of the smoker's cigar, would, 
 if leached, and the ley formed into soap, make 
 enough to serve the purposes of a small family for a 
 year. 
 
 It is a common belief that cigar ashes constitute 
 an excellent and safe detergent or dentifrice for the 
 teeth ; and many smokers are in the habit of saving 
 and applying them to this purpose. The strong al- 
 kaline nature of the ash, acting in conjunction with 
 the silica in its finely subdivided condition, would 
 certainly afford cleansing properties of a high order ; 
 and unless the alkali is too caustic for frequent use, 
 its employment in this direction can hardly be 
 condemned. 
 
 The comparative exhaustive effects of tobacco 
 upon soils may be judged of from the fact that four- 
 teen tons of wheat, fifteen tons of corn, twelve tons 
 of oats, remove no more of the principles of fertility
 
 40 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 than a single ton of tobacco. The activity of chem- 
 ical forces, therefore, necessary in the growth of the 
 plant, must be exceedingly great ; and the curious 
 and complex character of the vitalized structure 
 stamps it as among the most extraordinary pertain- 
 ing to the vegetable kingdom. Aside from the ash 
 constituents, the chemistry of a cigar, in respect to 
 agents directly influencing the animal economy, is 
 the same as the chemistry of tobacco in any form. 
 The chemical agents contained in tobacco are 
 brought in contact with the same tissues and mu- 
 cous surfaces, whether the form be that of smoke, 
 as in smoking, or aqueous extract, as in chewing, 
 or of substance finely divided, as in snuff-taking. 
 Tobacco and tobacco smoke contain three impor- 
 tant and distinguishing chemical agents, which con- 
 fer upon them peculiar properties. If we take a 
 common glass retort and affix to it a condenser, 
 and place in the retort a pound of fresh tobacco 
 leaves with a pint of water, upon applying heat and 
 distilling, a minute quantity of volatile oil comes 
 over and floats on the water in the receiver. This 
 has a pungent odor, and appears to be the aroma, 
 or condensed essence of the plant. When held to 
 the nose, it causes violent sneezing ; and, if placed 
 on the tongue, the whole of the mouth and throat 
 seems to be instantly pervaded -with the strong taste 
 of tobacco. To the smoker, this principle is most
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A CIGAR. 41 
 
 important, as it is the one upon which the peculiar 
 and gratifying taste of the smoke depends. It is 
 changed or ripened by age, or modified, in the 
 growth of the plant, by soil and climate. The 
 amount of this wonderful principle in a cigar is truly 
 homeopathic. In one of ordinary size there is not 
 more than the twentieth part of a grain ; and yet 
 it pervades every fibre and every atom of every 
 leaf. Extract or remove it from the cigar, and in- 
 stantly it becomes worthless and repulsive to the 
 smoker. This illustrates how marvellously minute 
 are the ingredients upon which the sensible proper- 
 ties or peculiar action of many medicinal agents 
 depend. 
 
 If we repeat the experiment with the pound of 
 tobacco leaves in the retort, modifying or changing 
 the action by pouring in a few drops of sulphuric 
 acid and half an ounce of caustic soda, previous to 
 distilling, there will come over a colorless, oily 
 liquid, which sinks to the bottom of the receiver. 
 This is essentially the nicotine, or the acrid, burning, 
 poisonous principle of tobacco. By further manip- 
 ulation, it can be formed into crystals; but they 
 cannot long be retained in that state. This is the 
 prussic acid of tobacco an agent so terribly de- 
 structive to animal life that a single drop, placed 
 upon the tongue of a dog, instantly produces as- 
 phyxia and death. A few grains placed upon a
 
 42 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 stove and volatilized, in a church or theatre, will 
 produce distressing cough and asthma simultaneously 
 upon thousands of people. The one hundredth part 
 of a grain, pricked into the skin with a pin, will 
 produce giddiness, nausea, and fainting. This 
 poison exists in tobacco in the proportion of from 
 two to nine pounds in one hundred of the dried 
 leaves, the quantity varying in tobacco grown upon 
 different soils. 
 
 A consideration of .these facts regarding nicotine is 
 well calculated to surprise and alarm every smoker. 
 There is no exaggeration in the statement ; but we 
 must remember that nicotine does not exist in to- 
 bacco in a free state. It is called by chemists an 
 alkaloidal principle, and found in tobacco in chem- 
 ical combination with an acid. The acid is identical 
 with the malic, found in fruits ; but in tobacco it is 
 called nicotic acid. The virulence of nicotine is 
 considerably modified not only by its association 
 with the acid which it holds, but probably by the 
 presence of the other substances. Modified, how- 
 ever, as it is, it confers upon tobacco poisonous 
 properties of a most extraordinary character. 
 
 The third distinguishing chemical agent which 
 tobacco contains, is an empyreumatic oil, which is 
 obtained when the cured leaves are distilled in con- 
 nection with high-pressure-steam. Foxglove (Digi- 
 talis purpurea), another of the poisonous plants,
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A CIGAR. 43 
 
 affords an oil by distillation, which strongly resem- 
 bles that from tobacco. The oil is acrid, pungent, 
 disagreeable, and poisonous, and contains much 
 nicotine. If the reader wishes to try an experiment, 
 to learn the nature of this oil, let him procure the 
 bowl of an old tobacco-pipe,* or cigar-tube, and 
 scrape off a small portion of the moist " soot," or 
 pound up a bit of the pipe no larger than a kernel of 
 corn, inclose in meat, and throw it to a cat. Death 
 will probably occur in less than five minutes. There 
 are thousands of pipes in constant use among labor- 
 ers, which contain oil enough to kill a dozen cats, and 
 which are so " strong " that a person unused to to- 
 bacco could not fill the mouth once with the smoke 
 passed through them, without experiencing the 
 most unpleasant effects. 
 
 No matter in what form tobacco is used, whether it 
 be in smoking, snuff-taking, or chewing, this volatile 
 oil must come in intimate and constant contact with 
 the mucous surfaces of the mouth and air-passages, 
 and therefore, by absorption, a portion passes into 
 the system. To what extent this absorptive process 
 is carried, it is impossible to know with certainty. 
 Probably it is very small in the case of those who 
 use tobacco in moderation. The smoker usually 
 entertains the idea that, in simply inhaling the 
 smoke, contact with the active principles of tobacco 
 is almost entirely obviated ; but this is manifestly
 
 44 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 a mistake. The smoke holds these principles in a 
 volatilized or minutely subdivided form, and they 
 impinge upon all the absorbent vessels of the mouth. 
 
 If any one doubts the nature of the smoke, let 
 him take a fine, clean, linen handkerchief, and, 
 holding it to the mo*uth, force the smoke from a 
 cigar through it several times. The palpable yel- 
 low hue imparted is due to the oil and volatile 
 principles of tobacco held in the smoke. A good 
 cigar, chemically considered, should contain a large 
 portion of nicotianine, or the true aromatic essence, 
 and a small portion of the poisonous nicotine. Dif- 
 ferent soils impart to the tobacco-leaf these prin- 
 ciples in varying proportions. That of Cuba, and 
 some other of the West India Islands, supplies the 
 rich aroma in abundtnce, and but comparatively 
 little nicotine. The tobacco from these sources is 
 much sought after by smokers in all parts of the 
 world, and the prices paid for it are enormous. 
 
 It is surprising how much tobacco is consumed 
 daily by some smokers. Instances are not rare in 
 which ten cigars are converted into smoke and 
 ashes during each twenty-four hours of the year, 
 by men of not strong constitutions. Let us see how 
 much of the poisonous principle of tobacco, nicotine, 
 is imbibed in the smoke of these cigars. The finest 
 Cuba tobacco contains at least two per cent, of the 
 alkaloid ; and assuming that each cigar weighs
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A CIGAR. 45 
 
 sixty grains, ten would weigh six hundred grains. 
 In this amount of tobacco there would be twelve 
 grains of pure, crystallizable nicotine. This is vola- 
 tilized by heat, drawn into the mouth along with the 
 other organized principles, and a considerable por- 
 tion mingles with the saliva, and impinges upon the 
 exposed mucous surfaces. The twelve grains iso- 
 lated, made into aqueous solution, and taken into 
 the stomachs, or injected into the subcutaneous ves- 
 sels of three strong men, would probably, in three 
 or five minutes, deprive them of life. A crystal, 
 weighing two grains, placed under the tongue of a 
 healthy adult person, and allowed to dissolve and 
 become absorbed, would also produce fatal conse- 
 quences. It will be easy for those of our readers 
 who smoke two, three, or more cigars a day, to esti- 
 mate from the above calculation how much nicotine 
 they convert into smoke in the twenty-four hours. 
 
 We are considering the cigar strictly from a 
 chemical point of view, and therefore do not intend 
 to be betrayed into the expression of extended or 
 dogmatic opinions regarding the hygienic influence 
 of tobacco upon the human system. There are 
 plenty of sensational preachers and reformers who 
 think themselves wise enough to enlighten smokers 
 and chewers upon this point. 
 
 It must be confessed that chemists, as well as 
 many others, are puzzled to know how a plant so
 
 46 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 utterly repulsive to the natural sense came to pos- 
 sess the power of playing the tyrant with human 
 appetites. It is a still greater puzzle, however, to 
 understand how tens of thousands of people, of all 
 classes, ages, and conditions, are able to masticate, 
 smoke, and snuff the substance of the plant, and not 
 suffer the most serious inroads upon the health. It 
 is obvious that all cannot use tobaeco without much 
 physical disturbance. Upon the writer, its use in 
 any form, even in small quantities, is followed by 
 the usual alarming effects of the narcotic poisons. 
 
 There is evidently design in the marvellous ad- 
 justment of the chemical atoms which give to the 
 tobacco leaf its singular properties. It is unlike any- 
 thing else which the vegetable kingdom is capable of 
 producing. Mankind cannot be persuaded to roll up 
 leaves of any other plant and smoke them, as they 
 do tobacco. Neither chemists nor physicians are 
 able to point out any very useful purpose to which 
 the plant can be applied. The former may go to it 
 for a supply of the peculiar alkaloidal principle, 
 nicotine, but this substance is only useful in destroy- 
 ing troublesome insects and animals. A cheaper 
 and equally potent poison is found in the nux vomica, 
 strychnine. In medicine it serves^ no useful end 
 not obtainable through other agents. It must be 
 admitted that there are many vegetable produc- 
 tions which, so far as our knowledge extends, are
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A -CIGAR. 47 
 
 valueless, or which neither contribute to the susten- 
 tation of life, nor avert disease, nor add, in any way, 
 to our well-being or happiness. Tobacco, perhaps, 
 should not be ranked with them ; for, while it is in 
 no respect essential to existence, it does seem to 
 add to the happiness of a large portion of mankind. 
 Fight against it as we may, brand it as a poison as 
 we certainly must, still the smoke of a million cigars 
 will curl upward^every day, and the expectorating 
 crowd of chewers will continue to soil our carpets, 
 and render our railway cars and hotels almost unen- 
 durable.
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 
 
 npHERE is scarcely an article, solid or fluid, 
 which is more generally regarded in this coun- 
 try as one of household necessfty, than what is 
 known as kerosene. It is brought to the cities, 
 from the oil regions, in vast quantities, and from 
 thence is distributed to every town and village 
 throughout the country ; Storekeepers arrange it 
 for sale in close proximity with sugars, coffee, tea, 
 and flour ; and often the dark, moist, and odorous 
 casks are seen mounted by the side of calicoes and 
 ribbons. 
 
 The tallow candle and oil lamp no longer flicker 
 and shed their dim light in dwelling or workshop. 
 A more intense and diffusive light now flashes 
 through the windows, and penetrates far into the 
 surrounding darkness. The country lad or dame, 
 visiting the city, is. no longer dazzled nd bewildered 
 by the blaze of gas-lights ; the home far away 
 among the hills is illuminated by rays equally brill- 
 iant, and the eye has long since become accustomed 
 to the glare. Kerosene must be considered among 
 the wonderful things which have been developed by
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 49 
 
 this progressive age, and its history and nature 
 worthy of examination and study. 
 
 The name, " kerosene," is rather a fanciful one. 
 It originated with one of the early manufacturers, 
 and has now come to possess a general significance. 
 It is applied not only to the oil distilled from coals, 
 but to the illuminating liquid which comes from 
 rock-oil, or petroleum. It is needful that this im- 
 portant body should have a name, generally under- 
 stood and adopted ; and perhaps the word " kero- 
 sene " is as good as any that could be suggested. 
 
 Before the discovery of petroleum, kerosene was 
 manufactured from soft or bituminous coals by a 
 peculiar process of distillation. The statement 
 seems paradoxical, or contradictory, that there is 
 not a particle of oil, or gas, or naphtha, in a lump 
 of this variety of coal, when it is known that from 
 it the chemist not only produces them in large 
 quantities, but a dozen or more other bodies, of 
 very remarkable and diverse natures. A lump of 
 coal is capable of yielding olefiant or illuminating 
 gas, hydrogen, sulphydric acid, sulphurous acid, 
 ammonia, kerosene, kerosolene, benzine, benzoline, 
 naphtha, naphthaline, paraffine^ creosote, carbolic 
 acid, tar, pitch, asphaltum, and some other sub- 
 stances ; and yet, as isolated bodies, most of these 
 cannot be said to exist at all in the coal. Their 
 production is due to the manipulating processes to 
 4
 
 50 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 which the coal is subjected. Heat is the great dis- 
 organizer which breaks up. or separates, the atoms 
 of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, etc., and 
 forces them into new combinations. Most of these 
 substances are of a very remarkable character, and 
 largely employed in medicine and the arts. The 
 gaseous bodies are used for lighting, heating, bleach- 
 ing, etc. Ammonia is used for a great variety of 
 purposes, and is almost indispensable in some 
 processes or manufactures. Very nearly all the 
 ammonia consumed, amounting to many thousands 
 of pounds, is manufactured from the waste products 
 of gas-works, or indirectly from coal. Benzine, 
 benzoline, gasoleine, kerosolene, naphtha (all of 
 which may be included in the general term naph- 
 tha), are extremely light hydrocarbon liquids, of a 
 similar nature, but differing in density and volatil- 
 ity. Kerosolene, or rhigolene, is the lightest and 
 most volatile of all known liquids. It boils vio- 
 lently when exposed upon a warm day in summer. 
 Its specific gravity is 0.625. Benzine is employed 
 for making the beautiful aniline dyes, now so popu- 
 lar. The gorgeous rainbow tints derivable from 
 coal may be regarded as the stored-up sunshine of 
 a past geological epoch ; and the science and skill 
 of our advanced age have proved adequate for its 
 liberation or isolation. It is a curious fact that the 
 benzole obtained from petroleum cannot be con-
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 51 
 
 verted into nitre-benzole, and thence into dye 
 colors. The liquid physically resembles that re- 
 sulting from the distillation of coal ; but, chemi- 
 cally, it widely differs. Creosote and carbolic acid 
 possess remarkable antiseptic or preserving proper- 
 ties. Putrefactive change in organized bodies is 
 instantly arrested by the presence of carbolic acid ; 
 and hence, this newly discovered agent promises to 
 be of the highest importance to the human family. 
 Perhaps no one of the results of the chemical 
 manipulation of soft coals is more striking, or 
 awakens greater wonder in the popular mind, than 
 the production of that beautiful, snowy white sub- 
 stance, used so largely in the manufacture of can- 
 dles, paraffine. Naphthaline is still more beauti- 
 ful. It is produced in the form of scales or crystals, 
 and resembles the pearl or opal in color or appear- 
 ance. How bodies physically so dissimilar can 
 come from black, dirty coals, is a fact almost incom- 
 prehensible to those unacquainted with technical 
 chemistry ; and, indeed, we cannot wonder it is so. 
 When the farmer is told that the chemist is able to 
 change not only a lump of coal, but the moist, black 
 " peat " from his meadow, into oil or candles adapted 
 to light his dwelling, he is perhaps ready to admit 
 the truthfulness of the statement ; but how so strange 
 a transmutation is effected is a problem deeply 
 puzzling.
 
 52 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The changes in coals and carbonaceous sub- 
 stances, which result in the production of oily 
 liquids, are effected by a process called destructive 
 distillation. If water is placed in a retort or still, 
 and heat applied, the particles are raised in the 
 form of vapor, and by condensation are resolved 
 back again into water. There is no change effected 
 in the liquid. But, if we place soft coals in an iron 
 retort, and apply heat, they are disorganized or 
 destroyed. No coal can be found in the retort, or 
 in any vessel containing the volatilized products, 
 after the operation is completed. The degree of 
 heat applied will determine whether it be resolved 
 into gaseous bodies, or into liquids and semi-solids. 
 If a cherry-red heat be kept up during the distilla- 
 tion, we have, as a chief product from the coal, 
 olefiant or illuminating gas ; if a lower, or dull red 
 heat, little gas comes over, but copious vapors, 
 which, when condensed, form a thick, black, greasy 
 fluid, of a not very inviting character. This fluid 
 is made up of a great number of substances, the 
 four most important being kerosene oil for burning, 
 oil for lubricating, paraffine, and naphtha. To 
 obtain the pure kerosene oil, the liquid is subjected 
 to several more distillations, in which strong sul- 
 phuric acid is employed to aid in the purification, 
 and the acid is afterwards removed by caustic soda. 
 Our limits are too narrow to describe the processes
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 53 
 
 for obtaining the paraffine and other substances, or 
 to enter into details regarding the manufacture of 
 kerosene. The brief statement made will serve to 
 convey a general idea of the methods adopted to 
 convert soft coals into kerosene oil. 
 
 In manufacturing kerosene from petroleum, the 
 processes are essentially the same. We must re- 
 gard the crude petroleum as representing the black, 
 tarry liquid obtained from the first distillation of 
 coal. 
 
 In the use of petroleum, this first process is 
 saved ; the coal having probably been distilled in a 
 far back geological period, on a gigantic scale, by 
 some processes of nature not well understood. 
 The vast cavities in the rocks in which this crude 
 product is stored represent, as oil reservoirs, the 
 cisterns in which the manufacturer stored the first 
 products of his coal retorts, before the discovery of 
 petroleum. As soon as this discovery was made, 
 the production of kerosene from coals was promptly 
 suspended, as no one could compete against a nat- 
 ural product existing in immense quantities, which 
 had already passed one important stage of its man- 
 ufacture. 
 
 In the distillation of coal a substance is left in 
 the retorts, called coke, which is very nearly pure 
 carbon. In chemical composition this corresponds 
 with our hard or anthracite coals. By no possible
 
 54 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 manipulation can a drop of kerosene be obtained 
 from coke, or from anthracite coal ; they are both 
 residuums, or results of an exhaustive chemical 
 change. The anthracite coal-beds may be regarded 
 as the coke, remaining after the distillatory process, 
 which produced petroleum, was completed. Arti- 
 ficial coke, by pressure and moisture, can be made 
 to resemble anthracite in its physical aspects. A 
 vast number of interesting questions arise at this 
 point regarding the probable origin of petroleum, 
 its nature, and distribution ; but we must hasten 
 to consider the chemical changes to which a pint 
 of kerosene is subjected after being placed in a 
 lamp and burned as a source of artificial illumina- 
 tion. 
 
 Kerosene is a pure hydrocarbon liquid ; that is, 
 a liquid made up of the elements hydrogen and 
 carbon. Both of these are combustible, or possess 
 a strong affinity for oxygen ; and associated to- 
 gether, as in kerosene, they afford a luminous flame 
 when burned by uniting with oxygen. The results, 
 or products, of combustion differ in no respect from 
 those which proceed from other organized carbon- 
 aceous bodies, being mainly water and carbonic 
 acid. 
 
 Estimating carefully the amount of light afforded 
 by a measured quantity of kerosene, and contrast- 
 ing it, in price, with gas, sperm oil, wax candles,
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 55 
 
 etc., it is found to be far less costly than either ; 
 and it is so convenient and cleanly that its discovery 
 must be regarded as a blessing to the race. 
 
 So much has been said respecting the explosive 
 nature of kerosene, this point demands considera- 
 tion. A general impression prevails among con- 
 sumers that kerosene is explosive^ and its use 
 attended with a considerable amount of danger. 
 Such, however, is not the case ; it is no more ex- 
 plosive than water ; and the employment of prop- 
 erly prepared oil is safe under all ordinary condi- 
 tions. It is important that there should be a clear 
 understanding of the nature of kerosene, the cause 
 of accidents, and the conditions under which they 
 occur. 
 
 As has been stated, kerosene is not explosive. A 
 lighted taper may be thrust into it, or flame applied 
 in any way, and it does not explode. On the con- 
 trary, it extinguishes flame, if experimented with 
 at the usual temperatures of our rooms. Kerosene 
 accidents occur from two causes : first, imperfect 
 manufacture of the article ; second, adulterations. 
 An imperfectly manufactured oil is that which 
 results when the distillation has been carried on at 
 too low a temperature, and a part of the naphtha 
 remains in it. Adulterations are largely made by 
 unprincipled dealers, who add twenty or thirty per 
 cent, of naphtha after it leaves the manufacturer's
 
 56 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 hands. The light naphthas which have been spoken 
 of as known in commerce tinder the names of 
 benzine, benzoline, gasoleine, etc., are very vola- 
 tile, inflammable, and dangerous. They, however, 
 in themselves, are not explosive ; neither are they, 
 when placed in lamps, capable of furnishing any gas 
 which is explosive. Accidents of this nature are 
 due entirely to the facility with which vapor is pro- 
 duced from them at low temperatures. But the 
 vapor by itself is inexplosive ; to render it so, it 
 must be mixed with air. A lamp may be filled 
 with bad kerosene, or with the vapor even, and in 
 no possible way can it detonate, or explode, unless 
 atmospheric air has somehow got mixed with the 
 vapor. A lamp, therefore, full, or nearly full of 
 the liquid is safe ; and also one full of pure warm 
 vapor is safe. Explosions generally occur when the 
 lamp is first lighted without being filled, and also 
 late in the evening, when the fluid is nearly ex- 
 hausted. The reason of this will readily be seen. 
 In using imperfect or adulterated kerosene, the 
 space above the line of oil is always filled with 
 vapor ; and so long as it is warm, and rising freely, 
 no air can reach it, and it is safe. At bedtime, 
 when the family retire, the light is extinguished ; 
 the lamp cools, a portion of the vapor is condensed ; 
 this creates a partial vacuum in the space, which is 
 instantly filled with air. The mixture is now more
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 57 
 
 or less explosive ; and when, upon the next even- 
 ing, the lamp is lighted without replenishing with 
 oil, as is often done, an explosion is liable to take 
 place. Late in the evening, when the oil is nearly 
 consumed, and the space above filled with vapor, 
 the lamp cannot explode so long as it remains at 
 rest upon the table. But take it in hand, agitate 
 it, carry it into a cool room, the vapor is cooled, air 
 passes in, and the mixture becomes explosive. A 
 case of lamp explosion came to the writer's knowl- 
 edge a few years since, which was occasioned by 
 taking a lamp from the table to answer a ring at 
 the door-bell. The cool outside air, which im- 
 pinged upon the lamp in the hands of the lady, 
 rapidly condensed the vapor, air passed in, and an 
 explosion occurred, which resulted fatally. If the 
 lamp had been full of fluid, this accident could not 
 have occurred. Before carrying it to the door, 
 flame might have been thrust into the lamp with 
 safety ; the vapor would have ignited, but no ex- 
 plosion could have taken place. 
 
 This brief explanation will serve to show the 
 cause of lamp explosions. We hear much said 
 about dangerous gases being formed in lamps, but 
 this is an error. In burning the most dangerous 
 kinds of kerosene, no decomposition takes- place, 
 resulting in the formation of explosive gases. The 
 whole hazard comes from air-mixed vapor.
 
 58 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 But how can we be positively assured of safety in 
 the use of kerosene ? How can we know of the 
 quality or character of the article offered us by 
 dealers ? These are important questions, which 
 will naturally arise in the mind of the reader. We 
 answer, there is positive assurance of safety, if pure, 
 well manufactured kerosene is consumed. We do 
 not believe a serious accident ever occurred from 
 kerosene, the inflammable p'oint of which was above 
 110 P., and this is the legal standard. During the 
 past fifteen years the writer has made a large num- 
 ber of experiments upon burning fluids, and investi- 
 gated thoroughly the conditions under which acci- 
 dents occur in their use. Personal investigation 
 has been made of the alleged cases of explosions, 
 many of which have been reported, and therefore 
 opinions are expressed upon the subject with a con- 
 fident feeling of their correctness. 
 
 Purchases made direct, of long established, rep- 
 utable manufacturers, afford assurances of safety. 
 But such are not readily accessible, and in most 
 cases a supply is sought from the nearest dealer, 
 without any definite knowledge of the source from 
 whence it comes, or its character or quality. If 
 consumers are willing to be put to a little trouble, 
 a simple experiment will determine the safety of 
 the kerosene they purchase. Fill a pint bowl two 
 thirds full of boiling water, and into it put a com-
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 59 
 
 mon metallic thermometer. The temperature will 
 run up to over 200. By gradually adding cold 
 water, bring down the temperature of the water to 
 110, and then pour into the bowl a spoonful of the 
 kerosene, and apply a lighted match. If it takes 
 fire, the article should be rejected as dangerous ; if 
 not, it may be used with a confident feeling of its 
 safety. In this experiment, which is the most sim- 
 ple that can be devised, the fire test is directly ap- 
 plied. Upon practical trials it has been found to 
 afford correct results. 
 
 There are severe enactments, both state and 
 national, against the sale of kerosene of a danger- 
 ous character; but, as in the case of many other 
 articles subjected to adulterating processes, the 
 fear of the law does not deter from sophistication. 
 Kerosene is largely mixed with the cheap naphthas 
 to reduce the cost, and thus the lives of consumers 
 are jeopardized. 
 
 We would caution our readers against another 
 form of fraud and deception. There are many men 
 in all the large towns and cities, engaged in com- 
 pounding and vending burning fluids under various 
 names, alleged to be safer, or cheaper, or better, 
 than kerosene. Chemica] examination of many of 
 these fluids proves them to be either dangerous mix- 
 tures of oil and naphtha, or kerosene with a little 
 coloring matter added. Avoid all "chemical oils,"
 
 60 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 " lunar oils," " oleines," etc. ; from the nature of 
 the case they must be fraudulent, as there are no 
 liquid or solid bodies known to science which fur- 
 nish perfect artificial light so cheaply as kerosene, 
 the product of crude petroleum.
 
 THE LOST ARTS. 
 
 "]% /TTJCH has been said regarding the lost arts ; 
 -*-*-- and a general impression prevails that there 
 were many wonderful processes, arts, and contriv- 
 ances known to the ancients which have been lost 
 to us. Is this idea correct ? Is it true that the 
 old Egyptians, Grecians, and Romans were our 
 superiors in any kind or branch of knowledge ? 
 Did they excel us in any department of art or 
 mechanical labor? From a somewhat thorough 
 examination of the treasures of ancient art found in 
 the museums of Europe, and from a careful study 
 of the works of the writers of antiquity, especially 
 Pliny, who is the acknowledged source from which 
 very much of this kind of information is drawn, 
 the conclusion is reached that there is great loose- 
 ness and exaggeration in the statements of those 
 who have taken the affirmative of these questions. 
 
 It would be absurd to say that there were not 
 some arts or processes belonging to the ancient 
 civilization which have been lost, or are now im- 
 perfectly understood ; but that the number is large, 
 or that, if known, they would be of any impor-
 
 62 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 tanee to us, are points we are unwilling to admit. 
 A considerable number of the elegant and useful 
 arts which are so pleasing and essential to our 
 comfort and happiness were undoubtedly known to 
 the ancients ; and this is indeed remarkable. We 
 are not, however, in any sense indebted to them 
 for a knowledge of these, as they have been re- 
 discovered through the instrumentality of modern 
 genius and research. We had none of their 
 models to imitate : they have been secured to us 
 through independent thought and skill. We have 
 reinvented and rediscovered nearly or quite every- 
 thing wonderful or useful known to the early races. 
 And how vast and amazing the triumphs of modern 
 science and discovery in directions entirely un- 
 known and unsuspected by them ! 
 
 No fact is more apparent than that human inge- 
 nuity, when directed by culture and intelligence, 
 runs in certain specific channels, and is made com- 
 petent to construct such devices and appliances as 
 the age demands ; or, perhaps we may say, just 
 such as are most convenient and indispensable to 
 the existing civilization. Thus the civilization of 
 the old Roman world demanded, in the working of 
 wood, planes, saws, squares, levels, bits, augers, 
 hammers ; the workers in iron and other metals 
 required forges, blast-furnaces, anvils, tongs, sledge- 
 hammers, punches, dies, etc. ; the farmers wanted .
 
 THE LOST ARTS. 63 
 
 sickles, pruning-knives, hoes, shovels, spades, forks, 
 ploughs, harrows ; the warriors, shields, swords, 
 spears, battle-axes, crossbows, and javelins. These 
 the inventive faculty of the age was competent and 
 prompt to supply. The artisans went on through 
 successive ages, manufacturing and improving upon 
 these implements, until they reached that degree 
 of perfection which is so clearly shown and illus- 
 trated in discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii. 
 In a considerable number of instances they reached 
 the highest stage of perfection in the mechanic 
 arts ; at least, we are led to adopt this view, as, 
 with all our modern science and skill, we are un- 
 able to make any essential improvements. Their 
 planes, sickles, shovels, spades, hammers, saws, 
 knives, swords, and a hundred other articles, in 
 form and construction, were almost precisely like 
 those in use among us at the present time. How 
 has this happened ? 
 
 During the dark ages which have intervened 
 since the downfall of the Roman civilization, all 
 knowledge of the form and construction of these 
 implements was lost ; and our devices must be, as 
 before stated, original inventions. We knew noth- 
 ing regarding the form of a Roman plane, or 
 sickle, or spade, until Pompeii was disentombed, 
 about a hundred years ago. When these discov- 
 erie* were made, our inventors and artisans were
 
 64 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 amazed to find that, seventeen centuries since, the 
 same forms of tools and implements were in the 
 hands of husbandmen and workers in wood, iron, 
 and stone. There is a limit to human skill as well 
 as to human thought, and the same culture and 
 ingenuity will reach about the same ends in any 
 and every age. The ancient Grecians and Romans 
 attained the limit of perfection in several depart- 
 ments of art ; we have reached the same end in a 
 much larger number. And it is reasonable to infer 
 that, if our civilization was destroyed, and ages of 
 barbarism should intervene before a new one arose, 
 the ground which inventors, artists, and men of 
 science have gone over in this age would once 
 more be travelled ; and if the same degree of civ- 
 ilization was attained, the same mechanical inven- 
 tions and arts would again be reproduced. 
 
 Let us examine a few of the different branches 
 or departments of the mechanical or industrial arts 
 as practised by the ancient Romans, with the view 
 of ascertaining if they possessed any processes not 
 known to us, or if they excelled us in the products 
 of their skill. It is alleged by some popular writers 
 and lecturers that in the art of glass-making they 
 were greatly our superiors. In proof of this they 
 quote largely from the gossiping Pliny, and present 
 his statements regarding the production of speci- 
 mens so perfect and beautiful they could not be
 
 THE LOST ARTS. 65 
 
 distinguished from precious stones. He mentions 
 artificial hyacinths, sapphires, and emeralds, and a 
 kind of black glass, which closely resembled the 
 obsidian stone. It is certain that great excellence 
 was reached in this department, as in one of the 
 collections of antiquities at Rome imitations of 
 chrysolite and emerald are shown, which are very 
 perfect. They have not the smallest blemish, 
 either externally or internally, and the colors are 
 faultless. In coloring glass the ancients must have 
 been acquainted with the metallic oxides, as they 
 offer the only pigments capable of withstanding the 
 intense heat required in glass fusions. They col- 
 ored glass so perfectly, and imitated gems so suc- 
 cessfully, that the hucksters .and cheats of those 
 times were able to deceive even the wives of the 
 emperors. For Trebellius Pollio informs us of the 
 whimsical way in which Galh'enus punished an ad- 
 venturous wretch who sold his wife a piece of glass 
 for a jewel. Granted that they manufactured some 
 excellent or even remarkable specimens of glass ; 
 that they gave tints most exquisite ; that they made 
 costly vessels, or drinking-cups, tables, vases, or 
 even panelled rooms with it, what did they more 
 than we ? Do we not make gems so perfect as to 
 deceive those most experienced ? Are not two 
 thirds of the brilliants that refract light so beauti- 
 fully in the bracelets and rings worn "by modern 
 5
 
 66 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ladies constructed simply of glass ? Have we not 
 made an imitation of the great Kohinoor diamond 
 so perfect that, by the eye, it cannot be distin- 
 guished from the original ? As regards colors, no 
 specimens of ancient glass excel, or even compare 
 with those produced in the present century. The 
 brilliancy of our tints and their permanency have 
 never been surpassed. But what of the malleable 
 glass of the ancients ? We do not believe any 
 such glass was ever produced. The statements of 
 Dion Cassius and Petronius Arbiter regarding the 
 production of ductile glass by a celebrated Roman 
 architect, are probably only other versions of the 
 story told by Pliny regarding the artificer who, for 
 making the same discovery, had his workshop de- 
 molished by a mob, who feared it would lower the 
 value of gold, silver, and brass. The story is, that 
 a vessel of this glass was brought into the presence 
 of the Emperor Tiberius by the discoverer, and 
 dashed upon the floor without breaking, the effect 
 of the blow only indenting or bruising it a little 
 The inventor then took a hammer from his pocket 
 and beat it out into its original shape, as if it had 
 been made of thin metal. This is absurd. Glass 
 is a vitrified substance ; and it is now, and always 
 has been, impossible to associate with it the prop- 
 erty of malleability. 
 
 The glass of the ancients, like our own, was a
 
 THE LOST ARTS. 67 
 
 true silicate of soda, or potassa, and any substance 
 constructed of other materials could not properly 
 be called glass. It is possible for modern chemists 
 to prepare, from some of the metals or metallic 
 salts, a ductile material having a glossy appearance, 
 which might pass for glass. From the fusion of 
 chloride of silver a substance of this kind is formed, 
 which, among the unscientific Romans, would 
 readily be called glass. If they possessed the art 
 of spinning glass, of which there is no evidence, 
 vessels might have been constructed which would 
 be flexible, and admit of being dashed upon the 
 floor without breaking ; but no bottle or vessel 
 capable of holding liquids could be thus constructed. 
 The writer has in his possession a card plate, pro- 
 cured of the glass-workers of Venice, made of 
 glass in this form, which is a wonderful specimen 
 of ingenuity and skill. It can be bent and thrown 
 about without breaking, but hammering would soon 
 reduce it to powder. In all that pertains to glass 
 manufactures, in the vastness of the production, 
 cheapness, quality, colors, variety of forms and 
 uses, we have made great advances over any race 
 or races that have preceded us. 
 
 In the working of metals, in the various combi- 
 nations and alloys formed, and in chemical treat- 
 ment, we may justly claim a like superiority. Iron, 
 although well known, was comparatively but little
 
 68 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 used among the ancient Romans, Grecians, Egyp- 
 tians, etc. They did not understand easy processes 
 for working it, and consequently articles constructed 
 of iron bore a very high price. The iron ores of 
 England were undoubtedly worked by the Romans, 
 in the first centuries of the Christian era, as heaps 
 of scoriae, the refuse of their bloomaries, occur in 
 various localities. Their processes of reduction 
 were very simple, consisting of the deoxidatioii of 
 the ore and the cementation of the metal by long- 
 continued heat. They were not very far in ad- 
 vance of some of the ignorant tribes who now work 
 iron in the interior of Africa. 
 
 We have no positive evidence that the ancients 
 were acquainted with more than seven of the met- 
 als. Their list embraced copper, iron, gold, silver, 
 lead, quicksilver, and tin. How insignificant this 
 appears in contrast with the noble list of more than 
 fifty metals known to us ! Copper and its alloys 
 were their favorite metals. They certainly knew 
 as much regarding bronze, its composition and 
 working, as we do. The enormous statue of the 
 sun, known by the name of the Colossus of 
 Rhodes, was composed entirely of this compound 
 metal. It was indeed a huge structure, one hun- 
 dred and five feet high, with legs spread, so that 
 ships could pass between. There is no evidence 
 that the legs extended across the harbor of Rhodes,
 
 THE LOST ARTS. 69 
 
 although that is the popular idea. Chares, a cele- 
 brated artificer, spent twelve years in constructing 
 it, and Pliny says that there were few that could 
 clasp its thumb. A spiral staircase led to its sum- 
 mit, from whence might be descried Syria, and the 
 ships proceeding to Egypt, in a great mirror sus- 
 pended to the neck of the statue. It was over- 
 thrown by an earthquake, B. c. 224, and the frag- 
 ments lay on the ground for nine hundred and 
 twenty-three years, when they were sold by the 
 Saracens to a Jew, who loaded nine hundred cam- 
 els with the brass, A. D. 672. This was one of the 
 wonders of the world; and vast as would be the 
 undertaking, it is certain that modern skill would 
 construct a like image in one fourth the time it 
 took to construct this, if the large sum of money 
 requisite could be supplied. The statue of St. 
 Charles Borromeo, at Arona, Italy, is sixty-six feet 
 high, composed of brass. This is the largest statue 
 existing in the world. We have found that the 
 nose of this statue afforded a very spacious and 
 comfortable seat after a tedious climb to that high 
 elevation. Immense quantities of copper and tin 
 must have been mined by the ancients, as we are 
 informed by Pliny that Rhodes alone was adorned 
 by no less than one thousand colossal statues of the 
 Sun in bronze, and Rome and all the large cities of 
 the empire were filled with them. How can we
 
 70 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 account for the almost complete disappearance of 
 these many thousands of tons of bronze ? 
 
 It is generally supposed that the ancients were 
 acquainted with a method of hardening copper, so 
 as to make it subserve the purposes of iron and 
 steel in the working of wood and stone. If this be 
 true, the art is a lost one, as we certainly are igno- 
 rant of any such process. It is, however, hardly 
 probable or possible that this supposition can be 
 strictly true. Modern alloys of copper have been 
 made of great hardness, but nothing that possessed 
 the characteristics of steel. The sword-blades, 
 spear-heads, hatchets, and cutting instruments of 
 the ancients were probably only alloys of copper and 
 tin, which were capable of meeting many wants in 
 the absence of the harder and more refined fer- 
 ruginous metals. It is, indeed, a mystery how they 
 could, with the implements of metal at their com- 
 mand, construct such stupendous works of solid 
 masonry, the remains of which are now seen in all 
 parts of the Old World. They worked in the hard- 
 est stone apparently with as much facility as we do 
 with our steel hammers, drills, and bars. The 
 mystery, however, connected with metallic hand 
 implements is no greater than that regarding the 
 mechanical appliances by which such huge masses 
 of solid rock were detached from the mountain 
 sides, and transported long distances. They had
 
 THE LOST ARTS. 71 
 
 no gunpowder to rend asunder the aggregated 
 atoms ; no steam-engines to lift from their rocky 
 beds the wrought columns of marble, tufa, syenite, 
 etc., and send them forward to their distant temples 
 and palaces. Did they possess mechanical arts and 
 contrivances unknown to us, which rendered those 
 great labors easy and of speedy accomplishment ? 
 We think not. The ancients depended upon brute 
 force, .upon numbers, to carry forward their vast 
 undertakings. The element of time hardly entered 
 into their calculations. Time and human life were 
 not held in very high regard in the old heathen 
 world. They accomplished by slow, tedious, and 
 imperfect processes, what we do rapidly and per- 
 fectly by the aid of science, skill, and the most suit- 
 able machinery and tools. The fluting of their 
 columns, the elaborate working of their bas-reliefs, 
 friezes, entablatures, etc., were done by the slow 
 picking and chiselling of many imperfect tools in 
 many hands. The raising of a block of marble was 
 accomplished by direct human strength, which was 
 secured by the aid of many strong muscles. 
 
 In the time of the Roman emperors, the whole 
 known world was owned by about thirty thousand 
 men. These rich nobles and patricians held as slaves 
 all the rest of mankind, and could command their 
 services. In great works, like those upon which we 
 employ a thousand workmen, they would employ a
 
 72 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 hundred thousand, and thus, through force of num- 
 bers, compensate in some degree for our superior 
 mechanical appliances and intelligent skill. 
 
 No structures ever erected by human hands have 
 excited so much wonder as the pyramids of Egypt. 
 According to Herodotus, one hundred thousand 
 men worked forty years in constructing that of 
 Cheops. It rises into the air four hundred and 
 fifty-two feet, and covers a square whose side is 
 seven hundred and sixty-eight feet, and is built of 
 vast blocks of stone, brought from quarries many 
 miles distant. We are entirely ignorant regarding 
 the means employed to transport and raise these 
 stones to their resting-places. It is not probable, 
 however, that any art or mechanical contrivance 
 superior, or in any respect equal, to those known to 
 us was brought into requisition. It has been es- 
 timated that ten thousand men, in our age, with 
 our machinery, would raise a structure equally 
 vast and imposing in less than fifteen years. 
 
 The subject upon which we have entered, to be 
 treated in a satisfactory manner, requires much 
 more space than the limits of this essay afford. 
 The design has been, merely to give some brief 
 reasons for dissenting from the popular idea that 
 the ancients were acquainted with many arts and 
 processes of superior merit which have been quite 
 lost to us.
 
 THE HUMAN HAIK. 
 
 rpHE deep interest felt in the welfare of the 
 natural covering to the . head is evinced by 
 the expenditure of much time and large sums of 
 money by all classes of people in attempting to pre- 
 serve and adorn it. Upon no subject have we been 
 more frequently requested to express opinions or 
 supply information than upon that of the hair, and 
 the increasing demand for dyes, washes, and " pre- 
 servatives" indicates how wide-spread and well- 
 nigh universal is the interest in the matter. These 
 considerations have led us to make some observa- 
 tions upon the hair, and the substances used to 
 change its tints and improve its condition. 
 
 The adornment of 'the hair, and the forming of 
 it into fantastic shapes, have been practised by 
 women in all ages, and in no direction have the 
 caprices of fashion been more strikingly displayed 
 than in disposing this natural covering of the head. 
 The early Hebrew women gloried in their luxu- 
 riant tresses, plaiting them, and adorning their 
 heads with ornaments of gold, silver, and precious 
 stones. The Greeks allowed their hair to grow to
 
 74 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 a great length, while the Egyptians often removed 
 it as an incumbrance. There is no " fashion " con- 
 nected with the hair, in vogue at the present time, 
 which is new. It is not a modern idea to resort to 
 borrowed or " false " hair to satisfy the caprioe of 
 fashion, neither is it to dye the hair, or dress it with 
 unguents and oily substances. 
 
 The Greek, Egyptian, Carthaginian, and Ro- 
 man ladies, more than twenty-five centuries ago, 
 made use of the most extravagant quantities of 
 borrowed hair, and they wound it into large protu- 
 berances upon the back of their heads, and to keep 
 it in place used "hair-pins" of precisely the form 
 in use at the present time. The Roman women of 
 the time of Augustus were especially pleased when 
 they could outdo their rivals in piling upon their 
 heads the highest tower of borrowed locks. They 
 also arranged rows of curls formally around the 
 sides of the head, and often the very fashionable 
 damsels would have pendent curls in addition. An 
 extensive commerce was carried on in hair, and 
 after the conquest of Gaul, blonde hair, such as was 
 grown upon the heads of German girls, became 
 fashionable at Rome, and many a poor child of the 
 forests upon the banks of the Rhine parted with 
 her locks to adorn the wives and daughters of the 
 proud conquerors. The great Caesar indeed, in a 
 most cruel manner, cut off the hair of the van-
 
 THE HUMAN HAIR. 75 
 
 quishcd Gauls, and sent it to the Roman market for 
 sale, and the cropped head was regarded in the 
 conquered provinces as a hadge of slavery. 
 
 To such a pitch of absurd extravagance did the 
 Roman ladies at one time cany the business of 
 adorning the hair, that upon the introduction of 
 Christianity, in the first and second centuries, the 
 apostles and fathers of the church launched severe 
 invectives against the vanity and frivolity of the 
 practice. It must be confessed the ancient ladies 
 did outdo their modern sisters. The artistic, pro- 
 fessional hair-dressers of old Rome were employed 
 at exorbitant prices to form the hair into fanciful 
 devices, such as harps, diadems, wreaths, emblems 
 of public temples and conquered cities, or to plait 
 it into an incredible number of tresses, which were 
 often lengthened by ribbons so as to reach to the 
 feet, and loaded with pearls and clasps of gold. No 
 wonder such exhibitions of vanity excited the 
 wrath of that stubborn old bachelor, St. Paul, and 
 called forth his maledictions. It would be curious 
 if, before the present fashion of arranging the hair 
 among the ladies runs out, the extreme customs of 
 a pagan age should come round again. 
 
 In ancient times people grew old as they do 
 now, and the frosts of age blanched the raven locks 
 of youth, and also there were those with hair glow- 
 ing with red, or other tints not deemed desirable.
 
 76 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 Hence it was that hair-dyes came into use ; and a 
 brisk demand for substances capable of changing 
 the color of the hair has been maintained for thirty 
 centuries. 
 
 The substances employed before the science of 
 chemistry was understood were usually quite inef- 
 fectual in their influence. They were, for the most 
 part, fugitive vegetable stains, which water would 
 easily remove. There was, however, a metallic 
 mixture made in Egypt which possessed qualities of 
 the highest excellence. If the statements of some 
 writers can be relied upon, this mixture was far 
 superior to any form of hair-dye known to modern 
 chemists. There is at the present time a dye 
 used by the Armenians, in the East, which may 
 be, in many respects, like the ancient dye. It 
 is a metallic substance, resembling dross. This 
 is powdered, and mixed with fine nut-galls, and 
 moistened. A little of the paste is taken in the 
 hand and rubbed into the hair or beard, and in 
 a few days it becomes beautifully black. Those 
 who have visited the Armenian convents in Turkey 
 must have admired the fine black beards of the 
 monks, even those of advanced age. This dye is 
 undoubtedly composed of a mixture of iron and 
 copper, which metals, in conjunction with the gallic 
 acid formed from the galls, produce a dye of . 
 superior excellence.
 
 THE HUMAN HAIR, 77 
 
 The hair-dyes in use at the present time are, for 
 the most part, objectionable in some one of the fea- 
 tures, or they are untidy or inconvenient to apply. 
 The dye which has been so fashionable during the 
 past ten years is a poisonous compound, being com- 
 posed largely of one of the salts of lead, the ace- 
 tate. This mixture was brought into notice soon 
 after the close of the Mexican War, and was known 
 as " General Twiggs's Hair-dye," from the name 
 of the person who first successfully used it. Nearly 
 all the " Restoratives," " Washes," " Embroca- 
 tions,'' " Dressings," " Dyes," etc., found in the 
 shops are identical in composition, being made from 
 this formula. The number of popular mixtures of 
 this kind, having different names, and which were 
 made and sold by different parties, at one time ex- 
 ceeded forty in the United States. The formula 
 and method of preparing it are exceedingly simple. 
 Take of 
 
 Finely powdered acetate of lead, 120 grains. 
 Lac sulphur, 1 60 grains. 
 Rose-water, one pint. 
 Glycerine, one ounce. 
 
 Mix the glycerine with the water, and add the 
 acetate of lead and sulphur. The mixture must be 
 well shaken before using. The lead and sulphur 
 do not all dissolve in the rose-water, but fall to the 
 bottom of the vessel as a precipitate. This prepa-
 
 T8 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ration will gradually dye the hair a black or dark 
 brown color, if a small quantity is rubbed into it 
 once or twice a day. Its frequent use is however 
 attended with great danger, as numerous instances 
 of leao> poisoning have resulted from its employ- 
 ment. There are many other hair-dyes into which 
 lead enters that are equally objectionable. The 
 following is a well known formula: 
 
 Powdered litharge (oxide of lead), 2 oz. 
 Quicklime, oz. 
 Calcined magnesia, J oz. 
 
 Mix the powders, moisten with water, apply the 
 paste to the hair, and allow it to remain four hours. 
 This affords a dark brown color ; for a deep black, 
 it must remain eight hours. 
 
 The solution of plumbate of potash is a very 
 convenient dye. It is slow in its action, but it does 
 , not stain the skin. It is prepared by dissolving 
 in four ounces of liquor potassse as much freshly 
 precipitated oxide of lead as it will take up, and 
 diluting the clear solution with twelve ounces of 
 pure water. It may be applied as a wash to the 
 hair. The permanganate of potassa forms an ex- 
 cellent dye, where a dark brown color is desired. 
 It is safe and easily applied, but it has the disad- 
 vantage of staining the skin. If care is used, this 
 need not occur. The solution may be made by 
 dissolving in two ounces of distilled water 120 
 grains of the crystals of permanganate of potassa.
 
 THE HUMAN HAIR. 79 
 
 One of the most common forms of hair-dye, as 
 found in the shops, is prepared from nitrate of 
 silver, as follows : 
 
 Nitrate of silver, 1 oz. 
 
 Rose-water, 7 oz. 
 
 Dissolve the nitrate in the rose-water. 
 
 This is the dye. Previous to applying it, the 
 hair must be wet with the following solution : 
 Sulphuret of potassium, 1 oz. 
 Water, 6 oz. 
 
 After the hair is dry, the silver solution is applied 
 with a brush. The odor of the mordant is very 
 disagreeable ; and this dye, although very quick 
 and certain in action, cannot be regarded as ver} r 
 desirable. An inodorous silver dye is prepared as 
 follows : Dissolve one ounce of nitrate of silver in 
 six ounces of water, then add liquid ammonia by 
 degrees, until the solution becomes cloudy from the 
 formation of oxide of silver ; continue to add ammo- 
 nia until it becomes clear again from the redissolv- 
 ing of the oxide of silver. This is the dye. Before 
 applying it, the hair must be washed in a solution 
 of pyrogallic acid, made by dissolving sixty grains 
 of the acid in eight ounces of rose-water. This is 
 an excellent and safe dye ; but its employment is 
 attended with some trouble, and care must be used. 
 A large number of other formulas for hair-dyes 
 might be given, but these are sufficient. Their na- 
 ture and methods of use will be readily understood.
 
 80 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The frequent use of " oils," " bear's-grease," 
 " arctusine," " pomades," " lustrals," " rosemary 
 washes," etc., etc., upon the hair, is a practice not 
 to be commended. All of these oils and greasy po- 
 mades are manufactured from lard-oil and simple 
 lard. No " bear's-grease " is ever used. If it could 
 be procured readily, it should not be applied to the 
 hair, as it is the most rank and filthy of all the 
 animal fats. There are many persons whose hair is 
 naturally dry and crisp, and in most families there is 
 a want of some innocent and agreeable wash or 
 dressing which may be used moderately and judi- 
 ciously. The mixture which may be regarded as 
 the most agreeable, cleanly, and safe, is composed 
 of cologne spirit and pure castor-oil. The follow- 
 ing is a good formula : 
 
 Pure, fresh castor-oil, 2 oz. 
 Cologne spirit (95 per cent.), 16 oz. 
 
 The oil is freely dissolved in the spirit, and the 
 solution is clear and beautiful. It may be perfumed 
 in any way to suit the fancy of the purchaser. 
 The oil of the castor-bean has for many years been 
 employed to dress the hair, among both savage 
 and civilized nations, and it possesses properties 
 which admirably adapt it to this use. It does not 
 rapidly dry, and no gummy, offensive residuum re- 
 mains after taking on the chemical changes which 
 occur in all oils upon exposure to light and air. It
 
 THE HUMAN HAIR. 81 
 
 is best diffused by the agency of strong spirit, in 
 which it dissolves. The alcohol or spirit rapidly 
 evaporates, and does not in the slightest degree in- 
 jure the texture of the hair. This preparation, for 
 dressing the hair of children or ladies, will meet 
 nearly or quite all requirements. A cheap and 
 very good dressing is made by dissolving four 
 ounces of perfectly pure, dense glycerine in twelve 
 ounces of rose-water. Glycerine evaporates only 
 at high temperatures, and therefore under its in- 
 fluence the hair is retained in a moist condition for 
 a long time. As a class, the vegetable oils are bet- 
 ter for the hair than animal oils. They do not be- 
 come rancid and offensive so readily, and they are 
 subject to different and less objectionable chemical 
 changes. Olive-oil and that derived from the 
 cocoa-nut have been largely employed, but they 
 are inferior in every respect to that from the 
 castor-bean. 
 
 It is doubtful if any mixture or substance has . 
 ever been devised which will restore hair to a bald 
 head. A great many washes and embrocations are 
 manufactured, all of which usually fail to meet the 
 end desired. The falling of the hair is the result of 
 diseased action in the hair follicles, or of a morbid 
 condition of the entire scalp. When a hair is 
 pulled out by its " roots," its base exhibits a bul- 
 bous enlargement of which the exterior is tolerably 
 
 6
 
 82 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 firm, while its interior is occupied by a softer sub- 
 stance which is known as the " pulp ; " and it 
 is to the continued augmentation of this pulp in 
 the deepest part of the follicle, and to its conversion 
 into the peculiar substance of the hair when it has 
 been pushed upwards to its narrow neck, that the 
 growth of the hair is due. A hair does not begin 
 to grow from the true skin, but originates in the 
 epidermis, and is essentially like that covering, 
 being composed of aggregations of cells filled with 
 horny matter, and frequently much altered in form. 
 Hence it will be understood how difficult it is to 
 excite action in a part possessed of such low vital- 
 ity, and how poor the prospect must be of com- 
 pelling hair to grow by any stimulus externally 
 applied. Still, mixtures containing ammonia, vin- 
 egar, soap, and vesicating tinctures are sometimes 
 thought to prove beneficial. The fall of the hair 
 will usually cease from natural causes in a short 
 time, the germinal vessels taking on healthy action 
 spontaneously. The frequent washing of the head 
 in tepid or cold water, and friction with a brush or 
 coarse towel, are to be commended.
 
 MICHAEL FARADAY. 
 
 TT is interesting to learn some of the incidents in 
 the life of Michael Faraday, the great chemist, 
 who died in London a few years since. His parent- 
 age, birth, and early life afford so much encourage- 
 ment to the indigent, obscure, but resolute, industri- 
 ous youth of our country, that these incidents should 
 be widely published. His origin is but a counter- 
 part of that of his distinguished friend and patron, 
 Sir Humphry Davy. In carefully studying the lives 
 "of all the great men through whose labors chemis- 
 try has been wrested from the hands of the super- 
 stitious, and empirical, we are surprised to find that 
 nearly all started in life without means, without 
 education, without friends. Poor, obscure boys 
 were they all, but possessed of a natural enthusiasm 
 and love for science, and also an indomitable cour- 
 age and perseverance. Who, that might have 
 chanced to see that ungainly boy, with strange 
 contortions of countenance, hanging on the door- 
 gate of Mr. Borlase's house in Cornwall, would 
 have^ ventured to predict the future eminence and 
 renown of the man? When Mr. Dayies Giddy
 
 84 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 Gilbert took the hand of the poor boy, and asked 
 who he was, he was told that he was " a son of 
 Davy, the carver, and very fond of making chem- 
 ical experiments." "Indeed, and is that all he 
 has to recommend him ? " A lad " wasting his 
 time in foolish chemical experiments," up in the 
 garret of Mr. Borlase, the surgeon-apothecary, to 
 whom he was apprenticed, instead of compounding 
 medicines in the shop below, would hardly attract 
 patronage among the influential and the wealthy.. 
 But Mr. Gilbert befriended him, and had the high 
 satisfaction of feeling, in later life, that he was the 
 early benefactor of Sir Humphry Davy. 
 
 Davy, in turn, became the early friend and pa- 
 tron of the unknown and struggling boy, Faraday. 
 He was born in London, September 22, 1791, and 
 was the son of a poor blacksmith. His education, 
 if it may be called such, was of the most rudimen- 
 tary description. He was sent to a common day- 
 school, and picked up some knowledge of reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic. The common day-schools 
 in England, at the present time, are poor enough ; 
 but in those days the teachers and the schools were 
 very inferior and superficial ; and so young Fara- 
 day must have graduated with but a slender stock 
 of erudition. At thirteen, he was apprenticed to 
 Mr. Riebau, a bookbinder in Blanford Street, It 
 was during his apprenticeship that his mind took
 
 MICHAEL FARADAY. 85 
 
 a decided bent towards scientific knowledge ; and 
 he spent all his intervals of leisure, and all his slen- 
 der store of pocket money, in buying books and 
 apparatus necessary for the investigation of natural 
 science. He succeeded in raising money enough 
 to purchase a book upon electricity, and from this 
 learned how to construct an electrical machine. 
 This he did from a common glass vial, using the 
 roughest and crudest materials in the various parts ; 
 but he had the proud satisfaction of obtaining the 
 " spark " upon the first trial. This success made 
 him more ambitious ; and he constructed another, 
 with a proper cylinder, and of considerable power, 
 and presently his humble room began to be embel- 
 lished with quite a variety of apparatus ; and, be- 
 fore his master was aware of what was occurring, 
 his apprentice became the proud possessor of all the 
 knowledge then before the world relative to electri- 
 cal force. 
 
 Boys of this character, in no age of the world, 
 have long remained in obscurity. When once the 
 foot has rested upon the portals of the temple of 
 science, the doors are opened in some mysterious 
 wav, so that the enthusiastic worshipper may enter 
 at his will. A Mr. Dance observed what young 
 Faraday was doing, and obtained permission for him 
 to attend four lectures by Sir Humphry Davy, in 
 the Roval Institution. This was the first great
 
 86 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 event in his career, and from it must be dated all 
 his subsequent advancement and prosperity. In 
 1829, Dr. Paris wrote a note to Faraday, asking 
 him for a statement of the circumstances by which 
 he became connected with the Royal Institution. 
 He returned the following charming autobiograph- 
 ical letter : 
 
 To J. A. PARIS, M. D. 
 
 ROYAL INSTITUTION, Dec. 23, 1829. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, You asked me to give you an account of my 
 first introduction to Sir Humphry Davy, which I am very happy 
 to do, as I think the circumstances will bear testimony to his good- 
 ness of heart. 
 
 When I was a bookseller's apprentice, I was very fond of exper- 
 iments, and very averse to trade. It happened that a gentleman, 
 a member of the Royal Institution, took me to hear some of Sir 
 H. Davy's last lectures in Albermarle Street. I took notes, and 
 afterwards wrote them out more fairly in a quarto volume. My 
 desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, 
 and to enter into the service of science, which I imagined made its 
 pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at last to take the bold 
 and simple step of writing to Sir H. Davy, expressing my wishes, 
 and a hope that if an opportunity came in his way, he would for- 
 ward my views. At the same time, I sent the notes I had taken 
 at his lectures. 
 
 The answer, which makes all the point of my communication, I 
 send you in the original, requesting you to take great care of it, 
 and to let me have it back- ; for you may imagine how much I 
 value it. 
 
 You will observe that this took place at the end of the year 
 1812; and early in 1813 he requested to see me, and told me of 
 the situation of assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institu- 
 tion, then just vacant.
 
 MICHAEL FARADAY. 87 
 
 At the same time that he thus gratified my desires as to scien- 
 tific employment, he still advised me not to give up the prospects I 
 had before me ; telling me that science was a harsh mistress, and 
 in a pecuniary point of view but poorly rewarding those who de- 
 voted themselves to her service. He smiled at my notion of the 
 superior moral feelings of philosophic men, and said he would 
 leave the experience of a few years to set me right on that matter. 
 
 Finally, through his good efforts, I went to the Royal Institu- 
 tion early in March of 1813, as assistant in the laboratory ; and in 
 October of the same year, went with him abroad as his assistant in 
 experiments and in writing. I returned with him in April, 1813, 
 resumed my station in the Royal Institution, and have, as you 
 know, ever since remained there. 
 
 I am, dear sir, very truly yours, 
 
 M. FAKADAY. 
 
 The following is the note of Sir Humphry Davy- 
 alluded to in Faraday's letter : 
 
 To MR. FARADAY. 
 
 SIR, I am far from displeased with the proof you have given 
 me of your confidence, and which displays geat zeal, power of 
 memory, and attention. I am obliged to go out of town, and 
 shall not be settled in town till the end of January. I will then 
 see you at any time you wish. 
 
 It would gratify me to be of any service to you. I wish it may 
 be in my power. I am, sir, your obedient humble servant, 
 
 H. DAVY. 
 
 By apparently a short step, the quondam book- 
 binder's apprentice had now become an apprentice 
 to science, and was favored with the friendship of 
 one of her most distinguished votaries. At this 
 stage, it may be well to glance backwards, and con- 
 template for a moment the true position of chemical
 
 88 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 science at this time. Although but little more than 
 half a century has elapsed, it will be seen that this 
 was before the discovery of many of the metals, and 
 consequently before much progress was made in the 
 arts. It was also before the discovery of electro- 
 magnetism. In short, chemistry, at this date, had 
 few claims to be called a science. What a rich 
 field for discovery was open to the young experi- 
 menter, and how well he improved it ! His first 
 published researches were upon the relations be- 
 tween electricity and magnetism, a subject of 
 uncommon interest in 1820, as Oersted had that 
 year made known his great discovery of electro- 
 magnetism. He published a paper entitled " New 
 Electro-Magnetic Motions," and another, " A The- 
 ory of Magnetism," in 1821. In 1823, appeared 
 his paper " Onthe Condensation of Muriatic Acid 
 into the Liquid Form." It was, however, by his 
 " Researches in Electricity " that he won his great- 
 est fame. He commenced the publication of these 
 treatises in 1831, and continued them for a period 
 of nearly thirty years, publishing one or two each 
 year. Some of the most important discoveries are 
 contained in these papers, and show him to have 
 been one of the greatest investigators of natural 
 laws the world has ever seen. 
 
 How strange must Faraday's eventful life have 
 seemed to him in his later years ! Starting from
 
 MICHAEL FARADAY. 89 
 
 poverty and obscurity, without the education which 
 the schools confer, he was, during the period of a 
 full half-century, the companion of the learned and 
 the great, who sought his acquaintance from all 
 parts of the civilized world. The late Prince Al- 
 bert loved to steal away from the vexations and 
 cares of state, and hold, in Faraday's study, famil- 
 iar conversations upon matters of science with this 
 venerable man. He was always simple, sincere, 
 unostentatious. He had no hankerings for places 
 and honors. Such, in brief, was the career of Far- 
 aday, the blacksmith's son ; and such may be the 
 history of many of the youth who may read these 
 pages. Chemistry in our country, in its industrial 
 applications, opens a wide field for intelligent re- 
 search ; and the honors to be won are as accessible 
 and numerous almost as they were fifty years ago, 
 when Faraday left the shop of the bookbinder to 
 experiment at the Royal Institution.
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A LUMP OF SUGAR. 
 
 A REMARKABLE substance is found in the 
 "^" juices or sap of plants, which, when placed in 
 the mouth, or brought in contact with the nerves of 
 taste, produces a "sweet" sensation. This is sugar. 
 It has been stated that the human organism is capa- 
 ble of producing sugar, and that it is secreted by the 
 liver in considerable quantities. We believe that 
 hepatic sugar is not produced directly by that organ, 
 but that it secretes a substance which, on exposure 
 to the air, changes to sugar instantly. Vegetables 
 alone seem to be the main agencies for manufac- 
 turing this interesting and important substance. A 
 lump of sugar is sweet ; a lump of salt, pungent, 
 or bitter ; a lump of cream of tartar, sour ; why 
 this difference in substances so much alike phys- 
 ically ? The substances are all colorless, resemble 
 each other in crystalline structure, cohere together 
 in a similar manner, and are about equally solu- 
 ble in water. Chemistry reveals to us the simple 
 fact that .in the constitution of these bodies differ- 
 ent elements are employed, and the grouping of 
 the atoms varies considerably ; and this is all the
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A LUMP OF SUGAR. 91 
 
 information it affords. How different nerve sensa- 
 tions are produced, neither chemistry nor any other 
 science is capable of informing us. 
 
 Sugar, in its chemical constitution, presents many 
 features so remarkable they cannot fail to attract 
 the attention and excite interest in the mind of 
 every intelligent reader. The most striking relate 
 to its molecular construction, and the instability or 
 antagonisms which exist among the atoms. An 
 atom of sugar may be compared to the main-spring 
 of a watch wound up to the highest point attainable. 
 In this state it represents force under the restraint 
 of agencies which it seeks constantly to overcome. 
 The cog and balance wheels maintain the tension 
 and hold it in place ; the slightest slip or disarrange- 
 ment in these, and the complication of wheels is set 
 to whizzing, and the machinery soon runs down to 
 an inactive, passive state. Thus it is with an atom 
 of sugar. It is like a coiled spring, ready, from 
 any slight disturbing cause, to run from its highly 
 organized state down to dead, inorganic matter. 
 Heat and acids disturb its molecular arrangement 
 most readily, and form from it a variety of new 
 substances. Place a little sugar upon a thin plate 
 of metal, and hold it over the flame of an alcohol 
 lamp ; what a marvellous change occurs ! Tlie 
 white crystalline substance begins to fuse, bubbles 
 up, emits smoke and combustible gases ; and finally,
 
 92 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 when the action subsides, there remains a black, 
 crispy mass of charcoal, in every respect like that 
 which results from the combustion of wood. From 
 whence comes this charcoal ? It is not derived 
 from the air ; it is not supplied from the heat. It 
 exists in the sugar, and is only developed by the 
 agency of heat. Paradoxical as it may seem, beau- 
 tiful white sugar is largely made up of black carbon ; 
 but its color is hidden so that we cannot see it, and 
 this brings us to consider the chemical nature of a 
 lump of sugar. Sugar is a ternary compound ; that 
 is, one made up of three elements, carbon, hydro- 
 gen, and oxygen. There are two prominent va- 
 rieties, or kinds, which differ not in elementary 
 constitution, but in the proportion of the atoms, or 
 in the method of grouping the atoms : 
 Cane sugar, or sucrose . . . Ci2 H22 On 
 Grape, or starch sugar, glucose . Ce Hi2 Oe (or Cia Hs4 Oia) 
 
 The difference between the sugars will be seen 
 at once from a glance at the symbols and figures. 
 Now this seems very slight, and yet they are quite 
 dissimilar in effects. The two kinds mentioned 
 are not the only ones known, as three or four others 
 have been already distinctly pointed out. One kind 
 of sugar abounds in the sugar-cane, in beet-roots, 
 and parsnips ; this is the sucrose. Another kind 
 constitutes the sweet matter of many fruits, and 
 may also be prepared by acting upon starch with
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A LUMP OF SUGAR, 93 
 
 acid ; this is glucose. Another, which is known as 
 levulose, or fruit sugar, is found, mixed with glu- 
 cose, in honey and in manna, which is an exuda- 
 tion from a species of ash, Fraxinus ornus, com- 
 mon in southern Europe. Our meadow and upland 
 grasses contain a sweet substance, which is prob- 
 ably cane sugar ; and it is to this that much of the 
 value of these plants as food for cattle may fairly be 
 attributed. In the laboratory of the plant, cane 
 sugar can be changed over into fruit or grape sugar, 
 and back again, with apparently the greatest facil- 
 ity ; but this we cannot do in our working labora- 
 tories. We can change cane to grape sugar ; but we 
 cannot move a step in the other direction. The 
 chemist or discoverer who invents a way of chang- 
 ing grape sugar or starch sugar readily into sucrose 
 or cane sugar will confer great benefit upon the 
 arts, and immortality upon himself. It is doubtful 
 if this will ever be accomplished. In all the chemi- 
 ical transformations involved in changing one sugar 
 into another, no other elements but those of simple 
 water are assimilated or used. 
 
 The sugar-cane furnishes immense quantities of 
 sucrose ; in fact, it stands first among the sources 
 of supply, and beets come next. It is singular that a 
 rank, reedy cane and a soft, pulpy root should sup- 
 ply sugar identical in composition, and in the larg- 
 est quantities. Cane sugar is the sweetest of all
 
 94 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 the varieties, and it is distinguished for the readi- 
 ness with which it crystallizes. The crystals are 
 four-sided prisms, with rhomboidal bases, and are 
 remarkably uniform in appearance. This is an ar- 
 ticle of luxury, rendered by habit almost a neces- 
 sary of life to every class of the community, and it 
 is consumed in vast quantities. Levulose or fruit 
 sugar cannot be crystallized ; it is a colorless syrup, 
 nearly as sweet as cane sugar, and more soluble in 
 water and alcohol than glucose. It is also more 
 easily altered by heat or by acids ; while, on the 
 other hand, it is less readily acted upon by alka- 
 lies or ferments. Glucose is now manufactured in 
 immense quantities in France, and to some extent 
 in this country. It is recognized ifl commerce 
 as a beautifully clear, heavy syrup, of a mod- 
 erate sweetness, somewhat resembling glycerine, 
 and is sold at a low price. It is used by confec- 
 tioners, brewers, and distillers in their various man- 
 ufactures and operations, but scarcely at all for 
 domestic purposes. It is also undoubtedly used to 
 adulterate the cheaper kinds of refined sugars, al- 
 though the writer has never met with an instance 
 of this kind of sophistication. It is made from 
 potato starch, by the action of oil of vitriol or sul- 
 phuric acid. Thick, gelatinous starch is placed in a 
 large clay or porcelain-lined vessel ; dilute acid is 
 added, and the mixture boiled for several hours.
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A LUMP OF SUGAR. 95 
 
 The acid is then removed by chemical means, and 
 the solution evaporated to a thick, heavy syrup; 
 for the action of the acid upon the starch has 
 converted it into sugar. Starch sugar and the 
 sweet principle of grapes, when solidified, are re- 
 garded as identical. If we evaporate the starch 
 syrup down to a point of great density, it will, in a 
 few days, solidify into a mass of grape sugar, weigh- 
 ing more than the starch used in its manufacture. 
 These are, indeed, curious transformations ; but 
 still more curious is the fact, that the acid under- 
 goes no change whatever. It is all withdrawn in 
 its original amount after the boiling is completed ; 
 nothing is absorbed from the air, and no other 
 substances but dextrine or grape sugar generated. 
 Our limits do not permit us to explain the nature 
 of these wonderful chemical changes. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the instability of sugar 
 as a chemical compound. The equilibrium of forces 
 in such a body must be very different from that of 
 an inorganic compound. It must be far weaker, and 
 more subject to derangement. The elements are 
 held together by a kind of balance of chemical at- 
 tractions, and remain united only while that balance 
 is exactly maintained. Sugar, even among organ- 
 ized bodies, is peculiarly weak and unstable in con- 
 stitution. A rude diagram, after the following 
 manner, will, perhaps, represent the nature of the
 
 96 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 antagonisms that exist in the atoms that constitute 
 a lump of sugar : 
 
 Here we have three of the most active of the 
 elements, grouped in a way- to produce a play of 
 affinities, powerful and opposing. The oxygen and 
 hydrogen tend, in the strongest manner, to unite 
 and form water ; they are prevented from doing so 
 by the attraction of the carbon for both of them in- 
 dividually, while for their compound, water, that ele- 
 ment has no apparent affinity whatever. The same 
 is true of the other possible direct combinations. 
 Carbon and hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, possess 
 mutual attractive powers ; but union between them 
 is impossible, so long as the opposing force of the 
 third element exists in sufficient intensity. These 
 remarks and illustrations will serve to show how 
 peculiarly organized is an atom of sugar, and what 
 forces are pent up in the tiny grains. 
 
 The value of sugar depends upon its degree of 
 sweetness ; and as cane sugar excels in this partic- 
 ular, it is the most valuable. There is a popular 
 notion that some pure sugars are , sweeter than
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A LUMP OF SUGAR. 97 
 
 others, or " go farther," as the phrase is. This is 
 an error. All specimens of cane sugar of equal 
 purity are equally sweet. The apparent difference 
 arises from physical causes, or from the different 
 form and size of the crystals. The sensation of 
 sweetness depends, in a measure, upon the rapidity 
 with which the crystals dissolve in the mouth. Fine 
 sugar is regarded as sweeter, because it dissolves 
 faster than the large grained. A spoonful of the 
 latter variety weighs less than the former, as the in- 
 terstices between the grains are larger, and conse- 
 quently the fine will sweeten a larger amount of 
 liquid, because there is a larger amount of sugar in 
 the spoon. As a general rule, it is poor economy 
 to purchase impure sugars for household employ- 
 ment. In purchasing the damp, dark sugars of 
 commerce, much moisture and molasses are bought 
 at a high price ; and although they seem sweeter 
 and cheaper, such is not really the case. The pro- 
 cess of refining is now carried to such perfection, 
 and at so small expense, that the margin of cost 
 between the pure and impure sugars is not worth 
 considering. 
 
 The term " strong sugar " is often used by refin- 
 ers, and has a meaning not well understood by gro- 
 cers and consumers. The meaning is, not that one 
 kind of rough sugar is sweeter than another, but 
 that it has a better grain, and is therefore more 
 7
 
 98 *, FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 profitable to manufacture. The refiner does not 
 care so much about the color of the sugar he buys 
 as he does about the distinctness of crystalline struct- 
 ure. The color he can remove ; but if a large por- 
 tion of the sugar is composed of molasses or uncrys- 
 tallizable sugar, he is subjected to loss. Consum- 
 ers of dark, coarse sugars are not generally aware 
 of the fact that, beside the other impurities, they 
 contain large numbers of a most disgusting insect 
 the Acarus sacchari. This insect is a very near 
 relative of the Acarus scabiei, which produces the 
 uncleanly and unpopular affection called the " itch." 
 Indeed, the sugar insect often produces upon the 
 hands and arms of grocers pustular eruptions, re- 
 sembling true psora, or scabies. These insects bur- 
 row beneath the skin, and deposit their eggs, creat- 
 ing much irritation and an intolerable itching. The 
 number of acari found in raw sugar is sometimes 
 exceedingly great, and in no instance is the article 
 entirely free from either the insects or their ova. 
 Dr. Hassall examined one specimen, in which he 
 estimated that no less than one hundred thousand 
 existed in every pound of the sugar. In ten grains' 
 weight he counted five hundred, many of which 
 were so large as to be seen by the naked eye. He 
 observes, that " it is inconceivable that thousands 
 of these creatures can be introduced into the human 
 stomach without serious endangerment to health ; "
 
 CHEMISTRY OF A LUMP OF SUGAR. 99 
 
 a suggestion which will naturally occur to the mind 
 of every reader. The insect is never found in re- 
 fined sugars. 
 
 In white candy or the finest loaf sugar we have 
 the substance in a state of very high chemical 
 purity, the only difference between them being the 
 same as that seen on contrasting calcareous spar 
 with white marble. The one exhibits large and 
 distinct crystals ; the other a confused assemblage 
 of small ones. In manufacturing candy from mo- 
 lasses, an operation often performed in almost every 
 household, the " candying " results from boiling the 
 molasses to free it from water ; and then, after cool- 
 ing the waxy mass, pulling it by the hands, so as to 
 develop the colorless saccharine crystals which serve 
 to hide the dark impurities. 
 
 The sugar-refining process is exceedingly simple 
 in all its details, and yet it requires the utmost care 
 and experience. The raw sugar is dissolved in water, 
 and mixed with albumen (white of eggs), serum of 
 blood, or their equivalent, and the whole is heated 
 to the boiling point. By the coagulation of the al- 
 bumen the mechanical impurities are separated and 
 removed. The syrup is then whitened or decolor- 
 ized by filtering it through a bed of coarsely-pow- 
 dered animal charcoal. This has the singular prop- 
 erty of absorbing various organic coloring matters, 
 so that the syrup comes through perfectly colorless.
 
 100 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 It is then placed in " vacuum pans," and boiled, at 
 a low temperature, until crystallization commences, 
 or is effected ; and pure white sugar is secured by- 
 placing the crystals in drying-rooms heated by 
 steam. 
 
 It is quite impossible, in a paper necessarily so 
 brief as this, to touch upon very many important 
 points connected with the chemistry of sugar. 
 Perhaps at another time the subject may be re- 
 sumed, and a larger number of interesting facts 
 presented.
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 
 
 ~|~N commencing a series of farm experiments in 
 1863, with the view of deciding some contro- 
 verted points of much importance to the interests 
 of husbandry, it was felt that no satisfactory results 
 could be reached in less period of time than four or 
 five years. The matter of time in all farm experi- 
 ments, in my view, was of the highest importance, 
 and therefore it was resolved to make no extended 
 statements, and venture upon no conclusions, until 
 the experiments had been carried through several 
 successive seasons. 
 
 So far as I could learn, there were some interest- 
 ing problems in agriculture which had never been 
 satisfactorily solved in New England, or, in fact, in 
 any section of our country. It seemed desirable to 
 ascertain, approximately at least, by careful and 
 extended experiment, the value of special or chem- 
 ical fertilizing agents upon our New England soils, 
 and in order to test this matter satisfactorily, it was 
 clear that the experiments must be conducted upon 
 a scale of considerable magnitude. If it was proved 
 that a-neglected, exhausted farm, embracing a vari- 
 ety of soils, with uplands and lowlands, could be
 
 102 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 brought into fair tilth by the use of special agents, 
 it would serve as an important fact in the history 
 of our agricultural industry ; and further, if it could 
 be done at a cost which would prove it to be prac- 
 ticable and remunerative, certainly great service 
 wotild be conferred upon our farming interests. 
 
 The " Lakeside " farm, of about one hundred 
 acres, which I purchased seven years since, was 
 not what might be considered a worthless or barren 
 tract ; for some portions of it, a quarter of a century 
 ago, were probably in fair condition, producing 
 crops of hay and grain corresponding with those 
 grown by the farmers of that period. For a long 
 time, however, it had been in the hands of those 
 who treated it with neglect, and the best fields had 
 hardly been turned over with a plough, or cheered 
 with a dressing of manure, for a score of years. It 
 had therefore become in a great measure exhausted, 
 and the thin grasses were suffering for aliment. 
 The number of acre's not devoted to wood and pas- 
 turing was about twenty-five ; of this, nearly one 
 half was a low, boggy meadow, upon which water 
 was allowed to rest until it was removed by evapo- 
 ration late in the spring. The remainder consisted 
 of a series of elevations or hills of considerable alti- 
 tude, dry and silicious upon the tops, but moist at 
 the bases from retained water and from springs. 
 The soil of the different fields afforded quite a vari-
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 103 
 
 ety in character and composition, and probably as 
 fairly represented the varying nature of our Massa- 
 chusetts farms as any tract of land in the State. A 
 portion was silicious, loose, and dry ; another was 
 loamy and retentive ; another, moist and composed 
 of dark mould with a clayey subsoil ; and still 
 another, a well-formed wet peat bog. 
 
 It will be seen from this brief description that 
 the farm was made up of fields eminently suited 
 for fair experiment, and also it will be understood 
 that it came into my hands under the most favor- 
 able conditions to test the value of any plan or sys- 
 tem of fertilization. In 1863, about ten tons of 
 indifferent upland hav were cut upon the portion 
 embraced in the original purchase ; the produce of 
 an adjoining field of four acres of upland, which 
 has since been purchased and added to the farm, I 
 am unable to state. No corn or other grain in any 
 amount had been grown for perhaps ten years upon 
 the farm, and I have no knowledge of the character 
 of any cereals produced prior to the purchase. It 
 should be stated here that the chemical analysis 
 of soils taken from the different fields presented 
 a singular difference in composition, and what I 
 learned in this regard upon my own fields led me 
 to examine those of others at comparatively remote 
 points, and the same remarkable variations have 
 been generally found to prevail. The soil at the
 
 104 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 base of a small hill or elevation is of a very differ- 
 ent character from that at the apex, and a level flat 
 at one extremity of a farm is quite unlike another 
 at the opposite end. It is not necessary to leave 
 our own farms to find soils presenting striking 
 dissimilarities in chemical composition as well as 
 in physical characteristics. This is a point which 
 should receive more consideration in the conduct 
 of our farms. 
 
 "With the design of attempting to bring this farm 
 into good condition without the use of barnyard or 
 stable dung, no stock was kept upon the premises 
 save a cow and a heifer the first two years, and 
 with the exception of a few loads of manure pur- 
 chased for garden uses at the start, no excrementi- 
 tious products have been bought during the seven 
 years it has been in my hands. The farm at the 
 present time (1871) sustains eighteen cows, five 
 horses, three hogs, and, for a portion of the year, 
 one yoke of oxen. The product of hay in 1870 
 was fifty tons, corn two hundred bushels, rye per- 
 haps twenty bushels, with- large quantities of apples, 
 grapes, and other fruits. The productive capabili- 
 ties of the fields have been aroused through the 
 agency of fertilizing substances outside of animal 
 excrement, and the farm placed in position to main- 
 tain its good tilth by the manurial products which 
 it is now capable of supplying. To state the matter
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 105 
 
 explicitly, and thus avoid the possibility of any mis- 
 understanding, the farm was raised from its unpro- 
 ductive condition, during the first three or five 
 years of the experiment, by special fertilizers, so 
 that by increase of products it has been made capa- 
 ble of sustaining a herd of animals, which animals 
 now supply all the fertilizing material needed, and 
 the manufacture and use of chemical fertilizers have 
 been in a large measure suspended. In short, the 
 experiment has practically come to an end through 
 its perfect .success. 
 
 In bringing about these results, fifteen tons of 
 bones, one hundred bushels of unleached ashes, 
 four tons of fish pomace, two tons of Peruvian 
 guano, five hundred pounds of crude potash, one 
 ton of oil of vitriol, ten casks of lime, and several 
 hundred pounds altogether of sulphate of magnesia, 
 nitrates of soda and potassa, chloride of sodium, 
 oxide of manganese, sulphate of iron, sulphate of 
 ammonia, etc., have been employed. Eight tons of 
 the bones have been made on the farm into what is 
 known as " superphosphate," by dissolving them in 
 the condition of fine powder in oil of vitriol ; three 
 tons have been combined with unleached wood 
 ashes ; and the remaining four tons have been used 
 in various ways, one portion in the raw or natural 
 condition, another by rotting in contact with moist 
 soil or peat, another for obtaining phosphoric acid, 
 and in other forms for experimental purposes.
 
 106 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The other agents have been employed alone and 
 in such combinations as were demanded to conduct 
 the experiments understandingly, and in accordance 
 with correct scientific deductions. It would require 
 too much space to give a detailed account of these 
 experiments ; the statement presented is a general 
 one, given for the purpose of affording a compre- 
 hensive idea of the extent and nature of the labors 
 undertaken, and as preparatory to the presentation 
 of the details of a few experiments of a more special 
 character. During the past three years attention 
 has been given to the production, saving, and appli- 
 cation to the soil of animal excrements, and these 
 observations ought not to pass unnoticed. 
 
 The cost of the bones and most of the other 
 agents used upon the farm was less than they could 
 be obtained for at the present time, as they were 
 purchased during the years of great depression 
 which existed in the time of the war. Twelve tons 
 of raw, unground bones were purchased at the start, 
 at a cost of only twelve dollars per ton. They were 
 placed in a large steam-boiler, constructed of iron, 
 and submitted to the action of high-pressure steam 
 for a period of twelve hours. They were then re- 
 moved, allowed to cool, and immediately reduced 
 to powder by grinding in a machine resembling a 
 common burr-mill. Bones by steaming are changed 
 in their physical structure ; the animal portion ov
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 107 
 
 the gelatine is in part removed, and the cell-struct- 
 ure, before tough and refractory, becomes brittle, 
 and is readily broken up by grinding. After steam- 
 ing, they can be ground in an ordinary plaster mill 
 without obstructing the movements of the stones, 
 and without requiring a greater expenditure of 
 power than is needed to grind common gypsum. 
 The only mill ever constructed, so far as I am in- 
 formed, that will grind raw or unsteamed bones fine 
 enough for agricultural uses, is what is known as 
 the atmospheric centrifugal machine, which does its 
 giant work by the single power of attrition. The 
 fragments of bone are allowed to fall into a strong 
 iron drum, which is made to revolve with immense 
 velocity, and bv the action of air, and of the frag- 
 ments upon themselves, they are instantly reduced 
 to an impalpable powder. 
 
 The rich nitrogenous principle of the bones used 
 upon my farm, the gelatine, was secured and com- 
 posted with dry peat and bone dust, and this was 
 found to afford a most efficient top-dressing for grass 
 lands. Thus, in the process of steaming nothing 
 was lost. The cost of preparation was about equal 
 to the original cost of the bones, and hence I have 
 estimated it at twenty-five dollars the ton. The 
 present market price of bone dust is sixty dollars 
 the ton, which affords a wide margin between the 
 expense of mv bone material and that obtained 
 throuo-h commercial channels.
 
 108 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The whole sum expended for special fertilizers 
 during the past seven years is seven hundred and 
 ninety dollars, or, in round numbers, eight hundred 
 dollars, which, applied to twenty-five acres of land, 
 gives as the cost of renovation about thirty-three 
 dollars per acre. The price of fair stable manure 
 in the city of Haverhill has, during the past seven 
 years, ruled at about six dollars the cord. Add to 
 this the cost of loading and hauling to the farm, 
 about four dollars, and we have, as the entire cost 
 of stable manure in the field, ten dollars the cord.. 
 Eight hundred dollars, the sum expended for special 
 agents, would have provided me with about eighty 
 cords of ordinary long manure. This would have 
 given to each acre a little more than three cords ; 
 and now the question arises, Could the expenditure 
 of eight hundred dollars for stable manure have 
 secured fertilizing effects of equal value with those 
 afforded by the plan of treatment pursued, costing 
 the same ? On the contrary, I am confident that to 
 have started my farm and put my fields, by pur- 
 chased manures, in the high tilth in which they are 
 at present, would have cost perhaps double the sum 
 which has been expended. 
 
 The amounts and cost statements presented are 
 not exact, but sufficiently so to answer all the pur- 
 poses of this discussion. Of course, in contrasting the 
 cost of fertilizers, a great many little things should be
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 109 
 
 taken into account. The difficulty and cost of plac- 
 ing bulky manure upon swampy lands and high ele- 
 vations must not be overlooked, and the expense of 
 handling or distributing it after it is deposited is 
 considerable. Nearly one third of my tillage lands 
 are so low that they cannot be entered upon by any 
 vehicle drawn by oxen or horses, and consequently 
 it is extremely difficult or well-nigh impossible to 
 distribute heavy manures upon these fields. With 
 the concentrated fertilizers employed, the men have 
 been able to carry in a farm basket an amount of 
 plant nutriment equal in value to that found in 
 a cartload of animal excrement. 
 
 Upon the reclaimed meadows no farm dung has 
 been used, excepting on a small patch for the pur- 
 pose of experiment, and I have secured large crops 
 of redtop and timothy during the past five years. 
 The method of treatment has been varied, with the 
 view of ascertaining the best way of bringing them 
 into condition to produce upland grasses. I have 
 dressed certain parcels with the farm-made super- 
 phosphate, with a mixture of bone and ashes, with 
 guano, fish pomace, combinations .of salt and lime, 
 and with sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda. 
 It must be remembered that my low lands are pure 
 peat bogs, of such a nature that if the water was 
 withdrawn, and the deposits allowed to become dry, 
 fire would consume the whole to ashes. The ele-
 
 110 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 vation of the bog above the level of Lake Kenoza, 
 upon which it borders, is only nine inches in the 
 winter and spring, when the lake is at its highest 
 altitude ; consequently, it is an unpromising and 
 difficult field upon which to experiment with the 
 view of driving out worthless meadow grasses. 
 Indeed, no one in whose judgment I placed con- 
 fidence would afford me any encouragement to 
 expect success. It was regarded as impossible to 
 renovate meadows which for so large a part of the 
 year were almost submerged, and which could not 
 be drained. Nevertheless, the experiment has 
 proved successful, and crops already secured have 
 paid all the expenses of renovation and treatment. 
 Upon two acres of the six which are now produc- 
 ing upland grasses, a coating of sand three inches 
 in thickness was placed, after thoroughly spading 
 and pulverizing the bog ; upon this a dressing, 
 made of equal parts of fine bone and ashes, two 
 thousand pounds in quantity, was evenly distribu- 
 ted, and it was then seeded down with redtop and 
 timothy, and covered in with a brush harrow. The 
 work was done in the months of August and Sep- 
 tember, 1866. The first crop of hay in 1867 was 
 a little more than one and a half tons to the acre, 
 the succeeding crop was two and a half tons, and 
 those which have since been taken from the field 
 have averaged about the same amount. One acre
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. Ill 
 
 of the remaining six received no coating of *sand, 
 but after digging out the hassocks and burning 
 them, the patch was turned over with a spade, fer- 
 tilized with three hundred pounds of bone dust and 
 two hundred of guano, and seeded down like the 
 other. This was accomplished in the autumn of 
 1868. In 1869 the first crop and aftermath gave 
 three tons to the acre. In 1870 the two crops 
 exceeded that amount. Another acre, bordering 
 directly upon the lake, but slightly more elevated, 
 was reclaimed in the same manner in 1867, and 
 treated with one ton of dry fish pomace. It gave 
 a crop the succeeding year of one and a half tons 
 to the acre, and since then the yield has been about 
 two tons each season. In 1869, two more acres 
 were put in condition, fertilizing one half with pure 
 bone and spent ashes, the other with farm super- 
 phosphate. The crop in 1870 upon both sections 
 was nearly alike, slightly exceeding one and a half 
 tons to the acre. Some of these experiments have 
 been continued long enough to learn something of 
 the value of the methods of treatment, while the 
 others have not. Several plats of the meadow 
 have been put in condition, and left one season 
 without any fertilizing agents, and the result has 
 been that ferns and coarse meadow plants have 
 flourished together in rank luxuriance, thus prov- 
 ing the needed presence and high utility of the 
 plant stimulants employed.
 
 112 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 From the brief and imperfect statements pre- 
 sented, it will be conceded that wet peat meadows 
 can be profitably reclaimed and fertilized by special 
 or concentrated agents, easy and convenient to 
 handle. I shall not venture upon the expression 
 of opinions at present regarding the most effective 
 and cheapest agents, as these points are not satis- 
 factorily settled. After a few more seasons have 
 passed, the results will enable me to form a more 
 exact and reliable judgment in regard to the mat- 
 ter. The great value of our low lands is as yet 
 imperfectly understood, although attention has been 
 called to them persistently through books and the 
 agricultural press. Farmers, as a general rule, 
 fear to have anything to do with the soft peat bogs 
 so common throughout the State. Their experi- 
 ence in miring oxen and horses in attempts to 
 plough or haul on manure is not favorable to the 
 prosecution of the work of renovation. When it 
 is known that the spade will do the work of the 
 plough, and that fertilizers of great efficiency can 
 be carried in a. basket upon the shoulder, a little 
 more courage may possibly be infused into the 
 owners of such lands, and they may seek to draw 
 from them their hidden wealth by the work of 
 reclamation. It must, however, be distinctly un- 
 derstood, that all meadows are not of a character to 
 pay for any labor that may be bestowed upon them.
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 113 
 
 It is important that every farmer should carefully 
 examine his low grounds before commencing im- 
 provements, that he may not subject himself to 
 disappointment and loss. It is certainly difficult 
 clearly to describe a meadow which will not, after 
 working, bear good crops of sweet grasses, but I 
 am confident I could point out such, if allowed five 
 minutes' work upon it with a spade. A piece of 
 low land deficient hvpeat, with a superficial clayey 
 covering, overrun with moss or short, matted grass, 
 will not pay for the labor of renovation ; neither 
 will a meadow pay if it is surrounded with a forest 
 which places it in shade half the fiours of the day, 
 no matter what may be the nature of the deposit. 
 A meadow permanently wet, and which cannot be 
 drained, is one upon which labor is usually wholly 
 lost. Any low land open to the air and sunlight, 
 which has a good bottom of peat or black mould, 
 and is raised one foot above the highest water level 
 in the spring, can be converted into a profitable 
 field, yielding abundance of the nutritious grasses. 
 More attention should be bestowed upon such 
 lands, as the hay crop is one of the most impor- 
 tant and profitable produced upon our farms. 
 
 A series of extended and systematic experiments 
 
 have been undertaken upon the farm in connection 
 
 with fields which are elevated and drv, and which 
 
 were unproductive at the time they were com- 
 
 8
 
 114 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 mencecl. A measured acre of land of this nature 
 was ploughed in the autumn of 1863, and in the 
 succeeding spring dressed with five hundred pounds 
 of pure, fine bone, sown broadcast, and then planted 
 with corn, a handful of farm-made superphosphate 
 being placed in each hill. One hundred and fifty- 
 seven bushels of corn in the ear were taken from 
 the field in the autumn of 1864. After the corn 
 was removed the land w r as ploughed, and again 
 dressed with eight hundred pounds of a mixture 
 consisting of ashes, bone dust, and refuse saltpetre, 
 and sowed down to winter rye and seeded with 
 timothy. The crop was thirty-one bushels of nice, 
 plump grain. ' The season of 1866 was exceedingly 
 dry, and the tender grass roots were s.o parched 
 with heat, that the hay crop was cut short materi- 
 ally. The product of this field was only twenty- 
 three hundred pounds. The next season a top- 
 dressing was given it of five hundred pounds of a 
 compost of gelatine and peat (the gelatine being 
 the liquid or resultant product coming from the 
 steaming of bones), and the hay crop reachecl 
 forty-three hundred pounds. The crop of 1868, 
 with the aftermath, reached two and a half tons. 
 That of 1869, after a top-dressing of two hundred 
 pounds of Peruvian guano, was two and a quarter 
 tons. In 1870 it was a little less than two tons. 
 In this experiment, a dry field, originally exhausted,
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 115 
 
 has been treated exclusively with concentrated 
 fertilizers, and carried over a period of seven years, 
 the seasons embracing the extremes of dry and 
 wet, and these are the results. Are they satisfac- 
 tory, or is the experiment a successful one ? 
 
 The corn crop, seventy-eight bushels of shelled 
 corn to the acre, is not bad ; the rye crop, thirty- 
 one bushels, would not be disappointing to most 
 farmers ; and the succeeding crops of hay, amount- 
 ing in the five consecutive years to nearly ten tons, 
 are certainly a fair product for high land, subject 
 to unfavorable influence of drought. The cash 
 value of the crops at the farm, if they had been 
 sold at the time they were gathered, would have 
 reached fully four hundred dollars the acre. But 
 it should be stated that corn in 1864 was worth two 
 dollars and fifty cents the bushel, and all the crops 
 have ruled high since. The cost of the fertilizing 
 agents employed has been a little over forty-four 
 dollars ; the cost of labor cannot be exactly stated, 
 but it is certain the field has afforded a clean profit 
 of one hundred per cent, each year. 
 
 If space permitted, the details of other experi- 
 ments undertaken on the farm might be given, but 
 enough has been said to convey a general idea of 
 the nature and design of the work. It is worth 
 something to know that a run-down farm can be in 
 a fair measure rejuvenated and made productive by
 
 116 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 a class of manurial agents which do not partake of 
 the nature of animal excrement. It is worth much 
 to know that these agents are proved capable of 
 exerting a sustaining influence upon our soils, that 
 -.hese fertilizing effects are felt year after year, and 
 that crops do not rapidly falter when they can 
 draw nutriment from no other sources. We have 
 learned that remunerative crop returns are possible 
 and probable when special fertilizing agents are 
 employed in their highest integrity, and when a 
 fair profit only is paid in the purchase of the raw 
 materials. Before passing to the consideration of 
 another topic incident to this discussion, I will 
 briefly allude to the grain crops produced upon the 
 farm. 
 
 A crop of corn has been raised each season since 
 186-1, and also a crop of spring wheat until the 
 present year. Rye, oats, roots, and potatoes, with 
 the various grasses, complete the list. From care- 
 ful records of expenses and results, the corn crop is 
 found to have been the most remunerative, and the 
 wheat comes next. During the seven consecutive 
 seasons closing in 1870, we have passed through 
 great vicissitudes of meteorological changes : we 
 have had seasons characterized by extreme wet, 
 and by unparalleled heat and drought; some have 
 been quite extended, and others have been very 
 brief. That of 1869 gave us only about one hun-
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 117 
 
 dred days in which to plant and harvest our corn ; 
 that of 1870 was of extraordinary length, the warm 
 growing weather lasting from early in April to 
 November. It has been a period of great value to 
 those who wish to gain by experiment and obser- 
 vation a knowledge of the best methods of farming 
 under the extremes of heat and cold, wet and dry, 
 and of the crops best suited to our capricious cli- 
 mate. The farmer who, by imperfect tillage and 
 lazy habits, has reached the conclusion that we in 
 New England have no certain crops, is indulging 
 in grievous error. All our cereal and grass crops 
 are certain enough if our fields are in perfect con- 
 dition, but corn may be said never to fail if a rea- 
 sonable amount of attention is given it. My crop 
 has never fallen below seventy bushels of shelled 
 corn to the acre, and in 1869 I grew, in about one 
 hundred days, a crop of one hundred and six bushels 
 to the acre. So late was this season that on the 
 10th of April I was able to walk across the ice- 
 bound lake upon which my fields border, and snow 
 rested on my potato patch the 2d day of May. 
 Corn, among crops with us in Massachusetts, is like 
 a Bronsonian Democrat; it rises "superior to its 
 accidents." The crop at Lakeside in 1870, hot 
 and parched as the season was, reached seventy- 
 five bushels to the acre. The cost of the corn in 
 the aggregate, raised during the seven seasons, does
 
 118 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 not exceed forty-five cents per bushel. This esti- 
 mate includes one half the cost of the fertilizers 
 and all the labor from the time of planting to shell- 
 ing, but it does not take into account the fodder, 
 which has proved in my experience to have a high 
 value. This has been fed to milch cows in associ- 
 ation with wheat straw in the long and cut condi- 
 tion, and careful observation and experiment show 
 that, as a milk-producing agent, it is worth nearly 
 as much as upland hay. Corn is the cereal to which 
 farmers should give special attention. To grow it 
 profitably, we must grow large quantities on small 
 parcels of ground. It requires no greater expense 
 or labor to raise seventy-five to one hundred bush- 
 els to the acre, than to raise twenty-five. Corn 
 can be grown in good quantity for several consecu- 
 tive years upon the same field by the use of agents 
 which hold those great essentials to plant-growth, 
 phosphoric acid, potash, and lime ; but to attain 
 to the highest success, substances capable of afford- 
 ing the nitrogenous element must be added. The 
 first three years of my experiments with the corn 
 crop, I depended solely upon dressings composed 
 of lime, potash or ashes, and flour of bone, and my 
 crops were excellent ; but I now use in association 
 four cords of good fresh farm dung to the acre, 
 spread over the ploughed field, and harrowed in 
 with a Geddes harrow. In the hills, at the time
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 119 
 
 of planting, I place a handful of a mixture of fine 
 bone and ashes, and under this treatment I have 
 learned to anticipate heavy crops with full confi- 
 dence. For corn, or indeed for any crop, I prefer 
 to plough in the autumn. One of the most impor- 
 tant items to be taken into account in the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil is the fineness of the mould in 
 which the seed is placed. A hard, lumpy, imper- 
 fectly pulverized field, holding equal amounts of the 
 elements of plant nutrition with one that is fine, 
 will fall short usually twenty per cent, in product 
 under the same meteorological conditions. In fall 
 ploughing we secure the disintegrating influence 
 of frost upon our furrows, and this is costless aid 
 in soil cultivation. 
 
 For five consecutive years I have not failed, un- 
 der what I regard as proper soil treatment, to secure 
 good crops of wheat. In one season, that of 1867, 
 it fell to twenty-one bushels to the acre, but the 
 others have not gone below thirty. It was, indeed, 
 singular to find what a strong prejudice existed 
 among farmers against attempts to raise this noble 
 grain. It was urged that it could not be grown on 
 our soils, they were worn out, did not hold lime or 
 something else necessary to its development ; and 
 further, if it did grow, rust, mildew, or insects would 
 destroy the crop before maturity. The first year, 
 I grew a crop of plump wheat, thirty-one bushels
 
 120 PRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 to the acre, while other farmers were growing barley, 
 fifteen bushels to the acre. I sold my wheat at 
 $3.50, while the barley went for $1.40 per bushel. 
 The plan of soil treatment has been to sow broad- 
 cast early in the season five hundred pounds of 
 farm superphosphate to the acre, mixed with one 
 hundred pounds of crude nitrate of potassa, or one 
 hundred and fifty pounds of nitrate of soda and fifty 
 pounds of sulphate of magnesia. The importance 
 of magnesia in the ash of wheat has been strangely 
 overlooked by chemists and by experimenters, and 
 I regard the employment of a salt holding this 
 element, in dressings for wheat land, as of great 
 utility. Nearly one eighth of the ash of wheat is 
 made up of magnesia, and as our granite New Eng- 
 land soils cannot well supply it, we must furnish it 
 in our manures. As regards the evil influence of 
 rust upon wheat, I am inclined to the opinion that 
 a well-fed, vigorous plant possesses a power of re- 
 sistance to parasitic growths, which is in a consid- 
 erable degree protective. I do not mean to say 
 that the farmer can positively and always place 
 himself beyond the reach of disasters resulting 
 from fungoid plants or destructive weather influ- 
 ences ; but I do say, that a good, vigorous, well- 
 fed stalk of wheat, corn, or other grain, will bear up 
 under adverse influences better than one that is 
 half starved and weakly. The battle is in favor of
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 121 
 
 the strong and against the weak among plants, as 
 well as among men and animals. 
 
 I regret that there are many perhaps well-mean- 
 ing but poorly informed writers in our agricultural 
 papers, and speakers at agricultural meetings, who 
 make statements and give expression to views 
 which tend directly to lead farmers astray, and to 
 confuse and perplex them upon the subject of fer- 
 tilizers, greatly to their detriment. And unfortu- 
 nately these absurd and erroneous statements and 
 strange exhibitions of selfishness connected with 
 agricultural matters are not confined to those who 
 are ignorant ; we have had some sad examples 
 from the opposite class. It is only about a year 
 since that a gentleman intimately connected with 
 the interests of agriculture delivered and published 
 an address upon special fertilizers, in which he de- 
 liberately advises farmers to abstain from any at- 
 tempts to prepare their own superphosphate, assur- 
 ing them that they cannot successfully accomplish 
 the work. In another part of the same address he 
 informs them that he himself is engaged in the 
 manufacture of superphosphate upon a large scale, 
 and the inference is, that farmers should buy his 
 honest products. As we looked through this ad- 
 dress, or advertising circular, we could not help 
 exclaiming, " Alas ! upon whom can the farmer 
 depend? If interest and avarice confront him,
 
 122 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 when moving within the circle of those who should 
 be safe advisers and trusty friends, to whom can he 
 flee for counsel and protection ? " 
 
 It is not alone in 1'egard to the nature and meth- 
 ods of making and applying fertilizers that farmers 
 are led into error ; but perhaps there is no subject 
 upon which it is more important that correct knowl- 
 edge should be disseminated than this. Some of 
 the best known and most widely circulated of our 
 agricultural journals have advised farmers to collect 
 large quantities of bones, reduce them to fragments 
 by pounding, and then dissolve them by pouring 
 on sulphuric acid ; and the same wise advice has 
 been given at the meetings of Farmers' Clubs. 
 Now, it would seem that every intelligent person 
 ought to know that raw, unground bones cannot be 
 dissolved in sulphuric acid. Whoever recommends 
 this course, purposely misleads, or else is in igno- 
 rance from never having tried the experiment. 
 Fragments no larger than a raisin may remain in 
 strong or dilute acid for months, and not be per- 
 ceptibly acted upon. They are attacked only upon 
 the surface when in contact with oil of vitriol, and 
 a film of insoluble sulphate of lime is formed which 
 effectually arrests further action. In order to dis- 
 solve bones and fit them for plant nutriment, they 
 must first be ground to fine powder, and the finer 
 the 'better, as the acid can then cut through the
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 123 
 
 little atoms and disintegrate the structure. We 
 must not mislead or be misled in this matter. If a 
 farmer has a quantity of raw bones which have 
 been picked up, it is probable they cannot be 
 ground in any mill within his reach, and he cannot 
 dissolve them in acid. His best plan is to dissolve 
 them by either packing in good wood ashes after 
 the method which has been often described, and 
 which I presume is well understood, or burn them 
 to whiteness, and then have them ground in a plas- 
 ter mill. Bones piled in a heap with wood, will 
 ignite and burn with great fierceness. The cal- 
 cined product is brittle and can easily be ground, 
 and the powder, dissolved in acio 1 , forms an excel- 
 lent superphosphate. 
 
 It seems to be necessary to state again and again, 
 that in order to obtain from bones the full fertilizing 
 influence they are capable of affording, they must 
 be reduced to an impalpable powder, that it is a 
 waste to sow upon fields bones which are simply 
 crushed into fragments, so as to be seen readily by 
 the eye. In 1864, I sowed upon a field a bushel 
 of bone fragments, none of them larger than a pea 
 or bean, and in the summer of 1870, upon turning 
 over the field with the plough, they were brought 
 to the surface entirely unchanged. Ordinary soil 
 and atmospheric influences will not disintegrate and 
 render available, as plant food, bones in the whole
 
 124 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 or crushed condition during the lifetime of any 
 farmer, though he may live far beyond the common 
 age of man. This important truth should be un- 
 derstood by all who desire to use bones in connec- 
 tion with their crops. 
 
 In the renovation of my farm by the employment 
 of special fertilizers, I have kept a few prominent, 
 well established facts and principles in view, and 
 have never allowed myself to be diverted, turned 
 aside, or confused by any apparently conflicting 
 statements or alleged results on the part of others. 
 A truth is a truth, a fact is a fact, no matter how 
 difficult it may sometimes be to compel all agencies 
 and influences to contribute to the establishment 
 of verities. I believe we have some truths, some 
 facts in agriculture ; although the contrary view 
 ought to prevail, if the contradictory opinions and 
 statements of many of its professed friends are en- 
 titled to regard. Chemistry is an exact science ; it 
 is based on the retort, the balance, and mathemat- 
 ics ; and when its aid is called in to inform us re- 
 garding the constitution of plant structures, its 
 teachings are infallible. We can no more escape 
 from its demonstrated facts in this department, than 
 we can from a belief in those applied principles 
 which enable us to produce, in our industrial lab- 
 oratories, the wonderful and complex bodies which
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 125 
 
 contribute so essentially to the welfare and comfort 
 of the race. Chemistry has never rendered and 
 never will render such aid to agriculture as will 
 direct the farmer how to raise crops without the 
 expenditure of time and labor, and the exercise of 
 a reasonable amount of skill and common sense ; 
 but it does inform him precisely regarding the na- 
 ture of the plant structures he is called upon to 
 rear, and the food they demand, and this knowledge 
 is of immense service. Chemistry, in its practical 
 hints and teachings to agriculturists, leaves a void 
 which must be filled up by inferences and by the 
 exercise of the ingenuity and the judgment, and 
 any farmer who is incapable of exercising these 
 desirable faculties can never be greatly benefited 
 in his labors by science. 
 
 The hinderances to success in the use of special 
 fertilizing agents upon the farm are not numerous, 
 but they are of a nature peculiarly provoking, and 
 perhaps in some degree discouraging. The great- 
 est of these are connected with the sources of sup- 
 ply, and it is in this direction that we must bend 
 all our energies to bring about a salutary reform. 
 I am free to say that in the farm experiments un- 
 dertaken, an advantage has resulted from being able 
 to secure and employ only such agents as were of 
 absolute integrity, and also my professional pursuits
 
 126 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 naturally tend to afford a facility and accuracy of 
 manipulation which can hardly be expected of 
 most of those in the pursuits of husbandry. Still, 
 the great obstacle to success in the use of special 
 fertilizers lies in their sophistication and general 
 worthlessness. It is not alone in the so-called 
 " superphosphate " that frauds are practised, but 
 there are deceptions, attenuations, and admixtures 
 in connection with almost all agents which science 
 and experience have pointed out as sources of plant 
 nutriment. A certain class of substances, which 
 have hitherto passed almost unsuspected and un- 
 challenged through the channels of trade, can 
 manifestly no longer remain above suspicion. Un- 
 leached wood ashes, when pure, are of the highest 
 service to farmers and gardeners, and they are dili- 
 gently sought for by almost every one who has 
 lands to till. Specimens of dry ashes, sold as those 
 of wood, have been brought to me, which upon 
 chemical examination were found to be composed 
 of more than fifty per cent, of coal ashes. A 
 schooner-load of ashes brought from an Eastern 
 port, and purchased by a friend at twenty-five 
 cents a bushel, proved to have only an actual value 
 of five cents a bushel. Analysis of a specimen of 
 these ashes was made, with a view of purchasing a 
 quantity if they proved satisfactory. The exami- 
 nation gave the following result :
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 127 
 
 Hydrate of lime 55 parts. 
 
 Silica 13 " 
 
 Charcoal 7 " 
 
 Ashes, mixture of wood and coal . . 25 " 
 
 100 parts. 
 
 The large percentage of lime is due to the fact 
 that the ashes came from a limestone district, and 
 were probably taken from lime-kilns. 
 
 Another substance known as " fish guano " or 
 " fish pomace " has acquired considerable reputa- 
 tion in this section as a fertilizing agent, especially 
 for grass lands. It consists of the dry residuum of 
 the fish-oil factories on the New England coast, 
 and is made up of the crushed bones and integu- 
 ments of fishes, from which the oil has been sep- 
 arated by great pressure. When pure and dry we 
 have found it to be a good and convenient plant 
 stimulant, and worth about twenty dollars a ton. 
 Probably but few of those who. have become pur- 
 chasers of this substance have suspected that it is 
 often so largely adulterated as to be comparatively 
 worthless. Some specimens found in the market, 
 and probably sold extensively to farmers, upon 
 analysis gave the following results : 
 
 Water 17.26 
 
 Sand . 46.00 
 
 Phosphate of lirne 8.90 
 
 Organic matter holding ammonia and salts of pot- 
 ash, soda, etc 27.84
 
 128 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 Here we have sixty-three per cent, of sand and 
 water, which are worthless materials, and which are 
 paid for at the rate of twenty or twenty-five dollars 
 a ton. 
 
 Another specimen gave : 
 
 Water 31.00 
 
 Organic matter 35.00 
 
 Phosphate of lime and various salts with sand . 34.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 This is better, but still one third of the whole 
 bulk is perfectly worthless. A popular " super- 
 phosphate," recently examined, gave twenty-two 
 per cent, of water, and only five and one half per 
 cent, of soluble phosphate. The fact that husband- 
 men are not generally competent to judge of the 
 value of compounds offered as fertilizers, has led to 
 placing on sale some of the most absurd substances 
 and mixtures which human ingenuity can discover 
 or devise. 
 
 A heavy powder called the " Grafton Mineral 
 Fertilizer" has come into the market within a year 
 or two, and has secured a large sale at high prices. 
 What is the nature of this powder ? Let us judge 
 of it by the analysis which is presented in connec- 
 tion with its sale. Here it is : 
 
 Silica 30.3 
 
 Protoxide of iron . . . 6.27 
 
 Lime 20.6 
 
 Magnesia 11.17 
 
 Carbonic acid .... 32.11
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 129 
 
 This statement gives 30 per cent, sand, a small 
 quantity of iron, and the remainder is carbonate of 
 lime and magnesia. One third (the sand), it is 
 plain to see, is worthless ; the iron is of no account, 
 as every soil in New England furnishes from the 
 decomposition of the sulphurets an abundant sup- 
 ply ; the carbonates of lime and magnesia are 
 worth something, but how much ? little more than 
 ground oyster or clam shells. As a fertilizing sub- 
 stance it manifestly has no great value. 
 
 A concentrated liquid fertilizer, put up in stone 
 jugs, each holding a quart, for which the modest 
 sum of two dollars and fifty cents is charged, has 
 been, I am informed, largely sold in many sections 
 of the country. This is a palpable fraud which 
 needs no comment. 
 
 In view of what we know of the nature of com- 
 mercial fertilizing agents, is it necessary to inquire 
 why so small an amount of benefit is received from 
 the application of these substances to our lands ? 
 When a farmer purchases and employs, in connec- 
 tion with his crops, fertilizers of unknown value, of 
 what value are his experiments to himself or any- 
 body else ? If he fails of satisfactory results, upon 
 what or upon whom can he lay the blame ? If he 
 secures a successful crop, does he know whether it 
 is due to the fertilizer or to a favorable season, or 
 to good culture, or to some other agency ? He cer-
 
 130 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 tainly can form no satisfactory opinion upon the 
 subject. 
 
 How can this evil be met and overcome ? Leg- 
 islation has thus far failed to afford a remedy, and 
 it is extremely difficult to circumvent human self- 
 ishness and ingenuity by statute laws. There are 
 only two ways : one is to have all fertilizing agents 
 of home production, of domestic manufacture; the 
 other is, to form associations among farmers, estab- 
 lish factories, and prepare the agents only for use 
 among those who are interested in their production. 
 The motive of gain must be taken away or re- 
 moved in some way, before the valuable plant 
 stimulants will come into our hands in such a con- 
 dition that they can be employed with confidence 
 and success. 
 
 Stable dung is sold upon an improper or wrong 
 basis, the price being fixed on bulk with little or no 
 reference to quality. Now, we know that the sta- 
 ble manure from one cellar or vault may be, and 
 often is, worth double that taken from another. A 
 man who feeds his horse or other animals upon run 
 hay, and stints the use of grain, supplies to the 
 purchaser or user a very poor article of excrement ; 
 and in livery stables the straw and litter serve to 
 give great bulk, but little weight or substance, to 
 the product of the yard or vault. I have ascer- 
 tained by experiment, that excrementitious ma-
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 131 
 
 nures, as produced at my farm, held of fertilizing 
 substances nearly two and a half times as much in 
 the cord as was found in those obtained from stable 
 vaults in the city. 
 
 It is of the highest consequence in successful 
 farming that the actual quality of fertilizing agents 
 be considered, rather than appearances, bulk, or 
 color. Every substance that holds potash, phos- 
 phoric acid, lime, soda, and the nitrogenous bodies, 
 has value, and the value depends upon the amount 
 and the condition in which these agents exist in the 
 substance. If we can know what is the exact value 
 of the agent we are using, we can experiment un- 
 derstandingly and successfully ; but if we are at 
 work in the dark, our results will be wholly unre- 
 liable and valueless. 
 
 The results of our experiments have established 
 this point clearly, that in order to .grow crops suc- 
 cessfully, all the substances needed by plants must 
 be present in the soil in which they flourish. The 
 soils of cultivable lands hold in a greater or less 
 proportion all that is essential to the growth of 
 plants. Sometimes one or more of these essentials 
 is largely in excess, or there is more than is needed 
 by any crop for a succession of years; and often 
 one or more are held in small amount, barely suffi- 
 cient for some crops and wholly insufficient for oth- 
 ers. A soil resulting exclusively from the disin-
 
 132 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 tegration or crumbling of limestone rocks will be 
 rich in the calcareous element, but deficient in sev- 
 eral of the other essentials. Soils resulting largely 
 from feldspathic masses and granite will hold quite 
 all that supply the elements of nutrition to plants, 
 and such are therefore good. No two fields or 
 farms are alike as respects the nature of the soil ; 
 and, therefore, when the question occurs, how can 
 this or that farm be restored to fertility, it is neces- 
 sary to know the general composition of the soil as 
 preliminary to any intelligent attempt to bring it 
 into good tilth. Much of the confusion and doubt 
 which prevail among farmers springs from this dif- 
 ference which exists in soils. Farmers seek for 
 some specific manure which will insure large re- 
 turns of all kinds ; but no such specific exists, nor 
 ever will. There is certainly no specific for our 
 bodily diseases, and therefore doctors in prescribing 
 are said to feel their way in the dark. The farmer 
 who is searching for specifics is groping in thick 
 darkness. The intelligent doctor, who is acquainted 
 with the constitution and the idiosyncrasies of his 
 patient, has a great advantage over one who knows 
 nothing of such peculiarities. The most proper 
 business of the physician is to study the peculiar- 
 ities of his patients, and the most proper business 
 of the farmer is to study the physical and chemical 
 peculiarities of his soils. Of course, a knowledge
 
 FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 133 
 
 of the chemical and geological sciences is of great 
 advantage to ^a farmer in successfully conducting 
 his labors ; but an intelligent observer can secure a 
 good knowledge of the nature of his soils in ten 
 years, and know but little of any of the exact sci- 
 ences. Without any knowledge of anatomy, of 
 physiology, the farmer obtains by observation a 
 knowledge of the peculiarities of his animals. He 
 learns how to feed his pigs so as to fatten them 
 most rapidly and profitably, how to supply nutri- 
 ment to his cows so as to cause a copious supply of 
 milk, and he learns the temper and habits of his 
 horses and oxen, and accordingly controls them to 
 his advantage. Why should he not learn by ob- 
 servation the nature and capabilities of his fields, 
 and be able to a great extent so to feed thein as to 
 obtain the highest and best crop results from year 
 to year ? Any farmer, from ten or even five years' 
 observation, can ascertain the extent to which his 
 different fields are retentive of moisture. He must 
 learn how well they withstand the drought or the 
 protracted wet of summer, how different crops be- 
 have when the rain-fall is small or copious in the 
 growing months. Physically considered, some 
 farms are not adapted to the raising of corn, and 
 perhaps some other grains. Corn withstands 
 drought better than almost any other cereal, but 
 that fact affords no reason why it can be raised to
 
 134 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 advantage on loose, dry soils. Weak, puny corn 
 can be raised in a sand-bank ; but foolish indeed 
 would a farmer be to plant his corn in such a local- 
 ity. Corn requires a good, retentive soil, a good, 
 fine loam, in which to grow in perfection, and if 
 the owner of lands has none such, let him not at- 
 tempt to grow it. His fields are better adapted to 
 melons, beans, rye, or perhaps wheat. It is useless 
 to attempt to force corn or any of the noble grains 
 to grow upon naturally wet or low clay bottom 
 lands, without thorough drainage and deep tillage. 
 Such are better adapted to grass, and grass farms, 
 if kept in good tilth, are the most profitable of all. 
 Every- cultivator of the soil must first become ac- 
 quainted with the physical character of each parcel 
 he has under his charge, and then he will know 
 what crops are adapted to the several localities. 
 
 By drainage and deep tillage, the physical con- 
 dition of most lands can be completely changed, 
 and with the supplying of such chemical agents as 
 are needed, crops of every description can be raised, 
 satisfactory and remunerative to the husbandman.
 
 WHAT SHALL WE USE FOR WATER-PIPES? 
 
 TTTE are certain that the discussion of no subject 
 * " can be of more general interest than that re- 
 lating to the nature and safety of the different kinds 
 of pipes which are used for conducting water to the 
 culinary departments of dwellings. Great anxiety 
 has always been manifested, by housekeepers and 
 others, regarding the safety of the conduit pipes in 
 general use, whether composed of lead or of other 
 metals. It is important that this subject should be 
 fairly and intelligently discussed, in order that the 
 extent of the danger may be clearly understood, 
 and also that the utility and economy of different 
 kinds of pipes may be known. While it is impor- 
 tant that all real sources of danger should be pointed 
 out, it is also desirable that groundless or unneces- 
 sary fears should be allayed. We are happy to pre- 
 sent to our readers, in plain language, the results of 
 several years' observation and experiment upon the 
 different kinds of water-pipes. 
 
 LEAD PIPES. 
 
 Lead is the metal by far the most largely em- 
 ployed for service water-pipes, and it certainly is
 
 136 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 the cheapest and most convenient material of which 
 to construct them. It is soft, ductile, easily and 
 readily put in position, and seldom gives trouble by 
 leakage. It is a pity that a metal so well adapted 
 to our wants should be liable to be dissolved by the 
 water brought in contact with it, and that the metal 
 and its salts should so disturb the vital functions as 
 to engender disease and destroy life. And yet, we 
 cannot help remarking, how slight is the danger 
 from the use of lead water-pipes. Millions of 
 pounds of it lie buried in the earth, and through it 
 water is flowing to thousands of families, and yet 
 comparatively a small number suffer from its influ- 
 ence. A large proportion of the waters of this 
 country, that are suited to culinary purposes, will 
 pass through lead pipes under ordinary conditions, 
 and remain uncon laminated. During the past 
 quarter of a century, we have studied diligently this 
 matter of the action of different waters upon lead, 
 we have made hundreds of analyses, and have found 
 but few from ponds, lakes, and open reservoirs that 
 do not contain elements \vhich exert a protective 
 influence upon the surface of the metal. The first 
 chemical action of water upon lead is usually that 
 of oxidation. The oxygen, which enters into com- 
 bination with the metal, comes from the air always 
 present in water, or possibly it may come from the 
 water itself through chemical decomposition, the re-
 
 WHAT TO USE FOR WATER-PIPES. 137 
 
 suit of galvanic action. The oxide of lead is a sol- 
 uble compound, and quite poisonous. If the results 
 of the contact of water with lead were to stop here, 
 not a family could use leaden pipes with impunity. 
 The oxide would continue to form as fast as it was 
 washed away and dissolved by the current, and 
 shortly the whole structure would be destroyed. 
 But most waters contain, or hold in .solution, another 
 element, carbonic acid, which readily combines with 
 the oxide, and forms a new salt. This is the car- 
 bonate of lead, and fortunately is insoluble. The 
 first action, then, of most waters upon lead is to 
 form upon the surface a coating of the white oxide 
 of lead ; the second action is to change this danger- 
 ous soluble oxide into a hard insoluble carbonate, 
 and this, adhering to the whole interior surface of 
 leaden pipes, prevents further contact of the water 
 with the metal, and all decomposition ceases. This 
 is a plain statement of the way in which lead is usu- 
 ally acted upon by water ; and if there were no dis- 
 turbing agencies to come in and interfere with these 
 results, we should hardly require safer or better 
 water-pipes than those constructed of lead. 
 
 It sometimes happens that well and spring waters 
 contain other agents which interfere with the chem- 
 ical changes we have described. Many wells in the 
 Northern States are fed by springs which percolate 
 through or over beds of rocks charged with iron
 
 138 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 pyrites, or sulphuret of iron. This mineral is usu- 
 ally found in the form of little cubes, very hard and 
 dense, and having a golden yellow color. These 
 cubes are often supposed by well-diggers to be true 
 gold. We receive a carefully done-up package 
 of this mineral as often as once a week during the 
 year, sent to us for chemical analysis, the finder be- 
 lieving he has discovered a gold mine. We are 
 always sorry to be compelled to furnish results 
 which demolish the foundation upon which rest 
 " great expectations." Waters brought in contact 
 with such minerals are often impregnated with an 
 offensive gas (sulphuretted hydrogen, or sulphydric 
 acid) and the taste is unpleasant. Their action 
 upon leaden pipes is of an unfavorable nature, pro- 
 ducing sometimes rapid decomposition. We have 
 not sufficiently investigated the nature of this action 
 to be able accurately to define it ; but it is certain 
 it occurs, and leaden pipes should not be employed 
 to conduct such waters. Organic matter from 
 vaults and cesspools frequently finds its way into 
 wells, and changes the character of waters, so that 
 they become dangerous in their influence upon lead. 
 Some waters are decidedly alkaline, and thus the 
 action of carbonic acid upon lead oxide is neutral- 
 ized, and it remains in solution. 
 
 The nature of the action of water upon lead is 
 changed from local causes, operating within the
 
 WHAT TO USE FOR WATER-PIPES. 139 
 
 pipes themselves. Lime, leaves, and other sub- 
 stances, which may be deposited in the angles or 
 bends of pipes, will modify the chemical changes, so 
 as to render an otherwise safe pipe very unsafe. The 
 twisting and bending of pipes, when placed in posi- 
 tion, disturb the crystalline structure of the metal, 
 and give rise to electrical currents, which promote 
 its solution in water. Well-waters and spring- 
 waters are usually more unsuited to lead conduction 
 than those of ponds and rivers. 
 
 As service-pipes for aqueducts, lead pipes will, 
 under ordinary conditions, deliver water free from 
 lead contamination. In a city or town supply, 
 where the general influence of the waters is protec- 
 tive, as described above, there will be local causes 
 operating, through the agency of which some fami- 
 lies will suffer from lead poison. No city or large 
 town can introduce lead service-pipes into its aque- 
 duct system, with entire exemption from danger. 
 It is not enough to learn the general influence of 
 aqueduct waters, as thereby people are misled ; we 
 must know the character of the water which flows 
 into each separate dwelling, if we would have knowl- 
 edo-e of its exact influence. If each water-taker in 
 
 C5 
 
 a city could have the water received carefully tested 
 twice during the first year after it is introduced, he 
 would learn whether he is free from danger or not. 
 If, after this period, the water flows pure, no anxi-
 
 140 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ety need be felt. It is perhaps impracticable to have 
 chemical analysis of waters made upon so extensive 
 a scale, but it is -the only way in which there can 
 be perfect exemption from cases of lead poisoning 
 in cities. In a majority of wells, lead conducting 
 pipes can be used with safety ; but since without 
 analysis it is impossible for housekeepers to know 
 when the conditions are unfavorable, it will be better 
 to employ some other kind of pipe. It may be said 
 here that we have used water in our own dwelling 
 for twenty years which passes through leaden ser- 
 vice-pipes from the iron mains of the city of Haver- 
 hill aqueduct. Not a trace of lead has been found 
 in the water since the first month after its introduc- 
 tion. If we did not know that we are free from 
 agencies causing local decomposition, we should re- 
 move the pipes at once. 
 
 TIN-LINED LEAD PIPES. 
 
 To obviate the danger incident to lead pipes, an 
 inventor in New York conceived the idea of lining 
 the interior of such with tin. These pipes are 
 called " tin-lined lead pipes." They are con- 
 structed of a thick outside pipe of lead, while 
 another thin one, of tin, is drawn through the inte- 
 rior and rests in contact with it, forming a lining. 
 This idea is such as would quite naturally suggest 
 itself to any one ; and ingenious mechanics or in-
 
 WHAT TO USE FOR WATER-PIPES. 141 
 
 venters, unacquainted with the electro-chemical 
 relationship of metals, would seize hold of it as a 
 most important discovery. They would not know 
 that tin by itself is often more readily attacked and 
 dissolved by water than lead, and that, when placed 
 in association with lead, if any water contact is made 
 between the tin and lead, both metals are dissolved 
 with increased rapidity. We have heretofore unre- 
 servedly expressed our dissatisfaction with this pipe ; 
 and our views are supported by some practical sci- 
 entific men, whose opinions are certainly worth 
 more than those of a whole army of gentlemen who 
 devote their lives simply to performing illustrative 
 chemical experiments before classes in colleges. 
 Besides this, we have had opportunity of examining 
 specimens of the pipe which have been used for dif- 
 ferent periods of time, and have found results which 
 fully confirmed our opinions. In regard to this 
 pipe we do not assert that in every case, or in a 
 majority of cases where it is used, it is positively 
 dangerous. If the pipe is perfectly covered with 
 tin throughout its entire surface, and if it is placed 
 in contact with the waters of such wells or aque- 
 ducts as do not readily act upon tin, it will serve a 
 good purpose for many years. What housekeepers 
 require in a water-pipe is not one which may become 
 dangerous under conditions liable to occur, but one 
 which is safe under all possible conditions. The 
 tin-lined lead pipe is not of this character.
 
 142 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 TIN PIPE. 
 
 Pure " block-tin," so called, supplies a good metal 
 from which to construct water-pipes. As noticed 
 above, it has the disadvantage of being readily acted 
 upon by some waters ; but this is purely an econom- 
 ical matter, as the salts of tin are not specially poi- 
 sonous, and no harm can result from its solution in 
 water. Block-tin pipes are quite expensive; but 
 this is a small matter to many, and we recommend 
 the use of tin pipes in cases where cost is not re- 
 garded. Of course, there are many who cannot 
 afford them, and a cheaper and equally safe 
 water-pipe is needed. Those who seek a cheaper 
 pipe must not be deceived by the clean, attractive 
 appearance of the 
 
 GALVANIZED IRON PIPE. 
 
 Iron pipes are "galvanized" by immersing the 
 common gas-pipes in hydrochloric acid, and then 
 immediately placing them in a bath of melted zinc. 
 The zinc amalgamates with the surface of the iron, 
 forming a superficial covering of the metal. This 
 is a very cheap process, and was originally adopted 
 with the view of preventing gas-pipes from rusting 
 in damp places. Such pipes were never designed 
 to be used for the conveyance of water, even by the 
 manufacturers ; and how any one ever ventured to 
 use them for that purpose is a matter not easily un-
 
 WHAT TO USE FOR WATER-PIPES. 143 
 
 derstood. Zinc is a coarse, cheap metal, easily- 
 oxidized or corroded by weak acids, and when thus 
 acted upon forms salts which are harmful to the 
 economy. Who ever heard of zinc being recom- 
 mended by a reputable chemist as a suitable metal 
 from which to construct water-pipes ? And yet 
 pipes composed entirely of zinc would be less readily 
 acted upon by water than the coating of the metal 
 when deposited upon iron. The thicker this coat- 
 ing, the more dangerous it becomes, as the longer 
 time is consumed in removing it, and the larger the 
 quantity of salts produced. It may be further ob- 
 served, that if the salts of zinc were not injurious, 
 galvanized iron pipe should not be used for water 
 from economical considerations. It costs more than 
 plain iron pipe, oxidizes more readily so long as a 
 trace of the zinc remains, and therefore has a less 
 money value. Used for dry gas, above ground, 
 iron pipes coated with zinc may have some advan- 
 tage over the uncoated, but they are, after all, 
 insignificant. We now pass to the consideration 
 of plain 
 
 IRON PIPE. 
 
 Water, when it is brought in contact with the 
 metal iron, oxidizes or rusts it more or less rapidly ; 
 but it is not rendered poisonous thereby. Neither 
 the oxide, nor any of the salts of iron liable to be 
 formed from water contact, are in the least degree
 
 144 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 hurtful to the animal economy ; and therefore iron 
 conduit pipes are perfectly free from danger under 
 all circumstances. Iron pipes are cheap, easily 
 put in position, are free from the trouble of leak- 
 age, and are safe. What possible objections, then, 
 can be urged against them ? The objections relate 
 wholly to matters of convenience and economy. 
 The rust of iron, which sometimes is formed in 
 considerable quantities, is liable, when the water 
 is used for laundry purposes, to stain clothing ; 
 and this causes a good deal of scolding on the part 
 of washerwomen and tidy housewives. Also, tea 
 made of water containing iron-rust is changed into 
 a pale ink ; and many vegetables boiled in it are 
 considerably discolored. These are some of the 
 inconveniences resulting from the use of iron water- 
 pipes ; but the fact that by rapid oxidation they 
 are often speedily filled up or destroyed may be 
 regarded as the most weighty objection. In some 
 localities and under some circumstances, small ser- 
 vice-pipes rust slowly, and will continue intact for 
 many years ; under other circumstances, they are 
 soon destroyed. Iron pipes have so many desira- 
 ble points, we often advise their employment for 
 conducting water to dwellings. No iron pipe of 
 less diameter than one inch should ever be used ; 
 those which are smaller soon fill up, and are ren- 
 dered worthless. A good way- to obviate the ob-
 
 WHAT TO USE FOR WATER-PIPES. 145 
 
 jectionable feature of rust is to coat the interior 
 with hydraulic cement. The Melrose and Maiden 
 Aqueduct Co., who have just introduced the waters 
 of Spot Pond into those towns, are using a cement- 
 lined iron service-pipe, and we predict for it entire 
 success. It is cheap and durable, and oxidation 
 is wholly prevented by this device. Large pipes 
 are now successfully constructed of cement, with 
 a thin iron pipe upon which it rests, interiorly and 
 exteriorly. Pipes of this kind which have been 
 several years in use, continue, we believe, to afford 
 the highest satisfaction. 
 
 GUTTA-PERCHA PIPE. 
 
 In seeking for a satisfactory material for water- 
 pipes, the curious vegetable substance, gutta-percha, 
 has been used to some extent. All metallic con- 
 tamination is at once entirely avoided by the em- 
 ployment of this material, and apparently it has 
 much to recommend it to favor ; but, like a thou- 
 sand other good things, it has objectionable fea- 
 tures. Gutta-percha imparts to water in contact 
 with it an unpleasant taste, and also, in some local- 
 ities, it undergoes a kind of spontaneous decompo- 
 sition, by which it is rendered worthless. If, how- 
 ever, these objections did not exist, we presume 
 the item of cost would come in to drive it in a 
 great degree from the market. At the present 
 10
 
 146 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 time we think but little of this pipe is used in any 
 section of the country for water conduit. 
 
 BRASS PIPE. 
 
 Compound metals used for water-pipes must be 
 looked upon with disfavor by chemists. And yet 
 some alloys resist oxidation or other chemical 
 change in a most remarkable manner. We kijow 
 of no subject which more imperatively demands 
 patient and careful investigation than that of al- 
 loys. It is a curious fact that aluminum and mag- 
 nesium, when combined with each other and with 
 other metals in certain proportions, will oxidize 
 so rapidly as to fall into a powder almost instantly; 
 while in other proportions the compound resists 
 the action of oxygen to a degree approaching 
 that of the noble metals. A mixture of copper 
 and zinc may possibly be devised, which, when 
 formed into pipe, will convey water safely ; but of 
 such we have no knowledge. A brass water-pipe 
 is now being manufactured and introduced, we 
 learn ; but such should not be hastily adopted by 
 any one. 
 
 CLAY PIPES. 
 
 The common glazed clay or " stone-ware " pipe 
 has been used to a considerable extent for conduct- 
 ing water, and where the pressure is slight it may 
 serve a good purpose. There is a difficulty, how-
 
 WHAT TO USE FOR WATER-PIPES. 147 
 
 ever, in securing the sections free from minute 
 orifices which render them leaky, and also it is 
 troublesome to form tight joints. When made of 
 extra thickness, and put in position with care, the 
 clay pipe of small calibre may conduct water under 
 a moderate head, for many years, with great satis- 
 faction. That which passes through will of course 
 be as pure as the mountain or meadow stream at 
 its source, and this is a point of the first importance. 
 
 A CARBON WATER-PIPE, 
 
 so called, was manufactured and introduced some 
 years since, but we have learned but little regard- 
 ing its success. It was made, we think, of asphalt 
 and sand principally, and had the merit, at least, 
 of indestructibility. The difficulty and cost of con- 
 struction may perhaps have proved obstacles in 
 the way of its production ; and so it has disap- 
 peared from the market. In addition to the vari- 
 eties of water-pipe described, we may name the 
 glass and the porcelain-lined iron pipes as worthy 
 of notice. Iron pipe has been successfully lined 
 with glass, and we believe the cost was not so 
 great as to prove a bar to its general employment. 
 Nothing could be constructed sweeter and cleaner 
 than pipe of this nature ; and we regret to learn 
 that its manufacture has been abandoned in this 
 city. We venture to hope that some one will
 
 148 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 resume its fabrication, and we feel assured that it 
 might become a profitable business. 
 
 We have thus briefly and plainly brought under 
 notice the various kinds of water-pipes which have 
 been used ; and the objectionable or desirable fea- 
 tures of each have been pointed out. 
 
 THE CONCLUSION 
 
 of the whole matter may be presented in a few 
 words. Leaden pipes may be employed to conduct 
 water from ponds and rivers or open reservoirs, 
 under ordinary conditions, with safety. But since 
 disturbing agencies of a local character are liable 
 to occur, of which water-takers can have no knowl- 
 edge until evil consequences result, it will be bet- 
 ter to substitute some kind of pipe which is safe 
 under all possible conditions. Neither tin-lined 
 lead, galvanized iron, or brass pipes meet this want. 
 Iron pipes are entirely unobjectionable on grounds 
 of safety ; and the other undesirable features 
 which have been named are not of so serious a 
 nature as to lead to their rejection for common 
 use as service-pipes. By lining the interior with 
 cement or glass, a conduit pipe is produced which 
 leaves a better one hardly to be desired. Block- 
 tin water-pipes are safe and excellent, but costly. 
 Those who do not mind expense can resort to this 
 pipe for water conduction, with assurance that they
 
 WHAT TO USE FOR WATER-PIPES. 149 
 
 are fully protected from danger. It is quite prob- 
 able that not many years will elapse before new 
 devices for conducting water to dwellings, which 
 are safe and cheap, will be afforded us, as this is 
 an important question towards which many compe- 
 tent and ingenious minds are turned at the present 
 time.
 
 THE CLOTHING WE WEAR. 
 
 TT7E seldom pass through the thoroughfares of a 
 great city without thinking how much the 
 woolen, cotton, silk, and linen fabrics which the 
 crowd of men, women, and children carry about 
 with them upon their persons have to do with 
 their health, comfort, and success in life. Clothing 
 is used not only for warmth, but to secure coolness, 
 and to adorn the person. It also serves an impor- 
 tant end in keeping the body clean ; for with our 
 ideas of cleanliness, if the whole surface were ex- 
 posed, it would need as frequent washing as do the 
 face and hands, which we leave bare. In our rig- 
 orous northern climate, clothing is worn chiefly for 
 the sake of its warmth ; and this is indeed the most 
 important point which demands consideration. The 
 human body is a singular machine, and no function 
 of its complex organization is more wonderful than 
 that connected with the production of animal heat. 
 We are warmed by the process of combustion as 
 truly as are our workshops and dwellings ; but the 
 furnace within us is a far more perfect apparatus 
 than anything ever constructed through human in-
 
 THE CLOTHING WE WEAR. 151 
 
 genuity. The regulation of this internal combustion 
 is so beautiful and exact, that the heat of the body 
 in its normal condition never rises above or falls be- 
 low 98 F. Place a thermometer under the arm so 
 that it will be fully influenced by the animal heat, 
 and it will rise to 98 and remain thus, no matter 
 whether it be summer or winter. Upon our com- 
 mon thermometer this temperature is marked 
 " blood heat," and it remains a fixed point in the 
 scale. We may take up our residence within the 
 arctic circle, or directly under the equator, and there 
 irill be no change in the internal temperature of the 
 body. To keep up combustion, and maintain 
 warmth in our dwellings, we use coal or wood as 
 fuel; the body requires more refined combustible 
 materials, such as beef, mutton, poultry, bread, 
 butter, and vegetables, articles which we class as 
 foods, and which are daily placed under the influ- 
 ence of the digestive processes in the stomach. But 
 the stomach is not the furnace where these sub- 
 stances are burned to warm the body. The fireplace 
 or furnace of the body is in the capillary system, or 
 in the minute, invisible vessels which ramify through 
 every part of the organization. The food we con- 
 sume is not burned directly, but the tissues which 
 are formed from the food are undergoing the process 
 of oxidation or burning every moment of our lives, 
 and from this burning the body is warmed. Every
 
 152 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 part of us where blood-vessels are to be formed, 
 every part where nervous influence is percepti- 
 ble, every organ, every tissue, muscle, and brain, 
 and nerve, and membrane, waste away like a 
 burning taper, consume to air and ashes, and pass 
 from the system rejected and useless ; and if we 
 did not repair the waste by supplying food, the 
 body would " burn up " as truly as if consumed by 
 a blazing pile. Starvation is a burning process ; 
 and those who perish from want of food may be 
 said to die from slow combustion. But we must 
 not be enticed away from the topic which it was our 
 purpose to consider. 
 
 Clothing is composed of a variety of materials, 
 and these are used with reference to their influence 
 upon the body. Cotton and linen are cooler than 
 wool or silk, and consequently in this climate we 
 prefer the latter in winter and the former in sum- 
 mer. The former are bad conductors of heat, but 
 the animal products, the wool and the silk, are 
 much worse. Clothing serves the same purpose for 
 the body as coverings of wool or hair felting do for 
 steam or hot air pipes, namely, to keep in the heat, 
 or prevent loss by radiation. The worse conductor 
 any substance may be, the warmer it will prove as 
 clothing. Linen jackets and muslin dresses take 
 the place of cloth overcoats and thick shawls in 
 summer, because they are better heat conductors
 
 THE CLOTHING WE WEAR. 153 
 
 than the heavy woolen garments. In winter we 
 desire to retain as much animal heat as possible, 
 and so we don the very imperfect conducting sub- 
 stances of wool and silk. 
 
 The color of clothing is by no means a matter of 
 indifference. White and light-colored clothes re- 
 flect the heat, while black and dark-colored ones 
 absorb it. White is the comfortable and fashionable 
 color for clothing in summer. It reflects heat well, 
 and prevents the sun's rays from passing through 
 and heating the body. If white is the best color 
 for summer, it does not follow that black is the best 
 for winter. It must be remembered that black ra- 
 diates heat with great rapidity. Give a coat of 
 white paint to a black steam radiator, which is ca- 
 pable of rendering a room comfortably warm at all 
 times, and the temperature will fall at once, though 
 the heat-producing agency remain the same as be- 
 fore. A black garment robs the body of a larger 
 amount of heat than white, and consequently the 
 latter color is the best Tor winter garments. It is 
 the best color for both summer and winter. Al- 
 though this statement may seem like blowing hot 
 and cold, it is nevertheless true. Let those who. 
 are troubled with cold feet, and who wear dark 
 socks, change to white, and see if the difficulty is 
 not in part or wholly removed. Utility in color is 
 confined to the different shades merging from dark 
 into light ; but we find in connection with dress all
 
 154 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 the beautiful tints of the rainbow, and these are used 
 for the ornamentation of the person. The rich and 
 varied colors which are so extensively worn are by 
 no means to be condemned ; adornment of the per- 
 son to a reasonable extent is commendable. We 
 all love the beautiful in nature, and what adds so 
 much to the attractiveness of woman as the ribbons 
 and scarfs, stained with magenta, mauve, or sol- 
 ferino, which adorn her person ? Deep in the in- 
 stincts of our nature is laid the admiration of color ; 
 and we love beautiful flowers and birds and beau- 
 tifully dressed ladies. 
 
 The abuses in dress must not pass unnoticed. 
 The tight waist, the low necks to dresses, and the 
 high-heeled shoes are most flagrant abuses, and 
 ought not to be longer tolerated. We shall not 
 quarrel with the little jaunty hats of the ladies ; for 
 they are indeed p'retty, and no harm results from 
 them, as of all parts of the body the head needs the 
 least clothing. But, to pass to the other extremity, 
 we have to say that the detestable high heels to 
 ladies' boots and shoes, running as they do down 
 almost to a point, are spoiling the gait and ruining 
 the ankle-joints of children and young misses. We 
 are careful to order our shoemakers to remove such 
 heels from shoes before permitting them to be 
 brought into our dwelling. Heels of moderate 
 height and good breadth are of great service in ele- 
 vating the feet, so as to avoid direct contact with
 
 THE CLOTHING WE WEAR. 155 
 
 moist earth, and they also give support and afford 
 firmness to the step. Why should Fashion push 
 good devices to absurd extremes ? We must aid in 
 dethroning the tyrant when her decrees lead to the 
 physical or moral injury of the race. The common 
 fashion of leaving the neck and the upper part of 
 the chest bare, is fraught with evil consequences. It 
 would be less objectionable in countries uniformly 
 warm ; but that our daughters, here in this frigid 
 and changeable climate, should constantly expose to 
 chilling winds a vital part of the body, is one of the 
 evils of fashion which should be discountenanced by 
 every mother, and father, and brother. 
 
 No part of the dress of men is really more absurd 
 than the hard " stove-pipe 1 " hat so generally worn; 
 and yet all attempts to subvert it have proved abor- 
 tive. For thirty years we have worn this kind of 
 head covering, and we like it better than any other; 
 we have tried hard to like the low, soft hats, but we 
 cannot; and this is the experience of thousands. 
 Absurd as the high, hard hat is, it does keep the 
 head more comfortable, it does maintain a more 
 equable temperature, it does feel better, than any 
 other form of head covering ; and so let us continue 
 to knock them against beams in attics and the 
 branches of tree$, If they serve a good purpose in 
 brushing cobwebs from the roofs of old garrets and 
 stables, they also protect us from bad bumps, an^i 
 keep our heads comfortable.
 
 THE RELATIONS OF WATER TO AGRI- 
 CULTURE. 
 
 fTHHE intimate relation which the science of 
 chemistry sustains to agriculture is shown in 
 the fact that all the products of the farm are strictly 
 chemical compounds, and all the changes necessary 
 for their production are chemical reactions of a 
 complex nature. The farmer is therefore but little 
 less than a chemical manipulator engaged in bring- 
 ing elements into favorable conditions for combina- 
 tion, thus aiding in the production of complex or- 
 ganic bodies. In the spring we place in the ground 
 the little seeds, and in order that the silent chem- 
 ical forces may operate unimpeded, we furnish in 
 close proximity with the seed those elements which 
 must participate in the reaction, and become inte- 
 gral parts of the future plant. The substances 
 thus supplied we call fertilizers or plant nutriment, 
 and the perfection of the structure depends upon 
 a liberal supply and intelligent application of these 
 elements of growth. These remarks apply to us 
 who are required to till the thin exhausted soils of 
 '* New England. They have but little significance
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 157 
 
 to that favored class who labor on more perfect 
 soil, where the plant pabulum is present in lavish 
 abundance. Aside from the labor of the husband- 
 man, which is so essential to the growth of plants, 
 there are other forces and agents which are of still 
 higher importance. These are supplied by nature, 
 and are placed beyond our control. Without water, 
 all our various forms of fertilizers would remain 
 dormant in the soil. The wonderful solvent pow- 
 ers of water are indispensable in the process of 
 vital chemical action. In itself it is a marvellous 
 liquid. It is so common, so abundant, and enters 
 so universally into all the movements and concerns 
 of life, that we are not often led to reflect upon 
 its chemical composition or its physical properties. 
 Like many other inestimable blessings, its very 
 cheapness and universality remove it from the field 
 of thought, and its extraordinary life-giving capa- 
 bilities are unrecognized. We can certainly dwell 
 with profit upon a theme so common as common 
 water. The farmer has much to do with the liquid, 
 and it has much to do with and for him. It is safe 
 to say that half of his strength and energy is spent 
 in its transportation from one point to another. 
 The amount of force in the aggregate required to 
 move it during each year, is greater than is ex- 
 pended in all other work upon the farm. In the 
 spring the labor begins by turning up with the
 
 158 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 plough the heavy, water-impregnated furrows, and 
 in carting from the barn-yard and stable the reek- 
 ing loads of animal excrement. In these kinds of 
 labor the water is so deceptively combined with 
 earth and manurial substances that its presence is 
 hardly taken into account. It is, however, largely 
 in excess of all other material, and if we subtract 
 from the cost of force expended through the em- 
 ployment of human and animal muscle this ponder- 
 ous body, an insignificant sum remains. 
 
 Nothing more readily attracts the attention of 
 farmers, or conveys more palpable ideas of value 
 than bulk, in manurial substances, and yet nothing 
 is more deceptive or fallacious. A huge bulk of 
 animal excrement under the eaves-droppings of 
 the barn has indeed a positive value, but it does 
 not consist in the great mass of the material of 
 which it is made up. Squeeze out the water, re- 
 move the sand and chaff, and we can place all the 
 fertilizing elements of that heap in the smallest 
 sized dump-cart. The high value of stable or 
 barn-yard manure is not found in the eighty or 
 ninety per cent, of water, silica, etc., which it con- 
 tain^, but in the nitrogenous elements, the potash, 
 soda, and phosphatic salts, which in amount occupy 
 relatively a most insignificant position. And J 
 may say further, that the excrementitious salts- 
 found in the manure heap have a higher positive
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 159 
 
 value as plant food than any other substance with 
 which we are acquainted. They exist in a form 
 ready to be again taken up by plants and assim- 
 ilated into the living organism. They differ from 
 the same class of agents found isolated in the hands 
 of the chemist, inasmuch as they have acquired in 
 their passage through vegetable and animal struct- 
 ure, a kind of vitalizing capability, the nature of 
 which is imperfectly understood by chemists. 
 
 But the deceptive nature of bulk in fertilizing 
 agents is not confined to barn-yard manure. Leaves, 
 peat, muck, chaff, etc., need to be carefully exam- 
 ined in order to understand their actual value to 
 the farmer. I have made somewhat extended 
 analysis of these substances in order to test the 
 correctness of some published statements regarding 
 them, and also to learn of how much positive ser- 
 vice they may be to the farmer. A bushel of well 
 pressed dry leaves, as they fall from the trees in 
 autumn, weighs about four pounds ; by further dry- 
 ing, they part with a little more than 30 per cent, 
 of water held in the cells of the leaf structure. A 
 cord of absolutely dry leaves will weigh about 325 
 Ibs., reckoning one hundred bushels to the cord. 
 In weight, then, a cord represents about one twelfth 
 of a cord of wet barn-yard manure, and if they 
 contain the same amount of fertilizing material m 
 the same condition, would be equal in value to
 
 160 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 that amount of manure. But this is far from being 
 the fact. The dried leaves I have found to stand 
 relatively to the leached organic matter of manure, 
 as 10 to 30, in ash value ; and when the soluble 
 salts of manure are taken into account, the com- 
 parative value is as 10 to 60, weight for weight. 
 A cord of dry forest leaves, made up of the usual 
 deciduous varieties, maple, beech, oak, etc., has 
 an actual manurial value of not over fifty cents, 
 reckoning good stable manure at eight dollars the 
 cord. Will it pay to collect them ? Certainly not, 
 for the amount of fertilizing material they contain. 
 As litter or absorbents in the stable, leaves have 
 some value, but much less than straw, inasmuch 
 as they lack the reedy, character of straw, and be- 
 cause they are far more slowly decomposed. 
 
 A pound of good, thoroughly formed peat, taken 
 fresh from the meadow upon my farm, lost a iittle 
 more than fourteen ounces of water in drying. A 
 farmer drawing from his meadow a cord of peat 
 weighing 4,000 Ibs. has upon his wagon 3,500 Ibs. 
 of water, and but 500 Ibs. of the dry material he 
 seeks. This, dried'Vnd compressed, could be placed 
 in a couple of our largest farm baskets. The 
 amount of ash constituents in the pound of peat, 
 after drying, was a little less than 10 per cent. ; so 
 that when we reduce the heavy load of peat, which 
 to the eye appears so bulky and valuable, down to
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 161 
 
 its contained inorganic principles, we find the whole 
 amount to be less than 50 Ibs. I hope not to be 
 misunderstood in the matter. The ashes are far 
 from being the only manurial part of peat ; and as, 
 in burning, some of the most valuable elements are 
 volatilized and lost, it is not good economy to burn 
 peat for the purpose of securing the ashes. Fresh 
 peat, allowed to ferment in contact with lime, is 
 changed into new substances capable of nourishing 
 plants, and where it can easily be obtained it pays 
 the farmer well to secure a good supply. I cannot 
 help remarking, however, in this connection, that 
 many of the statements made by our chemist and 
 journal writers regarding the value of muck or 
 peat are simply absurd, and are proved erroneous 
 by practical experiment. The great value of peat, 
 after all, lies in its absorbent qualities. From the 
 experiments and experience of a considerable num- 
 ber of years, I feel inclined to urge the farmers of 
 our country to save the liquid excrement of their 
 animals by the use of seasoned peat in their cattle 
 stalls and manure pits, as an absorbent, rather than 
 to recommend them to drag it many miles at much 
 expense to be used, by itself or in compost, for 
 fertilizing purposes. 
 
 In this connection it is proper to say, that one 
 of the forms of frauds practised by manufacturers 
 of commercial fertilizers, is in allowing a large per- 
 il
 
 162 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 centage of water to remain in the material, thus 
 adding to its weight. I had the curiosity to exam- 
 ine a specimen of what "was called " superphos- 
 phate," sent to me last spring by a manufacturer, 
 and it was found to contain 16 per cent, of water. 
 Sixteen pounds in each one hundred would give 
 in the ton 320 Ibs., so that a farmer in purchasing 
 a ton of this article receives but 1,680 Ibs. If he 
 pays $60 the ton, the water costs him $9.60. This 
 sum goes into the pocket of the manufacturer, along 
 with the very respectable profits resulting from the 
 low cost of most of the materials which enter into 
 the compost. How many farmers, in their pur- 
 chases of fertilizers, have ever taken into account 
 the item of water which is held in association ? In 
 all such purchases they should have in view two 
 considerations : 1st, the quality or genuineness of 
 the material itself; 2d, its dryness or freedom from 
 moisture. 
 
 I have said that the labor in moving water upon 
 the farm begins in the early spring. It does not 
 end with that season. There is no body or sub- 
 stance which requires transportation, save rocks 
 and the iron implements of agriculture, into which 
 water does not enter as an important element, 
 gravity alone being considered. The seed dropped 
 in the earth holds it ; the earth moved by the 
 hoe or cultivator clings to its associated particles
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 163 
 
 more tenaciously, and requires a greater expendi- 
 ture of force for its removal. How many tons of 
 water are raised upon the forks, by farmers during 
 the haying season ? Grass properly cured has lost 
 half its weight from evaporation, and in the driest 
 hay there remains quite fifteen per cent, of water. 
 Therefore, we stow it upon our mows, and handle 
 it during the cold dry months of winter. The 
 roots and tubers stored in our cellars during the 
 autumn months are but little better than pure 
 water stiffened with a small quantity of starch, 
 albumen, and sugar. If all the fruits and vegeta- 
 bles, so magnificent in quality, and abundant in 
 quantity, which are collected and arranged for an 
 Agricultural Exhibition, were thrown together and 
 placed under a huge hydraulic press, the water 
 held in the juices would float a small yacht, while 
 the pomace could be placed in a large sized mar- 
 ket basket. With an ordinary cider press we ex- 
 tract but about half of the liquid which the apple 
 contains. 
 
 Among all the products of the farm there is 
 nothing so interesting or wonderful as milk. ^Not- 
 withstanding all that has been written regarding 
 its chemical and physical properties, it is but imper- 
 fectly understood by those most directly interested 
 in its production. That there is a want of knowl- 
 edge of its properties even among intelligent men
 
 164 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 is shown in the fact that a party of impudent ad- 
 venturers can establish themselves in our cities, 
 and by advertising find plenty of customers ready 
 to purchase a so-called invention, whereby a pound 
 of good butter is to be made from a pint of milk. 
 If this were accomplished, it would of course be a 
 miracle, equally wonderful with that of our Saviour 
 who turned water into wine. It is certainly as 
 much a supernatural act to change water into but- 
 ter as to change that liquid into wine. Farmers, 
 clergymen, lawyers, have been made the victims 
 of this audacious fraud. A pint of good milk 
 weighs about 16 oz. If this were placed in a re- 
 tort and gently distilled, we should obtain about 
 14^ oz. of pure water ; the solid matter remaining 
 in the retort, weighing 1^ oz., holds all the constit- 
 uents in a pint of milk from which butter can be 
 formed. Milk upon a fair average contains 88 per 
 cent, of water, and consequently the farmer who 
 carries to market 100 gallons of honest milk has 
 in his wagon 88 gallons of honest water, which he 
 honestly sells to his customers, at fair rates per 
 gallon. It seems hardly necessary to carry the 
 attenuation further, by resorting to the pump for 
 more water. There is a popular impression that 
 the water naturally existing in milk, vegetables, 
 fruits, and grasses, differs in some way from that 
 drawn from our wells and springs, but it is essen-
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 165 
 
 tially the same. The water obtained from the 
 sources named is pure water; that drawn from 
 springs and wells usually containing a few grains 
 in the gallon of organic and inorganic matter, de- 
 rived from the soil through which it percolates. 
 This is all the difference. From whence comes 
 the water found in milk ? Manifestly it is derived 
 from the grasses of the pasture, the hay from the 
 mow, and from the water drank by the animal. 
 This all passes into the economy, and serves to 
 dilute the various active principles upon which its 
 value as food depends. Without dwelling upon 
 those interesting points which relate to the chem- 
 istry of milk, let us consider the various forms of 
 food best calculated to promote a copious secretion 
 of the fluid in the animal. 
 
 During a period of two years I made some care- 
 ful and interesting experiments upon a herd of ten 
 cows, which are kept upon my farm. The results 
 of these experiments go to show what a vast differ- 
 ence exists in the value of the feed of pastures 
 apparently similar in soil and situation ; also the 
 difference in the green or succulent plants which 
 are grown as food for cows, to be used in the late 
 summer and early autumn months. By changing 
 my herd of animals in the month of June, from 
 one hill pasture to another, only a hah mile apart, 
 where the grasses were equally abundant, I found
 
 166 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 that the falling off of milk amounted in four days 
 to fifteen quarts per day in the aggregate. Upon 
 changing them to the first field, the flow gradually 
 increased, until in about four days it was back again 
 to its original quantity. The experiment of chang- 
 ing the animals was repeated three or four times 
 with corresponding results. The explanation is 
 afforded in the difference which existed in the 
 grasses, in the amount of sweet nutriment which 
 the water held in solution in the circulatory vessels 
 of the plants. The quantity of food was abundant 
 in both fields, and also the clover and the June 
 grasses were produced in both, but in the one the 
 juices were thin and watery, in the other they 
 were richly laden with saccharine and nitrogenous 
 products. The field giving the best results had 
 been under the plough five years previous ; the 
 sod of the other had not been broken for twenty 
 years. We do not give sufficient attention to our 
 pastures in New England, and by withholding fer- 
 tilizing agents, and allowing the sod to become com- 
 pact and cold, the growths are sadly deficient in 
 the milk and flesh forming constituents. I believe 
 that it pays well to cultivate and give attention 
 to pastures in all our thickly settled districts. One 
 acre maintained in good tilth, so that nutritious 
 and healthy grasses are produced, is worth to the 
 farmer more than three which are suffering from
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 167 
 
 neglect and exhaustion. This matter of securing 
 or providing rich, healthy, green food for milch 
 cows is certainly one of much importance, and 
 should be fully understood by dairy farmers every- 
 where. We should learn that all edible plants 
 which are green and juicy, and which animals Con- 
 sume with apparent relish, are not necessarily 
 nutritious or profitable as food. We should learn 
 that the richest varieties of grasses and stalks of 
 the cereal grains are dwarfed and even become dis- 
 eased under imperfect cultivation. The product of 
 a field of clover or timothy grown in deficient sun- 
 light, or under circumstances where there is an 
 excess of soil moisture, or where the plants are 
 crowded, has really a very low money value com- 
 pared with that of another produced under differ- 
 ent conditions of light, moisture, and space. It is 
 a common practice in Eastern Massachusetts, and 
 perhaps in other sections, to grow the corn plant 
 in drills, or in a mass from broadcast sowing, to 
 feed to milch cows late in summer when the pas- 
 ture grasses fail : a kind of food for animals not 
 profitable to raise ; not because the maize plant is 
 not rich and succulent, but because the conditions 
 under which it is grown are unfavorable to its per- 
 fect and healthy development. The natural juices 
 of the plant are richly saccharine at maturity, when 
 grown in hills in open space, with plenty of air and
 
 168 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 light ; but grown in mass, in close contiguity, this 
 principle is almost wholly wanting. To test its 
 comparative value with the green stalks taken from 
 the cornfield, I fed to my herd of cows in August 
 a weighed quantity of the " corn fodder," so called, 
 night and morning, for one week ; they were then 
 changed to the field corn stalks, and the gain in 
 the milk product at the end of the week was a little 
 over eight per cent., and there was also a mani- 
 fest improvement in quality. As a rule, all vege- 
 table productions grown under conditions where 
 the chlorophyl, the green coloring principle of 
 plants, cannot be produced in all its richness of tint, 
 are abnormal, immature, worthless. The absence 
 of this principle in the whole of the lower portion 
 of the corn plant grown in drills, or from broadcast 
 sowing, indicates its watery, half- developed charac- 
 ter. As fodder for milch cows in summer, the 
 sweet millet, green oats, and clover are much to 
 be preferred to corn, and one or more of them 
 should take its place upon all dairy farms. 
 
 The water supplied to milch cows has an impor- 
 tant bearing upon the lacteal secretion. With a 
 knowledge of the large percentage normally pres- 
 ent in milk, it is natural to conclude that a full sup- 
 ply should be always accessible both in pastures 
 and in yards, and that the quality should be unex- 
 ceptionable. Muddy, stagnant pools in pastures do
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 169 
 
 not furnish the liquid in proper condition, and as 
 milch cows are generally very fastidious regarding 
 the sweetness and purity of water, they will re- 
 main for hours parched with thirst before drinking 
 at such sources of supply. This protracted thirst 
 is fatal to the formation of milk, inasmuch as the 
 animal is rendered nervous and fretful, and water 
 is actually needed to enter into the secretion. 
 
 It is a curious fact that cows are often too lazy 
 to go far from feeding grounds to drink, even when 
 the water is pure and fresh. My pasture borders 
 for a half mile upon the beautiful Kenoza Lake, a 
 body of water of unsurpassed purity and excellence, 
 but notwithstanding this, my herd will frequently 
 come to the yard at night in midsummer, actually 
 suffering from thirst. To reach the lake it is nec- 
 essary to go a few rods through a wooded portion 
 of the pasture, and rather than travel that distance, 
 they are willing to suffer the inconvenience of 
 thirst. The annoyance is so serious that I have 
 determined to open a spring directly in the path 
 leading to the yard. 
 
 The location of farmers' wells upon their prem- 
 ises is an important point. How often do we see 
 them located within or upon the margin of the 
 barn-yard, near huge manure heaps, reeking with 
 ammoniacal and other gases, the prolific source of 
 soluble salts which find access to the water, and
 
 170 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 render it unfit as a beverage for man or beast. It 
 is well known that in the gradual decomposition 
 of animal and vegetable substances at or near the 
 surface of the earth, under certain conditions, 
 nitrogenous compounds are formed. The nitre 
 earths found under old buildings result from these 
 changes. It is, however, quite difficult to under- 
 stand the precise nature of the chemical transfor- 
 mations which produce them. In the waters of 
 a large number of wells in towns and cities, and 
 also in the country, the nitrates are found in con- 
 siderable quantities. The salts form at the surface 
 in warm weather, and being quite soluble are car- 
 ried with the percolating rain water into the wells. 
 Hence it will be understood how important it is to 
 locate wells away from all contaminating influences. 
 It has long been a matter of surprise to me that 
 instances of impure water are so often found in the 
 rural districts, among those who are not confined 
 to the narrow limits of city lots. In an experience 
 of many years as consulting chemist, I have had 
 a larger percentage of examinations to make of 
 water brought from country homes, than from any 
 other source. The result of these examinations 
 has proved that great carelessness is manifested 
 in allowing sink drains, cess-pools, and excrementi- 
 tious deposits to exist in close proximity to the 
 water supply, and serious illnesses have been
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 171 
 
 caused thereby. The farmer should make it a 
 point to look carefully after his wells and springs, 
 and permit no possible source of contamination to 
 exist within a broad circle around the spot where 
 they are located. 
 
 Water and sunlight are the great agencies upon 
 which the farmer depends for the success of his 
 crops. What a vast amount of anxiety and de- 
 spondency is caused by these agencies, and yet, 
 they are among the greatest blessings vouchsafed 
 to the race. The excessive heats of summer will 
 parch our fields, and wring out from every tree and 
 shrub the last drop of moisture ; and the persistent 
 penetrating rains will drown our cereals, and soak 
 our fields until they are saturated like a sponge. 
 We can do something to mitigate the evils of ex- 
 cessive heat or drought, but we can do much to 
 avert those caused by water. We can drain our 
 soil, and thus carry away in hidden channels the 
 excess of water which, if allowed to remain, would 
 chill or suffocate every root, fibre, and tendril upon 
 which plant life depends. 
 
 It is hardly possible to dwell too earnestly upon a 
 subject of so much importance to farmers as under- 
 draining. In this country we are not sufficiently 
 awake to the great benefits which flow from it ; our 
 faith is not strong enough to lead to the adoption 
 of a system of land-drainage which would overcome
 
 172 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 one half the losses occasioned by late springs and 
 wet seasons, and which would bring into high tilth 
 thousands of acres now lying waste and valueless. 
 I have upon my farm tested the value of under- 
 drains, not only upon low lands, but upon high 
 lands. Two years ago I resolved to experiment 
 upon a hill or elevation thirty feet above my 
 meadow, and I placed in position tiles, so as to 
 afford a full and free outlet for the water which is 
 so lavishly poured upon us in the spring months. 
 Some of my farmer friends predicted the worst 
 possible consequences to the crop upon that field, 
 and confidently looked for wilted leaves upon the 
 corn stalks during the dry months of July and 
 August. But in this expectation they were disap- 
 pointed. No wilting came, although the heat was 
 fervid and the clouds gave no rain. The corn 
 planted the first year withstood the drought better 
 than the crops situated upon lower land, and very 
 much better than those upon other fields of equal 
 elevation. It was earlier in starting, grew more 
 vigorously, the product was heavier, and it was 
 harvested much sooner in the autumn than other 
 crops. The second year the same results were ob- 
 served in the growth and maturation of wheat, and 
 I have no doubt that the improvement is a perma- 
 nent one that in a series of years the cash value 
 of the improved crops will greatly outweigh the
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 173 
 
 expense incurred in draining. It is certain that 
 even our uplands can be greatly improved by drain- 
 age. What is the philosophy of such apparently 
 paradoxical experiments ? It is easily understood. 
 The first great benefit of course comes from convey- 
 ing away superfluous water at the season when the 
 seeds are placed in the soil. All soils, high or low, 
 are then filled with water struggling to escape by 
 percolation and evaporation, and the farmer must 
 wait until it slowly disappears before putting in his 
 seed. In this there is not only a loss of time, but 
 often it carries crops so late into autumn that early 
 frosts nip and destroy them. This form of benefit 
 is readily comprehended, but the inquiry comes up, 
 " If drains carry away the unnecessary water in 
 the spring, why will they not carry off the neces- 
 sary water of summer? Why do they not leach 
 the soil at the very time when every atom of 
 moisture is needed to feed the growing grains and 
 grasses ? " It may be said in reply, that drains are 
 incapable of removing water which is of service to 
 plants ; it is only when it is in excess and detrimen- 
 tal, that the work of removal goes on. They are 
 active only in wet summers upon elevated lands ; 
 their useful services only then come into play. In 
 dry summers they keep the dry soil moist. There 
 is in such seasons reversed action going on. In- 
 stead of water coming out, air is passing in, and as
 
 174 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 even the hottest air holds a vast amount of water, 
 it only needs to be brought in contact with refrig- 
 erating substances to produce a copious precipita- 
 tion of water. All of us have observed large drops 
 of water form upon and trickle down the sides of 
 our ice-pitchers in the hottest days of summer. 
 This water is condensed from the warm and ap- 
 parently dry air, which comes in contact with the 
 ice-cold surface of the vessel. This will illustrate 
 the way in which the soil is moistened through the 
 agency of drain pipes. The earth, at a distance 
 of one foot from the surface, is several degrees 
 cooler than the air above, and consequently when 
 it passes in through the open ducts, it parts with its 
 hidden moisture, and the vapor is diffused through 
 the soil. Water readily travels through burnt clay, 
 when unglazed. This we know from the fact that 
 if we build a water cistern of bricks, and omit to 
 cover the inside with hydraulic cement, the water 
 will run out as fast as it runs in. The best possible 
 water filter that can be devised is constructed by 
 building inside of a rain water cistern, lined with 
 cement, a brick chamber, which will rapidly fill 
 with water by passing through the bricks. In its 
 passage it is deprived of all impurities and becomes 
 pure and excellent suitable for all household pur- 
 poses. A pump passing into the chamber will 
 bring this pure water to the desired point above,
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 175 
 
 and the supply will prove abundant for all ordinary- 
 wants. This form of filtration will continue in 
 action for years. I have spoken of the device for a 
 twofold purpose : first, to call attention to a most 
 excellent and convenient way of filtering cistern 
 water, and second, to illustrate the method of ac- 
 tion of the ordinary drain tiles. The water passes 
 through the pores in the tiles, and drops are con- 
 stantly falling from the top arch and passing up 
 from the bottom, through the whole length of the 
 tubes, while resting in wet soils. The minute 
 orifices do not become obstructed as we naturally 
 suppose they would. I have known a brick filter- 
 ing chamber to supply pure water copiously for a 
 period of fifteen years, and doubtless they will con- 
 tinue in satisfactory action for fifty years. 
 
 There is a property in water which is of the 
 highest importance, as upon it all success in agricul- 
 ture depends. I allude to its solvent power, or its 
 capacity of taking up and holding in solution every 
 substance which enters into the constitution of 
 plants. This singular property is, as it were, the 
 pivot upon which the existence and welfare of 
 the race are poised. Take away from water this 
 power, and no greater disaster could result if the 
 dynamical forces of the universe were thrown into 
 disorder, and the centripetal and centrifugal motions 
 should cease altogether. The rain which falls upon
 
 176 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 the eartli is due to the condensation of aqueous 
 vapor previously existing in the atmosphere, and 
 which is supplied in great measure from the surface 
 of the sea, the area of the latter compared with 
 that of the land being very great, necessarily so 
 perhaps to furnish the requisite extent of evaporat- 
 ing surface. This water is, as is well known, 
 perfectly fresh and pure, the saline constituents of 
 the ocean having no sensible degree of volatility at 
 the temperature at which the vapor has been raised. 
 No sooner, however, does it reach the earth than 
 its solvent powers are brought into requisition, and 
 it becomes contaminated with or takes up a large 
 number of substances, which it holds in solution. 
 The waters of rivers and springs invariably contain 
 a greater or less amount of alkaline and earthy 
 salts, which have been washed out- of the earth by 
 percolating rains. In the water we daily use for 
 household purposes, and that which we furnish to 
 our animal's, are found considerable quantities of 
 these salts, together with numerous other sub- 
 stances. We are accustomed to regard these as 
 impurities, and they are such, strictly considered ; 
 but these very impurities are of vital consequence 
 to the living system. These matters exercise an 
 important influence upon the body in health and 
 disease, and if they were entirely absent, physical 
 weakness, and probably death, would ensue. It
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 177 
 
 has been proved by careful experiments upon men 
 and animals, that pure distilled water, so vapid and 
 disagreeable to the taste, cannot be allowed to take 
 the place of impure spring water, without produc- 
 ing emaciation and actual disease. These are very 
 curious and suggestive facts. There is a wonderful 
 provision in nature by which the solvent powers of 
 water are prevented from being injurious to the 
 race. It will be understood that water is capable 
 of dissolving many compounds of the elementary 
 bodies, which are poisonous or prejudicial in their 
 influence, as well as those which are harmless or 
 beneficial. Among the metals, almost the only 
 one the oxide of which is harmless to the living 
 body, is the metal iron. This is held in almost all 
 natural waters. If the oxides of copper or lead 
 were as constantly present in our springs, lakes, 
 and rivers, as iron, our earth would be uninhabit- 
 able. The daily absorption into the system of mi- 
 nute quantities of metallic poisons is known to be 
 followed by consequences of a fearful kind. Why 
 are not these poisonous salts present in our natural 
 waters ? It is not owing to their insolubility, but 
 to the fact that they are very sparingly diffused 
 through the earth ; they are not present in most 
 soils. Iron is everywhere ; copper, lead, arsenic, 
 nickel, etc., are confined to specific localities, and 
 are away from the great centres of population.
 
 178 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 Lime is a very abundant product in nature, and the 
 water in some sections is chai'ged with it, generally 
 in the form of a carbonate. If another carbonate 
 the carbonate of baryta were as common, an- 
 imated life would fall before its deadly influence. 
 Thus we see the hand of a kind Providence man- 
 ifested in all the provisions of nature. The con- 
 sideration of poisonous substances held in water 
 suggests the importance of not doing violence to 
 ourselves, by bringing the deleterious metals, which 
 nature has so wisely placed in remote localities, in 
 contact with water designed for culinary employ- 
 ment. This we are very liable to do, in the use 
 of leaden service pipes. More of the obscure and 
 painful diseases which come under the notice of 
 physicians are due to lead-impregnated water than 
 is generally supposed. Many of these instances 
 are found in the families of farmers, for unfor- 
 tunately the innovations of fashion and modern im- 
 provements have led to the banishment of the old 
 well- sweep and curb, and the copper pump and 
 leaden service pipe have taken their place. It 
 should be understood by farmers and stock raisers 
 that it is not the members of the household alone 
 that suffer from lead- impregnated water ; the ani- 
 mals, the cows, the oxen, and the horses, are just as 
 susceptible to its deadly influence as human beings. 
 I have frequently found in my observation in the
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 179 
 
 country, that the stock upon farms was furnished 
 with water conveyed through lead pipes from lakes 
 and mountain springs, while the family with com- 
 mendable caution drew their supplies from other 
 and safer sources. Many a fine animal has been 
 lost to its owner through the agency of lead poison, 
 and I trust the hint given will not pass unheeded. 
 Iron pipes for the conveyance of water are cheap 
 and safe under all possible conditions, and if those 
 of the capacity of one or two inches are used, they 
 will not soon become obstructed with rust. Never 
 employ what is known as " galvanized " iron pipe, 
 as it is exceedingly dangerous during the first two 
 or three months of service. The superficial cover- 
 ing of zinc upon its surface is rapidly decomposed, 
 and the carbonate and oxide are held in solution or 
 suspension in the water. The salts are hurtful and 
 must not be allowed to mingle with the food and 
 drink. 
 
 The vast importance of the solvent power of 
 water will be appreciated when it is understood 
 that it is due to this that all plant structures are 
 able to grow. The aqueous fluid which slowly but 
 constantly during the life of the plant creeps up 
 from the roots, passing through every microscopic 
 cell 'and fibre, carries along in its current the little 
 atoms of inorganic substances which are so essential 
 to its development. The stream floats not only a
 
 180 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 great variety of common and well known elements 
 and compounds, but also, in the case of many 
 plants, some of the most rare and curious of which 
 science has any knowledge. Potash, lime, nitro- 
 gen, phosphorus, and silica are almost universally 
 found in the sap and substance of plants, and these 
 are the elements which the farmer is desirous of 
 placing in the soil, so that the water may dissolve 
 and convey them in ample abundance to vegetable 
 structures. These are the great essentials, so far 
 as the supply is connected with the agency of 
 water, and they are in a measure accessible, but 
 there are other bodies of the highest importance 
 which it is impossible to furnish. We can supply 
 in a large measure the nitrogenous and other ele- 
 ments which are common to the cereal grains, but 
 we cannot in the case of many of the esculent veg- 
 etables. It is certainly remarkable that the com- 
 mon garden beet demands from the water of its 
 circulation one of the rarest of all minerals, rubid- 
 ium. This metal has only recently been made 
 known to us, through the agency of that marvellous 
 optical instrument, the spectroscope. When and 
 how the water finds and takes up this strange 
 metal, is a problem we are wholly unable to solve. 
 By spectroscopic analysis we are able to detect the 
 thirty thousandth part of a grain of the chloride of 
 the metal ; yet it is so sparsely disseminated that
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 181 
 
 even this delicate test fails to give any signs of its 
 presence in soils upon which the beet root flour- 
 ishes. The growth of the root demands it, and 
 water by some subtle instinct hunts it from the soil 
 and supplies it in the needed quantity. Tobacco is 
 one of the most extraordinary plants which spring 
 from the soil. In its ash is found a class of rare 
 and complex bodies which it has abstracted there- 
 from, and which are not found in any other veg- 
 etable structure. Also, it is a great plunderer of 
 the soil, in respect to those substances which are 
 supplied to it through the ordinary fertilizing agents. 
 The amount of mineral constituents which it carries 
 off can be judged of by carefully examining the 
 ash upon the end of a smoker's cigar. Every 100 
 Ibs. of the dried leaves which the soil produces rob 
 it of at least twenty pounds of its most valuable 
 mineral atoms. This vast amount of mineral the 
 plant pumps vip, while held in solution by water. 
 To this plant, potash is what pie or cake is to the 
 schoolboy ; it evidently loves it, and consumes it 
 in prodigious quantities. Five per cent, of the 
 dried leaves are composed of this alkali. A bushel 
 of ashes, such as the smoker so carelessly and 
 wastefully brushes from the end of his cigar, would, 
 if leached and the lye formed into soap, make 
 enough to answer the purpose of a small family for 
 a year. The new and rare element, lithium, is
 
 182 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 found in the tobacco plant, and although the spec- 
 troscope will detect in any substance a quantity so 
 infinitesimally small as the six millionth part of a 
 grain, yet it is hardly revealed in soils in which the 
 plant flourishes. These facts open up subjects of 
 thought so interesting and instructive that it is 
 hazardous to enter upon their consideration in the 
 limits of a brief essay. I have only drawn a mere 
 outline of some of the important relations of water 
 to agriculture. It is a subject of almost limitless 
 extent, and may be studied with profit by every 
 cultivator of the soil. 
 
 Before closing may I be permitted to ask and 
 to answer the question, What is water ? I suppose 
 some of my readers are ready to make the Dog- 
 berry-like reply, " Water, sir, is water." That 
 certainly reaches the point by a very short cut, but 
 to the thinking, inquiring man it is not quite satis- 
 factory. Let us answer the question from the 
 standpoint of the chemist. Water is rust. The 
 red powder that falls from iron which has long 
 been subjected to the action of moisture is rust of 
 iron. It is the oxide of a metal, and so is water. 
 Water is the rust of hydrogenium, a true metal. 
 This wonderful element no human eyes have ever 
 looked upon, and probably never will, as in its 
 free state it exists only in the form of an invis- 
 ible gas. Quite recently, science has demonstrated
 
 WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 183 
 
 experimentally, what has long been suspected, that 
 hydrogen gas is a metal, and capable of assuming 
 a solid form in alloys. Oxygen, by uniting with 
 this gaseous metal, rusts, oxidizes, or burns it, and 
 water is the rust or ashes. This strange metal, 
 hydrogenium, and its oxide, play an important part 
 in all the operations of nature. It is not alone con- 
 fined to the little ball of earth upon which we live, 
 but it exists in the stellar worlds above us, and in 
 those misty points of light, the nebulae, which have 
 so long puzzled and perplexed the astronomer and 
 men versed in the physical sciences. The recent 
 discoveries by means of the spectroscope have 
 proved that this element enters largely into the 
 unformed, chaotic masses of matter, moving in 
 space, of which the worlds are made. It is ready, 
 when the formative act is fully accomplished, of 
 taking its place in combination with oxygen, as 
 water, to aid in the sustentation of animal and 
 vegetable life upon spheres so far distant that our 
 imagination even cannot reach them. 
 
 The distant worlds cannot pass from the hand of 
 the Supreme Architect, and be permitted to act 
 under fixed laws, corresponding with those of our 
 planet, until the combustion of the hydrogen which 
 envelops them has taken place, from which are 
 formed oceans and lakes and rivers. We have 
 reason to believe, indeed we have demonstrations
 
 184 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 and facts to prove, that this is constantly taking 
 place, and that by the agency of fire new worlds 
 are being constantly fitted up on the outermost 
 bounds of space, and made ready probably for the 
 residence of beings like ourselves. Among the 
 stars which have been observed to be on fire, one 
 in the constellation of the Northern Crown, a few 
 years ago, attracted much attention. This very 
 small star, in May 1866, suddenly blazed out and 
 attained a magnitude almost equal to the largest 
 stars seen in the heavens. The spectroscope 
 proved that the light emitted was that which pro- 
 ceeds from burning hydrogen, and consequently 
 water must be the product. This sublime, this 
 awful conflagration, which involved a world much 
 larger than our own, was completed in twelve days, 
 and at the end of that time the star had dwindled 
 and faded away from the second down to the eighth 
 magnitude. I venture to introduce these observa- 
 tions regarding the probable origin of water, be- 
 cause of the intense interest which now invests the 
 subject, and also to call attention to one of the most 
 important and wonderful instruments for scientific 
 research which human ingenuity has ever devised. 
 I allude to the spectroscope. However humble 
 our occupation, or however incompatible with study 
 and research may be our pursuits, we cannot fail to 
 reap the great practical benefits which must flow to
 
 WATER JN AGRICULTURE. 185 
 
 us from the labors of thinkers and experimenters, 
 who in the quiet of the study, or amid the dim 
 gases of the laboratory, are extorting from nature 
 her wonderful secrets. As agriculturists, as tillers 
 of the soil, we cannot withhold respect from our 
 scientific investigators ; and it will certainly be our 
 fault if our minds and hearts are not improved, and 
 our material interests advanced by the result of 
 their labors. We ourselves must learn to secure a 
 deeper insight into the mysteries connected with 
 our calling, and from the sunshine that is poured 
 upon our fields, the gentle dews that distil upon 
 our grasses, and the drops of rain that gladden and 
 fructify every green thing upon the earth, we must 
 evoke those hidden laws and mysteries, a knowl- 
 edge of which will guide and aid us in all our un- 
 dertakings.
 
 THE SKIN AND BATHING. 
 
 "PHYSIOLOGICALLY considered, it would 
 seem almost impossible to overestimate the 
 importance of the functions of the skin. Consider 
 for a moment the complex apparatus by which 
 these functions are carried on, and the enormous 
 amount of work accomplished through it. If the 
 reader will examine his hand with a simple jewel- 
 ler's lens, or with any of the cheap pocket micro- 
 scopes, he will notice that there are delicate grooves 
 crossing the furrows, and that a small orifice exists 
 in the centre of each of them. Some of these ori- 
 fices occupy nearly the whole of the groove, and 
 are the openings of the perspiratory ducts, from 
 which may be seen to issue, when the hand is 
 warm, minute shining dots of perspiratory matter. 
 
 But perspiration is not held in the body as water 
 is held in a sponge, which can be squeezed out by 
 pressure or by throwing it about ; neither does it 
 exist ready formed within us, as are the juices in 
 apples and oranges. Upon the under surface of 
 the true skin there are a multitude of little cavities, 
 and in them are minute glands, which resemble 
 ravelled tubes, formed of basement membrane and
 
 THE SKIN AND BATHING. 187 
 
 epithelial scales, with true secreting surfaces. It is 
 the work of these little organs to receive the im- 
 pure blood which is constantly brought to them 
 through a network of arteries, and purify it ; and 
 to thrust out of the system the waste or offensive 
 matter which is separated from it. These impuri- 
 ties come along in the blood, and are cast out 
 through the perspiratory ducts while dissolved in 
 that medium. After the blood is thus cleansed, 
 another set of vessels are ready at hand to carry it 
 back into the interior of the body, to become again 
 and again loaded with impurities, which the little 
 glands are tireless in extracting and removing. 
 What organs in the human body subserve higher 
 or more vital purposes than these ? Does the liver 
 or the stomach, or do the kidneys or the lungs, 
 stand in more intimate relation with life than these 
 little glands ? We think not. Their size varies in 
 different parts of the body. In the palm of the 
 hand they are from l-1000th to l-2000th of an 
 inch in diameter, while in the arm-pits they are 
 l-60th of an inch. The length of the tube which 
 constitutes both gland and duct, is about a quarter 
 of an inch, and the diameter is about l-1700th of. 
 an inch. It is a curious fact that the ducts, while 
 traversing the true skin, are perfectly straight ; but 
 as soon as they enter the tough scarf-skin, they be- 
 come spiral, and resemble a cork-screw, so that the
 
 188 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 perspiration is propelled around the tube several 
 times before it is ejected. Now, we are talking 
 about small things ; but so long as we confine our 
 descriptions to a single duct, we utterly fail to real- 
 ize their minuteness. Let us look at them collec- 
 tively. On every square inch' of the palm of your 
 hand, reader, there are at least 3,500 of these per- 
 spiratory ducts. Each one of them being one 
 quarter of an inch long, we readily see that every 
 square inch of skin surface on this part of the body 
 has 73 feet of tubing, through which moisture and 
 effete matter are constantly passing, night and day. 
 The ducts, however, are shorter elsewhere ; and it 
 will be fair to estimate 60 feet as the average 
 length of the ducts for each square inch of the 
 body. This estimate (reckoning 2,500 square inches 
 of surface for a person of ordinary size) gives for 
 these ducts an aggregate length of 28 miles. 
 
 The amount of liquid matter which passes 
 through these microscopical tubes in twenty-four 
 hours, in an adult person of sound health, is about 
 sixteen fluid ounces, or one pint. One ounce of 
 the sixteen is solid matter, made up of organic and 
 inorganic substances which, if allowed to remain in 
 the system for a brief space of time, would cause 
 death. The rest is water. Beside the water and 
 solid matter, a large amount of carbonic acid, a 
 gaseous body, passes through the tubes ; so we can-
 
 THE SKIN AND BATHING. 189 
 
 not fail to understand that they are active workers, 
 and also we cannot fail to see the importance of 
 keeping them in perfect working order, removing 
 obstructions by frequent application of water, or by 
 some other means. Suppose we obstruct the func- 
 tions of the skin perfectly, by varnishing a person 
 completely with a compound impervious to moist- 
 ure. How long will he live ? Not over six hours. 
 The experiment was once tried on a child at Flor- 
 ence. Pope Leo the Tenth, on the occasion of his 
 accession to the papal chair, wished to have a living 
 figure to represent the Golden Age, and so he 
 gilded a poor child all over with varnish and gold 
 leaf. The child died in a few hours. If the fur 
 of a rabbit or the skin of a pig be covered with a 
 solution of india-rubber in naphtha, the animal 
 ceases to breathe in a couple of hours. These 
 statements are presented in order that we may ob- 
 tain some idea of the importance of the functions 
 of the skin. We have, however, only spoken of 
 one of its offices, that of aeration of the blood ; to 
 present the matter fully, we should speak of absorp- 
 tion., a matter of less moment, though very im- 
 portant. But we must pass this, and consider 
 briefly the subject of bathing in some of its sani- 
 tary aspects. 
 
 If from any cause the orifices of the perspiratory 
 ducts become partially obstructed or closed, the 
 whole system suffers the most serious derange-
 
 190 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ments. Those important secretory organs, the 
 liver and kidneys, become greatly embarrassed with 
 additional burdens thrown upon them, and a gen- 
 eral feverishness pervades the body. This is dis- 
 ease, and the cause of it must be removed, either 
 by bathing the entire surface with water, or by ex- 
 citing the little glands to unusual activity so as to 
 force a passage through the obstructions. If one 
 pint of liquid material, containing one ounce of 
 solid excreta, is thrown out upon the surface of the 
 body and into the clothing every day, it is evident 
 that some care is needed to keep the body .clean 
 and the ducts in working condition. In civilized 
 society, this need is recognized, and frequent bath- 
 ing is resorted to by large numbers of both sexes. 
 The question, " How often should the body of 
 persons in health be bathed ? " is an important one, 
 'and great difference of opinion exists with regard 
 to it. There is no doubt, however, that bathing, 
 like all other good things, may be abused, and the 
 good we seek from it changed into evil. Many 
 people have been injured by too frequent bathing. 
 As a rule, we regard once a week as often enough 
 for all purposes of cleanliness in persons of seden- 
 tary habits, and once in two weeks for those who 
 are engaged in more active in-door pursuits. For 
 those who are at work in the open air, like farmers 
 and some mechanics, the health does not seem to 
 suffer if bathing is resorted to only at quite long
 
 THE SKIN AND BATHING. 191 
 
 internals, or not oftener than once or twice during 
 the year. A frequent change of the inner gar- 
 ments is of the highest consequence to all persons, 
 and also the thorough airing and changing of bed- 
 clothing. Consider, in the light of the facts we 
 have stated, how uncleanly and injurious is the 
 habit of wearing flannels or underclothing for sev- 
 eral consecutive weeks without washing, as very 
 many do. Seven pints of impure liquid, in the 
 form of vapor, pass into the clothing every week 
 from the skin, and half a pound of solid matter ac- 
 companies it. Much of this becomes entangled in 
 the fabric, and remains there, a source of impurity, 
 until removed by the labors of the laundress. 
 
 Regular bathing, so far as the people of this 
 country are concerned, is certainly a habit of quite 
 modern adoption. The fathers and mothers, and 
 grandfathers and grandmothers, of those who have 
 reached middle life, seldom or never bathed, except 
 in the warm months of summer. Their dwellings 
 afforded no conveniences for the act, if they felt 
 the need of performing it. As a general thing, the 
 health was unaffected by this omission. Why was 
 this ? Because of their occupations and their 
 methods of living. They were active workers, 
 they wore but a small amount of clothing, they 
 lived much in the open air, and their dwellings 
 were without stove and furnace heat. If any one 
 in these days will exercise in the open air, so that
 
 192 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 each day he will perspire moderately, and if he 
 will wear thin under-garments, or none at all, and 
 sleep in a cold room, the functions of the skin will 
 suffer little or no impediment if water is withheld 
 for months. Indeed, bathing is not the only way 
 in which its healthful action can be maintained by 
 those living under the conditions at present exist- 
 ing. Dry friction over the whole surface of the 
 body, once a day, or once in two days, is often of 
 more service than the application of water. The 
 reply of the centenarian to the inquiry, to what 
 habit of life he attributed his good health and ex- 
 treme longevity, that he believed it due to " rub- 
 bing himself all over with a cob every night," is 
 significant of an important truth. 
 
 If invalids and persons of low vitality would use 
 dry friction and Dr. Franklin's " air-bath " every 
 day for a considerable period, we are confident 
 they would often be greatly benefited. Cleanli- 
 ness is next to godliness, no doubt, and a proper 
 and judicious use of water is to be commended ; 
 but human beings are not amphibious. Nature 
 indicates that the functions of the skin should be 
 kept in order mainly by muscular exercise, by ex- 
 citing natural perspiration by labor; and delicious 
 as is the bath, and healthful, under proper regula- 
 tions, it is no substitute for that exercise of the 
 body without which all the functions become ab- 
 normal.
 
 DIAMONDS AND DIAMOND CUTTING. 
 
 TTNTIL within a period of one hundred and fifty 
 ^ years, the East Indies furnished all the dia- 
 monds found in the markets of the world. In Hin- 
 dostan and Borneo the precious gems were found 
 in detached crystals, accompanied with grains of 
 gold, amongst metallic sand washed down from the 
 mountains. When the poor miner who wandered 
 into the mountainous districts of Brazil in pursuit 
 of gold accidentally stumbled upon the famous dia- 
 mond mines of that country, the whole world was 
 filled with excitement, and the number of miners 
 who crowded thither was very great. The quan- 
 tity of gems of the very first water obtained from 
 these mines was sufficient to keep the gay and lux- 
 urious courts of France and Spain in a blaze of light, 
 as the noble ladies of the time adorned their persons 
 with them. The region of country in Brazil in 
 which diamonds are found is extremely limited. 
 The district of Minas Geraes extends only about 
 eighty miles north and south, and eight from east 
 to west. The character of. the earth is an agglom- 
 erate, formed by the decomposition of granite and 
 mica slate, and is made up of rounded white pebbles 
 
 13
 
 194 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 and light-colored sand ; in this mixture the dia- 
 monds are found along with grains of gold, some- 
 times crystallized. It is curious that the nature of 
 the earth and the deposits corresponds with that of 
 Hindostan and Borneo where diamonds exist. No 
 one knows how a diamond is produced, or where 
 its natural home is. If its original position is a 
 rocky matrix, as is suspected, it is certain no one 
 has ever seen it. The chemist or mineralogist who 
 will furnish a diamond involved in its primitive 
 home, will certainly shed light upon an interesting 
 scientific problem, and render his name famous. 
 The mountains which supply the debris that hold 
 the gems are composed of. schistose rocks, inter- 
 mixed with quartz, sandstone, brescia, flinty slate, 
 limestone, etc. The limestone brescia is the only 
 rock in which diamonds are found in the mountains, 
 and this comprises all we know regarding their 
 original position. By what subtle chemical pro- 
 cesses the brilliants have been formed, at some 
 time in the course of those stupendous changes to 
 which our planet has been subjected, we have no 
 knowledge. Undoubtedly fire, water, gases, press- 
 ure, etc., have all been concerned in the synthet- 
 ical work. Chemists have not yet been able to man- 
 ufacture colorless gems, and it is doubtful if the 
 process is ever understood. In an industrial view, 
 the problem has but little practical importance.
 
 DIAMONDS AND DIAMOND CUTTING. 195 
 
 There is no city or town in the United States 
 where the difficult and interesting process of dia- 
 mond cutting is carried on but in Boston. In com- 
 pany with Mr. Henry D. Morse, the originator of 
 this peculiar manufacture, we visited the factory 
 where the work is done, and the hour spent in in- 
 specting the process was full of interest. Diamond 
 cutting has been for years monopolized by Holland, 
 and in the city of Amsterdam some two thousand 
 men are constantly employed in the industry. 
 With the long experience, however, of these work- 
 men, some of the finest stones are very unskilfully 
 cut, and those brought to this country have been 
 placed in the hands of Mr. Morse to be recut and 
 perfected. 
 
 The machinery employed in Holland for polish- 
 ing is ponderous and heavy, the framework holding 
 the wheels being braced and wedged, like the run- 
 ning gear of a country saw-mill. In the establish- 
 ment in this city a small iron-top table is used, with 
 solid iron supports and double bearings, so that the 
 polishing wheel,"being fixed in the centre, revolves 
 horizontally on a level with the surface of the table. 
 By this ingenious device, the work of Mr. Morse, 
 perfect steadiness is secured, and without the clumsy 
 machinery of the Dutch manipulators a greater de- 
 gree of accuracy is obtained. 
 
 To cut a diamond is to form its surfaces so that
 
 196 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 light, in passing through, is refracted in a way to 
 produce a maximum of brilliancy. The rough gems 
 are quite dull or lustreless, and it requires consum- 
 mate skill in cutting and polishing to secure the ac- 
 curacy of angular proportion in the faces necessary 
 to perfect results. There must be principal planes 
 or faces, and around them a considerable number of 
 smaller ones, all placed at correct angles, so that, 
 by refraction, a blaze of light, every ray in harmony, 
 may be the result. The skill of the operator is 
 shown in his ability to bring out the whole power of 
 a stone. 
 
 The diamond is the hardest of known substances, 
 and hence the inquiry will naturally arise, " How is 
 it possible to produce mechanical effects upon a sub- 
 stance so refractory ?" "Diamond cut diamond" 
 is an old adage, and it has a practical illustration in 
 the factory. The dust of the gem is employed to 
 wear away the surface of those undergoing the pro- 
 cess of polishing, and this is obtained by grinding 
 worthless particles in a steel mortar, and also the 
 minute fragments obtained in the progress of the 
 work are saved for the purpose. But these two 
 sources of supply do not afford sufficient material to 
 meet the wants of the industry, and consequently a 
 substance found in association with diamond, and 
 possessing equal hardness, is to a large extent 
 employed. This pebble, which has no value as a
 
 DIAMONDS AND DIAMOND CUTTING. 197 
 
 light refractor, is pure carbon, like the diamond, 
 but it is not perfectly, crystalline. It is semi-amor- 
 phous in structure ; and if it was not used for its 
 mechanical value, it would be as worthless as a bit 
 of charcoal. It is now worth in the market about 
 six dollars a pennyweight. 
 
 When two diamonds are rubbed together they 
 are mutually abraded or worn away, and hence if 
 we have a valuable one which we wish to cut, to 
 develop its brilliancy, we have only to select another 
 which by its shape is worthless, and bring this to 
 bear mechanically upon the other, and the work 
 goes on. The worthless diamond may be called 
 the tool with which the cutter elaborates the valued 
 gem. Each is placed in cement, conically heaped 
 at one end of two sticks of convenient handling size. 
 The cutter is so placed in soft cement that its cut- 
 ting angle can be employed to the best advantage 
 upon the clear stone, which is similarly adjusted 
 to present the surface to be abraded. After the 
 cement has hardened, the workman grasps the stick, 
 holding the cutting diamond in his right hand and 
 that with the gem in his left, and the stones are 
 brought together over a double metallic box, the 
 "inner section of which is provided with a perforated 
 bottom, being half the depth of the outer, into 
 which it closely fits. The particles which become 
 detached from both stones fall into the inner box,
 
 198 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 the smaller passing through the orifice, to the bot- 
 tom, being fine enough to perform their functions 
 on the polishing wheel. The coarser grains are 
 afterwards, as we have stated, powdered in a steel 
 mortar. Diamond cutting is slow and tedious work, 
 and requires the utmost care and skill to accomplish 
 the process successfully. In the Boston factory, 
 the labor is done under the eye or immediate super- 
 vision of Mr. Morse, who originated the industry, 
 and who devised and constructed the machinery. 
 
 The diamond has a grain or cleavage plane, the 
 same as most mineral or crystalline substances, and 
 hence it is possible to split or divide one into two 
 or more parts. Sometimes a large piece is removed 
 at once from a gem by splitting, but it is a process 
 attended with much risk. To accomplish this after 
 the stone is carefully studied and its line of cleavage 
 ascertained, it is placed in hardened cement, in the 
 proper position, and the sharp edge of a steel chisel 
 resembling a razor is carefully adjusted so that the 
 division will be at the points desired, and a smart 
 rap with a hammer is given it. Perhaps no more 
 costly blow may be struck in any mechanical work 
 than this, for in manipulating a large diamond, if it 
 is unskilfully given, a gem of several thousand dol- 
 lars' value may be spoiled. 
 
 After a diamond is cut, the work of polishing 
 commences, and it is in this department that the
 
 DIAMONDS AND DIAMOND CUTTING. 199 
 
 American machinery is seen to be superior to the 
 Dutch. This we have already described. The 
 gem is adjusted in soft lead heaped conically in a 
 copper cup, ten times the capacity of those used 
 upon the cement sticks in cutting. The surface of 
 the wheel is charged with diamond dust mixed with 
 oil to the consistency of thin paste. The stone and 
 wheel thus arranged, the latter is made to revolve 
 at the rate of fifteen hundred revolutions a minute, 
 and the stone, placed in a heavy iron clamp, is in- 
 verted upon the wheel. Nothing but the diamond 
 touches the wheel, it being pressed down by the 
 weight of the iron clamp. A rather musical tone is 
 produced by the contact, which shows that the 
 wheel is doing its work, and that now a bright sur- 
 face will be produced upon the " table " exposed to 
 its action. When this is satisfactory, the operator 
 melts the lead, releases the gem, and readjusts it so 
 as to polish another of the faces, and in this way the 
 process goes on until the work is completed. To 
 attain this, however, the tables and faces are many 
 times exposed to the wheel, and it is not until the 
 most careful measurements and experiments are 
 made that the gem is pronounced satisfactory. Mr. 
 Morse has been intrusted with the manipulation of 
 some of the most costly diamonds ever brought to 
 this country, and in no instance have his labors re- 
 sulted in loss or failure, a circumstance which re- 
 flects much credit upon his ingenuity and skill.
 
 200 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The importation of African diamonds has but just 
 commenced, but doubtless large quantities from the 
 new mines will flow towards this country, as we are 
 large purchasers of the " brilliants." The market 
 in the United States will not put up with anything 
 but the best. We do not purchase the largest, but 
 the choicest which are produced in all parts of the 
 world. Stones of from one to five carats are always 
 in good demand here ; above that, purchasers are 
 scarce. A seven or ten carat diamond is worth 
 from 16,000 to $10,000, and the number of those 
 who are willing to invest that sum in a single stone 
 is limited. Sporting men, who keep gambling 
 saloons, and drive fast horses, wear the largest and 
 most costly gems ; and when we notice an unusu- 
 ally large and brilliant one upon the person of a 
 stranger, we instinctively regard him as belonging 
 to the sporting fraternity. 
 
 In what is known as the " shoddy " era, during 
 the war, when petroleum and war contracts ele- 
 vated men suddenly from poverty to great affluence, 
 large diamonds were in demand, and there were 
 not enough of these in the country to meet it. The 
 price of diamonds of one carat ranges from $165 to 
 $175, but there are some " unexceptionable " ones 
 in the market which command . a higher price. 
 Most of those who visit jewellers' stores for the pur- 
 pose of purchasing diamonds have no knowledge of
 
 DIAMONDS AND DIAMOND CUTTING. 201 
 
 the nature of the gems they seek. They do not 
 know that a diamond, like a horse or an oil painting, 
 is sold for its excellence or beauty. If a diamond is 
 " off color;" or even has slight flaws, they do not 
 detect the faults. If diamonds are sought, it is im- 
 portant that they should be purchased of honest 
 parties, and those who by experience are fully ac- 
 quainted with their character and value. 
 
 It is certainly singular, that with the immensely 
 increased production the gems continue to increase 
 in price from year to year. The recent convulsions 
 in Europe, and our late civil war, in which thou- 
 sands of diamond owners were reduced to penury, 
 did not result, as one would suppose, in throwing 
 upon the market large quantities of diamonds. It 
 is probable a few changed hands, but not enough to 
 influence the price in the slightest degree. Large 
 numbers of the diamonds which have been dug from 
 the earth in the last two thousand years have been 
 hoarded, and are not often brought to the light. 
 They are left to dazzle unseen, in caskets and steel 
 safes, where they are almost forgotten. A dia- 
 mond worth 30,000, or 1150,000, has recently 
 been found in the African mines, and several others 
 of a size and brilliancy which render them nearly 
 as valuable are reported. It is highly probable that 
 diamonds in considerable quantities will be found in 
 the United States at no distant day. In the moun-
 
 202 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 tains of South Carolina and Georgia, where gold 
 exists, there are geological strata which present 
 striking analogies to those of Brazil, Africa, and 
 Australia where diamonds are found in abundance. 
 A few have already been picked up in those locali- 
 ties, and also in California.
 
 AMONG THE COAL MINERS. 
 
 HHHERE is no more picturesque or interesting 
 region of country in the United States than 
 that in which are found the anthracite coal-beds of 
 Pennsylvania. In many respects it is more attrac- 
 tive than the mountain regions of New Hampshire, 
 or the Adirondacks of New York, and it is equally 
 accessible. Upon entering this section from New 
 York, by way of the New Jersey Central Railroad, 
 the first remarkable point reached is the town of 
 Mauch Chunk, a name which few dare attempt to 
 pronounce without first taking lessons in the feat 
 from some one of the residents of the place. Cor- 
 rectly interpreted, it means " Bear Mountain," an 
 Indian name for a lofty peak ascending from the 
 valley. Mauch Chunk lies in a narrow gorge be- 
 tween and among high hills or mountains. This 
 gorge is quite narrow, and the scenery is wild and 
 grand. The little Lehigh River, arrested in its 
 course by dams, canal locks, and rocks, foams and 
 frets on its way through the defile, and the scream 
 of steam whistles, the rumbling of innumerable 
 trains of cars, and the shouts of boatmen, make up 
 a chorus of noises, day and night, altogether unus-
 
 204 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ual. The town is so wedged in by the hills that 
 only one narrow street is practicable, and the whole 
 space is taken up by the walled river, the canal, 
 railroads, street, and line of houses. No place on 
 earth presents so many interesting and wonderful 
 points connected with the coal interests, as Mauch 
 Chunk. Standing upon the balcony of the hotel, 
 and looking out upon the mountains, they seem to 
 be alive with long trains of coal cars. These are 
 not confined to the valley, but are seen far up the 
 sides of the mountains, and upon their very tops, 
 at an altitude of twelve and fifteen hundred feet. 
 They shoot along, looking like huge serpents, wind- 
 ing around among rocks and trees, and by deep 
 chasms, and over trestle-work supports, carrying 
 their heavy loads of black diamonds to the waiting 
 cars and boats below. The trains not only run 
 along upon horizontal pathways, but up and down 
 the mountains, upon inclines which seem almost 
 perpendicular. At the highest points are huge sta- 
 tionary engines which draw up the long trains of 
 empty cars with the greatest despatch. 
 
 The starting-point of what is known as the 
 " Switch Back " railroad, is at Mauch Chunk, and 
 a most unique and wonderful road it is. It was not 
 designed for passenger travel, but solely for the 
 conveyance of coal from the mountain mines, about 
 nine miles from the town. An enterprising gen-
 
 AMONG THE COAL MINERS. 205 
 
 tleman some time ago obtained permission of the 
 owners to run an excursion train over the road 
 twice a day ; and parties are now taken over the 
 route in comfortable little cars, without locomotives 
 or driving power of any kind. To reach the road 
 proper, it is necessary to ascend to the top of 
 Mount Pisgah, a precipitous dome in front of the 
 hotel upon the opposite side of the river, and about 
 thirteen hundred feet high. We take an omnibus, 
 which carries us up four hundred feet to a niche 
 in the mountain, and here stepping into the car we 
 are drawn up at an angle of forty-five degrees 
 to the top of Pisgah, nine hundred feet higher. 
 On the very apex of the mountain the stationary 
 engine is placed, with two huge smoking chimneys, 
 which give to the mountain the appearance of a 
 volcano. We started from this elevation on one 
 of the loveliest mornings in June, to make the 
 circuit of the " Switch Back," or what is sometimes 
 more properly called the " Gravity Road," and 
 this carries us over an extent of twenty-five miles 
 upon the tops and sides of mountain ranges. Our 
 first stage is down a gentle decline of nine miles to 
 the foot of Mount Jefferson, up which we are 
 drawn by another stationary engine. The way is 
 now a downward grade until we reach Summit 
 Hill, when we descend rapidly into the valley, 
 where most of the coal mines in working condition
 
 206 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 are found. This is a sequestered, romantic place, 
 apparently as far out of the world as any one would 
 ever desire to visit. The great coal breakers are 
 upon the right hand and the left ; and dark, yawn- 
 ing pits, the entrances to the subterranean passages 
 traversed by the coal diggers, are seen in every 
 direction. Mountains of coal dust, the refuse of 
 the breakers, project into the valley, and give a 
 sombre hue to everything. Even the leaves upon 
 the trees become darkened by the coal dust ; and 
 black, turbid streams wind around among the rocks, 
 seeming anxious to escape from the dingy caverns 
 in which they originate. From the " slopes " or 
 entrances to the mines, mule teams attached to 
 trains of cars, loaded with coal, are constantly 
 emerging ; and the drivers in charge, with oil 
 lamps affixed to their caps, and begrimed with the 
 sooty powder, seem like mountain imps who have 
 no business with daylight or the outside world. 
 
 Before proceeding to speak further of mines and 
 coal mining, let us return to the road by which we 
 came into this region. Shortly after leaving the 
 valley, another mountain opens before us with its 
 smoking chimneys at the apex, and up this we are 
 drawn at a rapid rate. From this high point our 
 return route commences, and we run over the 
 track at a fearful speed until we reach the town of 
 Summit, the home of the miners, which has a
 
 AMONG THE COAL MINERS. 207 
 
 church, school-houses, and barracks for troops, as 
 it has been found necessary in turbulent times to 
 quarter a regiment of soldiers at this point to pre- 
 serve order. The track the whole way is a down 
 grade, and an hour's ride brings us back to the 
 base of Pisgah, our starting-point. During the ride 
 of twenty-five miles we have been seated in our 
 little car by the side of the conductor, whose sole 
 business has been to keep his hands upon an iron 
 wheel which controls the brakes, and governs our 
 rate of speed. We look out of the open door in 
 front, and our view is unobstructed by engine or 
 tender, for we travel independent of both ; no 
 smoke, gas, or steam whistle annoys us, and we rush 
 along, propelled by an unseen power, a force which 
 is potent, but inexplicable. It is impossible to 
 realize the true nature of the track, for the descent 
 is very gradual, and it appears like an ordinary 
 level road, high up among the clouds. We pre- 
 sume the excursion is not peculiarly hazardous ; 
 but it must be confessed it seems so, at least during 
 the first half dozen miles of travel ; we could not 
 learn that any serious accidents had occurred dur- 
 ing the time the road has been open to excursion- 
 ists, and it is probable that every precaution has 
 been and will be used to prevent them. This rail- 
 road in many respects is -as wonderful as that 
 constructed up the bare side of Mount Washington,
 
 208 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 and even more interesting. The steep declivities 
 are, however, surmounted by the aid of stationary 
 engines at the tops, whilst tne cars on the Mount 
 Washington road are accompanied by the unique 
 little locomotive, which lifts with its arms of iron 
 behind, and forces the train up the almost perpen- 
 dicular rock to a height of nearly seven thousand 
 feet. We can never cease to wonder at and admire 
 such triumphs of mechanical and engineering skill. 
 
 A hunter named Ginter first discovered anthra- 
 cite coal in this region, eighty years ago ; but he 
 did not understand its nature, and it was called 
 " black stone,'.' and supposed to be as incombustible 
 as granite. The history of the early attempts to 
 burn anthracite are not only amusing but instruc- 
 tive, as they serve to show how mankind may be 
 baffled in attempts to reach an end as easy and 
 simple as building an anthracite coal fire. It re- 
 quired more than forty years to learn how to burn 
 this form of fuel ; and it is alleged that the dis- 
 covery was made accidentally after all. An ex- 
 perimenter in Philadelphia, after most persistent 
 efforts to ignite the black stones, gave up in de- 
 spair, and left his furnace filled with a mixture of 
 wood and coal, and went home to dinner. Fortu- 
 nately there were some sparks left upon the wood, 
 and more fortunate still, the furnace door was left 
 closed, with the draft open. This arrangement
 
 AMONG THE COAL MINERS. 209 
 
 afforded the necessary " let alone " treatment, and 
 the wood, soon igniting, heated the coal to a point 
 where it also could be ignited ; and as the down- 
 cast experimenter returned to rake out and throw 
 away the supposed worthless coals, he found them 
 to his surprise all aglow, and causing such intense 
 heat that his furnace was well-nigh destroyed. 
 This result of course dispelled the idea that anthra- 
 cite was an incombustible substance ; and soon 
 companies were formed to work the mines. Coal 
 was, however, brought from this region by slow 
 and wearisome modes of conveyance, such as by 
 wagons, and on mules' backs, until 1827, when an 
 imperfect track was laid to run cars down the 
 mountains by gravity, and in this originated the 
 present very remarkable " Gravity Road." 
 
 But let us leave Mauch Chunk, and by the Le- 
 high and Susquehanna Railroad travel up the wild 
 gorges of the mountains through which the Lehigh 
 River forces its way, and when we have reached 
 the summits, we will descend into the beautiful 
 Valley of Wyoming. This broad, fertile basin, 
 with the rim of mountains bounding it upon every 
 side, is indeed a charming retreat ; and no wonder 
 the poor Indians in the early days of our history 
 were reluctant to give it up to the rapacious white 
 men. Here every inch of ground rests upon a 
 support of anthracite, for the valley and surround-
 
 210 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ing hills are full of it, and it crops out at various 
 points, showing what a wealth of the mineral re- 
 poses below. Scattered up and down the valley 
 are seen the huge coal breakers, which dot the 
 landscape almost as thickly as do the windmills in 
 Holland. Coal, coal, nothing else but coal is 
 thought of or talked about, and the pretty city of 
 Wilkesbarre is the centre of the great industry. 
 We are pleased to accept the kind invitation of Mr. 
 J. H. Swoyer to visit the celebrated Enterprise 
 Colliery, in Pleasant Valley, which is under his 
 direction, and witness the operations of mining, 
 crushing, screening, and preparing coal for the 
 market. With Mr. Patten, the gentlemanly super- 
 intendent, for a guide, we descend the " slope " 
 and penetrate into the side of the mountain, and 
 grope our way through the grim passages made by 
 the miners in order to reach the deep coal seams, 
 hundreds of feet below the surface. Small cars, 
 black as the coal itself with dust, rumble along the 
 excavations, drawn by mules, conveying the coal to 
 the great shaft over which is built the breaker, and 
 here it is hoisted by steam power up to daylight. 
 The reflection occurs that this remarkable sub- 
 stance, which is in itself only solidified sunlight, 
 has rested in its dark abode for uncounted ages, 
 and not a beam of light has shone upon it until 
 to-day, since the floods of the carboniferous epoch
 
 AMONG THE COAL MINERS. 211 
 
 swept it into these basins as vegetable matter, and 
 covered it with the silt and mineral debris which 
 were forced along with it in its course. We are 
 led to regard it as a kind of pemmican fuel, and 
 here is the vast cachet established by the Infinite 
 One, from which we can draw unlimited supplies. 
 The Enterprise Company are at present work- 
 ing upon a seam a little less than five feet in thick- 
 ness, which is about the Jeast that can be worked 
 with profit. The coal in situ, as we look upon it 
 by the dim light of the miners' lamps, appears as a 
 dark, shiny stratum, tightly compressed between 
 heavy masses of shale and limestone. The weight 
 of the mountain seems to rest upon it, holding it as 
 in a vice. To dislodge or break it from its bed is 
 the work of the experienced miner, and this is 
 accomplished with wonderful tact and skill. A 
 sharp drill is used, by which orifices are made in 
 the seam, and when these are filled with gunpow- 
 der, tamped, and exploded, large fragments are 
 dislodged, which are placed in the cars by the 
 laborers, and drawn through the dark labyrinths to 
 the shaft. The regular miner never lifts any coal 
 for carriage ; this is the work of the laborer, and 
 entirely beneath his dignity. As we entered the 
 mine at about noon, several miners were met com- 
 ing out, and we were informed by the superin- 
 tendent that they had completed their day's work,
 
 212 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 and had the afternoon to themselves. They had 
 dislodged as much coal from the bed as the labor- 
 ers could load and carry away during the day, and 
 their task was completed. There is an aristocracy 
 in these subterranean abodes as exclusive as any 
 found above ground, and " consuming ambition " 
 finds as full play in the breasts of the little sooty 
 colliery boys, as in those met with in our schools or 
 employed in our counting-rooms. The boys born 
 of the men at the mines care but little about books, 
 and dream of no other occupation than mining. 
 At an early age they go into the breakers, and 
 take their first step in the business in picking out 
 the fragments of slate that fall through the meshes 
 with the coal in the process of screening. From 
 this they look forward with earnest desire to the 
 time when they can go into the mines and drive 
 the donkeys attached to the coal cars ; from this 
 they wish to become laborers, and load the coal ; 
 and the crowning summit of their ambition is only 
 reached when they become miners, and are fully 
 connected with the " ring," and under full pay. 
 
 The mines are filled with the smoke of gunpow- 
 der ; but after a short stay it is not oppressive. 
 The work of mining, viewed from our stand-point, 
 is not an agreeable occupation, but it is less exact- 
 ing and laborious than many other kinds of labor. 
 It is also less hazardous than many other pursuits,
 
 AMONG THE COAL MINERS. 213 
 
 although a contrary notion prevails. The perils 
 incident to the sea are far greater ; and also many 
 industrial pursuits, such as the making of gunpow- 
 der, matches, pigments, etc., are more destructive 
 to life than coal mining. There have been in this 
 country only two very serious casualties : that of 
 the Avondale mine, and the more recent one at 
 Pittston. There are employed in the anthracite 
 region about thirty thousand miners, and the loss of 
 life from accidents incident to the business shows 
 but a very small percentage. It is the terrible 
 nature of the casualties, when they do occur, that 
 awakens such wide-spread sympathy, and causes 
 the occupation to be looked upon with dread. 
 
 The masses of coal raised from the pits are car- 
 ried far above the opening of the excavation, and 
 thrown into the breaker, a ponderous iron machine, 
 which crushes them to fragments of various sizes ; 
 and then they fall into revolving cylindrical sieves, 
 the meshes of which determine the size of the 
 coal manufactured. In this manner, the " egg," 
 " nut," and " bean " coal are separated, each sieve 
 sifting out its appropriate size, and directing it into 
 different receptacles. At some of the mines one 
 thousand tons of coal are raised and broken in a 
 day, and the aggregate of the amount produced is 
 prodigious. The profits of the business, as con- 
 ducted at the mines, seem reasonable, as we were
 
 214 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 informed by one of the largest producers that he 
 was entirely satisfied when he could realize twenty- 
 five cents profit on each ton delivered. A vast 
 monopoly has virtual control of our anthracite coal- 
 beds, and what the future may develop it is im- 
 possible to foretell. A comparatively few very 
 wealthy men in our large cities are the owners of 
 the mountains and valleys where lie hidden the 
 precious deposits of coal, and upon them depend in 
 a measure the development of our great national 
 industries. At present it is not for the interests 
 of owners to attempt to combine or monopolize, but 
 how long this may continue is a question of no 
 little national importance. The supply is vast in 
 amount, practically inexhaustible, and this fact 
 affords reasonable assurance that centuries may 
 elapse before any measures may be taken to force 
 prices to a point where they will be restrictive, or 
 very oppressive. The high prices of coal which 
 have ruled during the past two or three years are 
 caused by occurrences independent of ownership 
 of the coal lands.
 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE HUMAN BODY. 
 
 TF we could subject the body of an adult person, 
 weighing 154 pounds, to the process of chemical 
 analysis, and then set down the results in the usual 
 way, it would read about as follows : 
 
 
 Ibs. 
 
 oz. 
 
 grs 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 Ill 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 Carbon 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nitrogen . 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 Phosphorus 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 190 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphur . 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 219 
 
 Fluorine 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Chlorine 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 47 
 
 Sodium 
 
 
 2 
 
 116 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 Potassium . 
 
 
 
 
 
 290 
 
 Magnesium 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 Silicon . 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 The oxygen and hydrogen, for the most part, are 
 combined in the body in the form of water ; of this 
 compound there would be about 110 Ibs. The 
 carbon is mainly contained in the fat ; the phos-
 
 216 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 pliorus and calcium exist in the bones ; the other 
 minerals, in the juices of the flesh and in the blood. 
 Of course the statements as given are but a rude 
 approximation to the truth, but they are, neverthe- 
 less, sufficiently exact to afford a tolerably correct 
 idea of the nature of the substances, and the 
 amounts which enter into the human organization. 
 From this presentation it will be seen that the 
 body holds sufficient water at all times (about 14 
 gallon's) to drown the individual, if it were con- 
 tained in a suitable vessel. Under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances six pints of this water leave the system 
 each day. If we drink largely, of course an in- 
 creased quantity is eliminated through the excre- 
 tory organs. This liquid finds its way into the 
 system through the food and drink. Considerably 
 more than half the bulk of all the bread, meat, 
 and vegetables used as food is water. There is 
 no other substance but water which remains un- 
 changed after entering the body. Under the 
 terribly destructive influence of vital chemical ac- 
 tion, all other agents and bodies are torn asunder, 
 and from their elements are formed new com- 
 pounds of most strange and complex natures ; 
 water flows through our life, as it flows from 
 mountain cataracts and meadow springs, unchanged 
 and unchangeable, save in its physical aspects and 
 condition. It is made capable of holding in solu-
 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE HUMAN BODY. 217 
 
 tion all the nutrient and effete principles which 
 enter or which are rejected from the human organ- 
 ization, and it is the medium through which it is 
 built up and torn down. Life and death are alike 
 dependent upon its agency. 
 
 Of phosphorus, every adult person carries enough 
 (If pounds) about with him in his body, to make 
 at least 4,000 of the ordinary two-cent packages 
 of friction matches, but he does not have quite 
 sulphur enough to complete that quantity of the 
 little incendiary combustibles. This phosphorus 
 exists in the bones and in the brain, and is one 
 of the most important constituents in the body. 
 Every schoolboy is acquainted with those strange 
 metals, sodium and potassium, for he has seen them 
 flash into a brilliant flame when thrown upon 
 water. The body contains 2 ounces of the former, 
 and a half ounce of the latter metal ; enough for all 
 needed experimental purposes in the schools of a 
 large city. The 12 grains of magnesium would be 
 ample in quantity to form the "silver rain" for -a 
 dozen rockets, or enough to create a light which 
 under favorable conditions could be seen for a dis- 
 tance of twenty miles. 
 
 Our analysis disproves the old vulgar notion, 
 that the blood of ten men contains iron enough to 
 form a ploughshare. The 100 grains of metallic 
 iron found in the blood of a healthy adult would be
 
 218 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 sufficient to make a good-sized pen-knife blade, but 
 no useful implement of a larger size. There is one 
 important element associated with iron in the blood, 
 which does not appear in the " analysis," and that 
 is manganese. This element has not been recog- 
 nized until a comparatively recent date, and its 
 importance has been strangely overlooked. 
 
 Probably no fact in medical or chemical science 
 is more widely understood than that there is " iron 
 in the blood." As a fact it is no more remarkable 
 than that this fluid holds potassium or sodium, or 
 that the brain is permeated with phosphorus. The 
 popular curiosity and interest regarding iron as it 
 exists in the circulation have been excited by the 
 venders of quack remedies alleged to contain some 
 combination of the element. While there is much 
 that is very absurd in the statements popularly pre- 
 sented, it is impossible to overlook the importance 
 co the well-being of the individual of the few grains 
 of iron found in the blood. If the quantity is 
 diminished from any cause, the whole economy 
 suffers serious derangement. We have reason to 
 believe that when the normal quantity (about 100 
 grains) is reduced 10 per cent, the system is sen- 
 sibly affected, and the health suffers. How sensi- 
 tive to all the chemical reactions going on within 
 and around, is this complex machine which we call 
 the body I
 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE HUMAN BODY. 219 
 
 But iron, among the mineral constituents of the 
 body, does not stand alone in its important relation-, 
 ship. The metals exist combined with other bodies, 
 or they are locked up in the form of salts, which 
 are vital to the economy. There are five pounds 
 of phosphate of lime, one of carbonate of lime, 
 three ounces of fluoride of calcium, three and a 
 half ounces of common salt, all of which have im- 
 portant offices to fill. Not one of them must be 
 allowed to fall in quantity below the normal stand- 
 ard. If the lime fails, the bones give way ; if salt 
 is withheld, the blood suffers, and digestion is im- 
 paired ; if phosphorus is sparingly furnished, the 
 mind is weakened, and the tendency is towards 
 idiocy. 
 
 Whence do we obtain these extraordinary metals 
 and mineral substances which are diffused through 
 the body ? It is certain that among the dishes 
 found upon our tables, none contain phosphorus, 
 lime, iron, or magnesium, in their isolated condi- 
 tion. In the food we daily consume these minerals 
 are found, and they constitute a part of the mate- 
 rials of its structure. A pound of wheat, of which 
 we make our bread, holds a quarter of an ounce of 
 mineral substances ; a pound of potatoes contains 
 the eighth of an ounce ; cabbages, lettuce, apples, 
 pears, strawberries, etc., also containpconsiderable 
 quantities. Beef and other meats contain about
 
 220 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 four pounds of minerals in each hundred, and in 
 the juices there are certain remarkable agents 
 which are crystallizable, which have an alkaline 
 reaction, and which unite with acids to form salts. 
 These are creatine, creatinine, osmazome, etc. We 
 hardly know where to class these agents, but they 
 are undoubtedly of the highest importance in nour- 
 ishing our bodies. 
 
 In case of deficiency of mineral compounds in 
 the economy, it is possible to supply a part of 
 them by the use of the substances themselves, but 
 there are others which can enter only through 
 the "food. 
 
 Common salt (chloride of sodium) furnishes 
 directly and readily the sodium salts and com- 
 pounds. Iron can be supplied to the blood by ad- 
 ministering it in various forms and combinations, 
 or by giving the pure metal in powder. 
 
 Perhaps lime in some of its soluble forms is 
 assimilable, and the same may also be said of phos- 
 phorus, as held in the weaker chemical combina- 
 tions, as in hypophosphorous acid, and in the alka- 
 line hypophosphite salts. ' If invalids who need the 
 lime and phosphorus compounds would use whole 
 wheat bread, they would secure the mineral food in 
 a perfectly natural way. In the outer covering of 
 the wheat terry, for some good reason, those ele- 
 ments are mainly stored up, and if we sift out and
 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE HUMAN BODY. 221 
 
 throw away the bran, we deprive ourselves of a 
 most essential portion of the grain. 
 
 In the extract of beef, or in the isolated juice of 
 beef, are found enormous quantities of minerals in 
 a perfectly assimilable condition. In one hundred 
 pounds of good dry extract of beef, made by evap- 
 orating the juices, there are contained twenty-one 
 pounds of the most important agents needed in the 
 animal economy. We would suggest to physicians 
 and invalids the use of this beef extract in all cases 
 where the system is suffering from deficient nutri- 
 tion, or where there is any weakening of the vital 
 powers through an insufficient supply of the mineral 
 c r nutritive agents essential to perfect health.
 
 ABOUT QUICKSILVER. 
 
 TN adapting material things to the uses of man, 
 it was doubtless regarded as necessary that one 
 mineral substance should be constituted so as to 
 remain in a liquid state under all ordinary condi- 
 tions. The metal thus provided for us is quick- 
 silver or mercury. We remark that it is liquid 
 under ordinary conditions of temperature, for it 
 should be understood that under extraordinary 
 conditions all metals are liquid. It is well known 
 that the atoms of iron, steel, copper, platinum, etc., 
 which are associated in heavy, refractory masses, 
 are not so immobile, or fixed, as they appear to be, 
 for when submitted to high temperatures they run 
 like water. Subject quicksilver to a temperature 
 sufficiently high to render iron liquid, and it in- 
 stantly becomes vapor, and will float away like 
 steam. Iron, when subjected to a heat capable of 
 liquefying platinum, will itself become vaporized, 
 and platinum in its turn is vaporized by a higher 
 heat, and so all the metals are physically changed 
 under the influence of heat. There is not a solid 
 substance upon our globe, not a mineral or metal, 
 that has not existed probably for millions of years
 
 ABOUT QUICKSILVER. 223 
 
 in the aeriform state, a condition resembling steam 
 or air. If quicksilver is carried within the Arctic 
 Circle, it no longer remains liquid, but becomes 
 solid, and can be hammered, like lead or copper. 
 The ordinary temperatures under which man flour- 
 ishes upon our planet are alone favorable to the 
 existence of this singular liquid metal. Is not 
 design clearly discernible in this ? Is it not clear, 
 in order that certain arts and art processes of ben- 
 efit to the race should be established and carried 
 on with facility, that a heavy, dense, liquid metal, 
 like quicksilver, was needed ? Possibly the world 
 could have got along without it. Our non-mer- 
 curial barometers and thermometers might have 
 been invented, the photographic process discovered, 
 and impalpable gold dust separated from its parent 
 rock through some other agency. It must be ad- 
 mitted, however, that quicksilver has served an 
 important, if not indispensable end, in originating 
 and perfecting these instruments and processes. 
 There are plenty of pretentious charlatans who 
 are busy declaiming against its usefulness or safety 
 in medicine ; but, nevertheless, mercury is a most 
 important therapeutical agent. Like all good things, 
 its employment, if directed by ignorance or care- 
 lessness, may result in injury rather than benefit ; 
 but wisely and judiciously used, it subserves impor- 
 tant curative ends, ends hardly reached by any
 
 224 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 other known agent. The popular prejudice, engen- 
 dered by designing quacks, against the use of mer- 
 cury in medicine, is not founded upon justice or 
 intelligence. 
 
 The amount of quicksilver which the various 
 mines of the world are capable of furnishing is very 
 large, much larger than is demanded for any 
 purposes to which it is at present applied. The 
 quicksilver mines of California alone could furnish 
 fifty times more than is consumed in the whole 
 world, and the same may be said of the old Alma- 
 den mines of Spain. The discovery of a new 
 quicksilver mine in the United States, no matter 
 of what extent or richness, would possess but little 
 more value than that of a common clay bed, if it 
 was attempted to be worked in competition with 
 existing mines in California and Spain. The price 
 would immediately run down to a point so low 
 that its extraction must cease. At present the 
 quicksilver trade of the world is substantially an 
 armed truce between Spain and California. By 
 a kind of tacit understanding between the con- 
 trollers of the products from the two sources of 
 supply, Spain is allowed to furnish the London 
 market and nearly the whole of Europe. Until 
 within a few years it had the great Chinese market 
 also, but California, by adroit management, has 
 driven Spain out of the Celestial Empire, and now
 
 ABOUT QUICKSILVER. 225 
 
 claims that as her territory. In the present atti- 
 tude of the trade, if California should ship 10,000 
 flasks to London, and offer it at a reduced price, 
 Spain would ship 10,000 to New York, and down 
 would go the price there. On the other hand, if 
 Spain sends a ship-load to New York, California 
 goes to London, and so very shortly the whole busi- 
 ness would end in ruin. To maintain remunera- 
 tive prices, there must be but a limited amount 
 distilled, and there must be special markets for the 
 products of the two rival mines. We have spoken 
 of California as if possessed of but a single mine. 
 This is not to be understood as literally true. Cal- 
 ifornia has several mines of considerable impor- 
 tance, but the operations of the one known as the 
 " New Almaden " are much the most extensive. 
 Great as are the resources and wealth of the New 
 Almaden quicksilver mining company, they could 
 not continue business for a single year, if they did 
 not accede to a combination with the weaker New 
 Idria and Redington companies. This combination 
 now controls the production and price of quicksil- 
 ver, and when they agree that it shall go higher 
 or lower, it fluctuates accordingly. It is, however, 
 for their interest to keep the price uniform, and not 
 unreasonably high, and so there is found but little 
 variation in quotations in the great central markets. 
 The total annual supply from California is not 
 
 15
 
 226 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 far from 50,000 flasks, or about 3,000,000 pounds. 
 This is used in metallurgy, manufacturing, and art 
 processes. The largest quantity is used by the 
 gold miners in the amalgamating process at the , 
 various mines. A considerable amount is used by 
 manufacturing chemists in preparing calomel, " blue 
 pill," mercurial ointment, and various mercurial 
 salts and plasters. The Chinese make from quick- 
 silver that beautiful pigment, vermilion, which is 
 so largely employed by painters and colorers in 
 all parts of the world. It is singular that this half- 
 civilized people are able to prepare a chemical com- 
 pound from quicksilver, which is superior to, and 
 which commands a higher price than the same salt 
 produced in Europe and the United States, where 
 the arts are carried to the highest perfection. Eng- 
 lish and American vermilion, as found in the mar- 
 ket, is far inferior in brilliancy and quality to the 
 Chinese. 
 
 One of the most curious properties of quicksilver 
 is its capability of dissolving or of forming amal- 
 gams with other metals. A sheet of gold foil 
 dropped into quicksilver disappears almost as 
 quickly as a snow-flake when it falls into water. 
 It has the power of separating or of readily dissolv- 
 ing those refractory metals which are not acted 
 upon by our most powerful acids. The gold and 
 silver miners pour it into their machines holding
 
 ABOUT QUICKSILVER. 227 
 
 the powdered gold-bearing quartz, and although 
 no human eye can detect a trace of the precious 
 substances, so fine are the particles, yet the liquid 
 metal will hunt it out, and incorporate it into its 
 mass. By subsequent distillation it yields it into 
 the hands of the miners, in a state of virgin purity. 
 Several years ago, while lecturing before a class 
 of ladies upon chemistry, we had occasion to purify 
 some quicksilver, by forcing it through chamois 
 leather. The scrap remained upon the table after 
 the lecture, and an old ladv, thinking it would be 
 very nice to wrap her gold spectacles in, accord- 
 ingly appropriated it to this purpose. The next 
 morning she came to us in great alarm, stating 
 that the gold had mysteriously disappeared, and 
 nothing was left in the parcel but the glasses. 
 Sure enough, the metal remaining in the pores of 
 the leather had amalgamated with the gold, and 
 entirely destroyed the spectacles. It was a mys- 
 tery, however, which we could never explain to 
 her satisfaction.
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH AIR FURNACES. 
 
 TOURING the past winter we devoted consider- 
 able time to the investigation of the mechanism 
 and operation of air furnaces, with the view of as- 
 certaining by practical experiment the nature of the 
 defects so generally complained of; and we also 
 entertained the design of attempting to remedy 
 these defects. What are known as " portable fur- 
 naces " are now largely used in all houses of mod- 
 erate dimensions, and as these in no respect differ 
 in construction from the kinds placed in brick 
 chambers in large houses, attention was given to 
 this form of apparatus. After a full examination 
 of the various popular devices offered by manufac- 
 turers, two were selected as embracing the most 
 sensible and desirable features in form and con- 
 struction, and these were subjected to practical 
 trial. It should be observed .that all the various 
 patented contrivances found in the market are in 
 many particulars essentially alike. The " im- 
 proved " kinds, or those quite recently invented, 
 appear to be more objectionable in construction 
 than others which have been longer known. In 
 the newer devices, the inventors seem to think that
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH AIR FURNACES. 229 
 
 the merits of their apparatus consist in a multiplic- 
 ity of tubes, " return drafts," flues, chambers, damp- 
 ers, etc. They are for the most part as intricate 
 as Mrs. Chauncey's celebrated new cooking stove, 
 which required a whole cord of wood to warm all 
 its mysterious windings and passages ; and even 
 after this expenditure of fuel, she declared she 
 could not retain heat enough in the machine to 
 bake her morning biscuit. All furnaces found in 
 the market have the radiating surfaces in the air 
 chamber constructed mainly of cast-iron. They 
 all have more or fewer joints, formed by placing to- 
 gether pieces of metal, which are filled with some 
 kind of lute or cement, when the furnace is placed 
 in position. The air is allowed to pass in beneath 
 the base, and around the ash-chamber and fire- 
 pot ; and usually the current of air is unobstructed 
 by any devices to retain it in contact with the ra- 
 diating surfaces. 
 
 The two furnaces subjected to trial may be re- 
 garded as representative devices, and combining as 
 many good qualities as any offered for sale by 
 dealers. The first was put in position in a base- 
 ment, and arranged for warming a library, a room 
 forty feet long, twenty wide, and eleven high. It 
 was kept in place for five weeks, and its working 
 diligently attended to. With the aid of proper in- 
 struments, thermometers, hygrometers, etc., and
 
 230 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 chemical reagents, results regarding temperature, 
 moisture, and the presence of gases and extraneous 
 bodies in the room, were carefully noted. The 
 furnace was then removed, and the other one put 
 in its place. The same experimental labors were 
 undertaken with this during a period of four weeks. 
 As the details of these experiments require for their 
 proper presentation more space than can be afforded 
 in this essay, we will only allude to them in gen- 
 eral. 
 
 The interior of the furnaces was made of cast- 
 iron, and the joints of the first were cemented with 
 a paste made of finely pulverized glass and plaster ; 
 the joints of the second were luted with a putty 
 made of sesquioxide of iron and linseed oil, and 
 over this the cement of glass and lime was spread. 
 The fire-pots were lined with brick. Every pre- 
 caution was used to render the joints gas-tight. 
 
 The coal used was anthracite ; the two varieties, 
 " red " and " white ash," being mixed together in 
 equal parts. The experiments conclusively proved 
 that at no time were carbonic acid and carbonic 
 oxide absent from the library heated by the fur- 
 naces. During the days when a breeze was blow- 
 ing outside, causing a brisk draught, the amount of 
 these gases present was very small; but in dull, 
 moderate weather, the increase was quite percepti- 
 ble : carbonic oxide appeared to predominate, and
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH AIR FURNACES. 231 
 
 it was proved that, in the imperfect combustion 
 which takes place in furnaces, this dangerous agent 
 is largely in excess of all other products. Sulphur- 
 ous acid was present whenever a new supply of 
 fuel was added to the fire, and usually when any 
 interference was had with the furnaces. The shak- 
 ing of the contents of the fire-pot by means of the 
 grate-handles invariably caused the ascent into the 
 room of much fine dust and ashes, mingled with the 
 air current. This impalpable dust is not usually 
 noticed by the occupants of rooms where furnaces 
 are used. It is only when, through very imperfect 
 and leaky joints, large amounts of ashes, and even 
 cinders, are allowed to escape, that many families 
 complain. It is astonishing how negligent or in- 
 different most housekeepers are to the presence of 
 agents destructive to comfort and health. We 
 have been informed by a very extensive manufac- 
 turer and dealer in house-warming apparatus, that 
 in one hundred furnaces which came under his 
 observation for repairs, more than three-fourths 
 had the air chambers and passages obstructed by 
 coal ashes. It was no unusual circumstance to re- 
 move a bushel from some chambers through which 
 the heated air passed to the rooms of the dwellings. 
 What an unhealthy, deleterious mixture of air and 
 ashes must here be produced for children and adults 
 to breathe ! From investigation, we believe there
 
 232 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 are but few furnaces in use in this country which 
 do not allow of the escape of ashes into the air 
 flues ; and a more intolerable nuisance we are un- 
 acquainted with, unless it be the deleterious gases 
 which usually accompany the dust in the air cur- 
 rent. The injury to furniture, books, curtains, 
 paintings, etc., from this dust-impregnated air is 
 very great. In portable furnaces, besides the bad 
 joints connected with the interior parts, the outside 
 coverings and doors fit very imperfectly, and much 
 dust finds its way into the air passages from the 
 cellar or basement in which the furnace is placed. 
 
 The results of the experiments undertaken prove 
 that the gaseous products of combustion do pass 
 through cast-iron under certain conditions. Some 
 portions of the cast-iron work of furnaces are more 
 readily permeable to gases than others. In manv 
 cases, the fire-pot is surmounted by a high dome, 
 cast in one piece. This forms the heat-radiating 
 portion. In casting this, the metal is turned into 
 the mould so as to bring the rim, or edge, fitting to 
 the fire-pot, uppermost; consequently, the crystal- 
 line structure is different, or less dense, at that por- 
 tion nearest the fire, and under the favorable in- 
 fluences of greater heat and less density this part 
 of the dome affords the easiest egress for the gases. 
 
 It is impossible to construct furnaces or stoves 
 of cast-iron, and secure impermeability to gases.
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH AIR FURNACES. 233 
 
 They should not be made in part of cast-iron and 
 in part of wrought-iron ; as it is proved that where- 
 ever the two come together, there oxidation goes 
 on with great energy. In the summer months, 
 when furnaces are not in use, the ashes deposited 
 about the joints become moist, and wherever thin 
 iron pipes are connected with cast-iron shoulders, 
 there the work of oxidation goes on, and the whole 
 is soon destroyed. This energetic action is due to 
 galvanic currents, resulting from the different crys- 
 talline structure of the metals. 
 
 After patient practical trial of two of the best and 
 most popular forms of furnaces, it was apparent that 
 inventors and manufacturers had not yet supplied 
 apparatus which was not open to serious, or even 
 fatal, objections ; certainly no one that we had ex- 
 amined could be permitted to remain in operation 
 in our dwelling for even the briefest space of time. 
 
 The objections or defects may be stated to be : 
 first, the employment, of cast-iron in the interior 
 construction ; second, the presence of joints in the 
 air chamber, which cannot be made perfectly tight 
 by lutes or cements ; third, arranging the air 
 chambers or flues so that ashes and dust can pass 
 into the air current ; fourth, the imperfect arrange- 
 ment of smoke flues and dampers, by which great 
 loss is incurred from incomplete combustion ; fifth, 
 needless complication, and consequently needless 
 expense in construction.
 
 FARM PENCILLINGS AT LAKESIDE. 
 
 A S we sit in the shade of the trees on the shore 
 "^^ of 'the beautiful Kenoza at Lakeside, we take 
 our pencil and put upon paper the thoughts upon 
 nature, rural life, agriculture, horticulture, etc., 
 which naturally come to us while thus at rest and 
 alone. We are not quite alone, however, for we 
 have the pleasant company of the birds and squir- 
 rels that flutter and chirp about us. How beautiful 
 is this scene upon this glorious June morning ! 
 The lake shimmers and sparkles in the light, as the 
 sun climbs the opposite hills and pours its slanting 
 rays through the rich foliage upon the peaceful 
 waters. The sky is of the deepest blue, and the 
 earth is carpeted with the intensest green. Wild 
 flowers are scattered in profusion everywhere ; the 
 buttercups and the dandelions, with their tints of 
 yellow blending with the green, give to the land- 
 scape a richness of coloring which no painter can 
 imitate. The drops of dew, not yet dissipated by 
 the warmth of the sun, rest upon the grass and the 
 shrubs, and glisten like the purest gems. The 
 transparent waters of the lake afford to the eye a 
 clear look into its depths, and its pebbly bottom
 
 FARM PENCILL1NGS AT LAKESIDE. 235 
 
 is seen far away from the shore where we are sit- 
 ting, and we can watch the movements of the 
 perch and pickerel foraging for their morning meal. 
 The earth is in its holiday attire ; the waters, just 
 escaped from the icy bonds of winter, are joyous as 
 an infant when it awakes from the sweetest slum- 
 ber ; the air is laden with the odors of flowers and 
 the songs of birds. Rest, rest, peaceful rest of 
 this let us have our fill. Let us forget the city, its 
 noise and dust, and the bargainings and wranglings 
 of restless men ; let us commune with Nature, 
 study her lessons, observe her laws, and thus be 
 made wiser, happier, better. A friend from the 
 city the other day, lounging by our side under the 
 trees, asked if we did not think that those who were 
 permitted to enjoy much of rural life would have 
 some deductions made from the happiness of the 
 life beyond. This was a random thought presented 
 in jest, and prompted doubtless by the satiety of 
 enjoyment which those only feel who emerge for 
 the first time from winter life in the city. Such 
 excursionists into the country have rather exagger- 
 ated notions of the inequality with which enjoyment 
 is distributed among men, and their estimate of the 
 pleasures of rural life is based upon the brief hour 
 they pass under the trees. The difference in 
 amount of absolute enjoyment in this world is very 
 much less than is supposed. Every man regards
 
 236 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 his neighbor as having at his command sources of 
 happiness denied to himself. The poor man envies 
 the stately mansion, the horses and carriages, and 
 the luxurious table of the rich. The rich man 
 would give all his possessions to buy the health, the 
 sweet slumber, and the freedom from care that his 
 poorer neighbor enjoys ; and so we recognize the 
 wisdom of Providence in establishing the immutable 
 law by which happiness is meted out in about equal 
 measure to all who seek it with pure motives. 
 
 Happiness depends much upon the sensibilities, 
 and very much upon how we educate ourselves. 
 We may live in the midst of the most beautiful 
 manifestations of nature, and through insensibility 
 or sordidness be incompetent to enjoy them. It 
 is true, also, that in order to enjoy city or country 
 life it is necessary that we experience some of the 
 toils, inconveniences, and vexations of both, and be 
 able to escape from the one or the other at will. 
 By contrast with the brick walls and the hurly- 
 burly of the city, the country seems a paradise ; 
 but for those tied to the country, and compelled to 
 toil in the fields, the city possesses extraordinary 
 attractions. From our present point of view rural 
 life appears beautiful, and the language of poetry is 
 quite inadequate to describe the peacefulness and 
 delights of the scene. We are -under the trees, 
 with the glorious lake before, and the farm behind
 
 FARM PENCILLINGS AT LAKESIDE. 237 
 
 us. Over yonder, in the meadow, is Mike, a gen- 
 uine Hibernian, in a straw hat and a striped shirt, 
 with sleeves rolled above the elbows, showing 
 brawny arms which, under the influence of sun and 
 air, have acquired a hue like that of hemlock- 
 tanned leather. He has milked his tenth cow this 
 morning, and driven the herd to the hill pasture, 
 where they are now busily at work nipping the 
 white clover blossoms fresh with dew. We have 
 sent him to the meadow to pull up by the roots 
 some burdock plants, the seeds of which during the 
 winter washed in from the highway. Mike de- 
 clares this to" be " sweaty work," and " terrible for 
 the back." From the experiment of extracting a 
 half dozen of the long-rooted plants, we conclude 
 he is more than half right. 
 
 Let us " interview " Mike, and learn his opinion 
 regarding rural life, farm work, etc. " Well, 
 Mike, this is a fine morning ; what a happy fellow 
 you must be, out here in the green meadows, with 
 the birds making music for you, and the winds 
 filling you so full of sweet scents as even to mask 
 the odor of that old pipe, the stem of which has 
 found its way out through a hole in your pocket. 
 Tell us, Mike, what you think of these beautiful 
 scenes, and farming matters in general." " In- 
 dade, sir, the mornin' is a fine one, to be sure, but 
 I haven't heard any birds ; and as to the air, it is
 
 238 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 good enough, what there is of it, but if there was 
 more of it 'twould cool me off a bit ; and as to the 
 scents, they don't trouble me. Farming, sir, i? 
 hard work, airly and late, dig, dig, all the time ; 
 what with the cows, and the milkin', and the 
 weeds to pull, and corn to hoe, there is small time 
 to take a whiff from the ould pipe. Fine gintle- 
 men, that can lie on the grass all day, don't know 
 what farming work is, beggin' your pardon, sir, for 
 bein' so plain with you." 
 
 And Mike's plainness is excusable. He don't 
 hear the birds sing, nor smell the sweet odors of 
 flowers. A plug of tobacco has a more grateful 
 fragrance to him than buttercups or violets ; and as 
 to the air, it is only fine, when there is enough of 
 it to cool his sweaty brow. A visit to the city, 
 after haying, is an event to which he looks forward 
 as the one great thing in the future. But after all, 
 Mike is happy ; he has but few wants, and fewer 
 cares. If his back aches at night, from using the 
 hoe, or swinging the scythe, it is " all right " in 
 the morning after six hours of sound slumber. 
 Although insensible to the beautiful things in na- 
 ture, he finds compensation for this in the harmony 
 with which the physical mechanism works, and in 
 the robust health enjoyed, and in the narrowness 
 of the world in which he moves, which affords no 
 scope for ambition, and gives rise to but few artifi- 
 cial wants.
 
 FARM PENC1LLINGS AT LAKESIDE. 239 
 
 WINTER LIFE OF PLANTS. 
 
 The cool winds and the hoar frosts of the autumn 
 months have aided in the sad work of stripping the 
 trees, shrubs, and grasses df their rich summer 
 attire, and they are now for the most part standing 
 cheerless and bare. Here and there a late-bloom- 
 ing flower may be seen, or a narrow patch of green 
 grass in some warm, sheltered nook, on the margin 
 of the lake ; but the great and active operations of 
 Nature in building up and sustaining vegetable 
 structures have ceased, and soon a snowy mantle 
 will be cast over field and wood, and the deep 
 sleep of winter will commence. The corn, wheat, 
 and other grains, with the roots and grasses, have 
 been safely housed ; and the farm-work of the sum- 
 mer is ended. The herds seek shelter in barns, 
 the squirrels in trees, and the birds take flight to 
 a sunnier clime. We must imitate their example, 
 and flee from our lake-shore retreat to the library 
 or parlor, where the genial heat from the blazing 
 wood in the open fire-place dispels all feelings of 
 sadness or discomfort, and puts us in a mood even 
 to welcome the reign of snow and ice. As we 
 look out upon the bare fields this morning, we are 
 led to pencil down some thoughts upon the winter 
 life of plants. It is an error to suppose that in 
 winter, in our climate, there is a dead calm in 
 plant life, and that Nature is wholly palsied in her
 
 240 FIRESIDE SCIENCE, 
 
 movements. Wherever the rays of sunlight fall, 
 there is never perfect rest ; and this relates to the 
 vegetable as well as to the animal world. Sunlight 
 is pregnant with life; no matter how slant may be 
 the rays, or how few the hours during the twenty- 
 four they may fall upon the earth. In winter the 
 really useful plants cannot grow, but in the lower 
 forms of cryptogamic plants the processes of vege- 
 tation are quite active. The mosses, lichens, liver- 
 worts, etc., resist cold wonderfully, and they will 
 grow at very low temperatures. We find them 
 under snow-banks and sheets of ice in winter keep- 
 ing up an active circulation, so active that they are 
 able to ripen their sporangia or mature their fruit, 
 with the thermometer close upon zero. Lichens 
 are so constituted as to be able to reverse the order 
 of nature, and take their winter nap in summer. 
 In the cold months their vegetating period occurs, 
 and they are then most active. The lichens are 
 a very low order of plants ; but we must not look 
 upon them with contempt, for from their existence, 
 or by their creation, life upon our planet is ren- 
 dered possible. The poor, humble lichens came 
 before man ; and man would never have come at 
 all, if the lichens had not preceded him. These 
 plants are the very first which made their appear- 
 ance upon the rocks, when our earth was barren 
 and chaotic ; and dying there, they prepared the
 
 FARM PENC1LLINGS AT LAKESIDE. 241 
 
 way for a higher vegetation. At the present time 
 there are few rocks so barren or smooth that the 
 tenacious lichens will not fasten upon them and 
 flourish through storm and cold, as do ti.e cereals 
 in the best of soils and in the warmest sunshine. 
 Suppose the reader becomes interested in these 
 statements, and starts out botanizing some day in 
 the coming winter months. Such an excursion 
 will by no means be devoid of interest or instruc- 
 tion. Everywhere on rocks, fences, and fallen 
 trees, and in the pebbly bottoms of brooks, the rich 
 mosses will be found in great variety ; and their 
 study will open up new ideas of the wonderful na- 
 ture of plant structures, even in their lowest forms. 
 But activity in plant life in winter is not alone 
 confined to the cryptogamia. It is during this in- 
 clement season that many of our forest trees ripen 
 and perfect their seeds. The firs and pines are not 
 like the deciduous trees, which allow the moisture 
 they contain to freeze in winter. The temperature 
 of a pine-tree under the bark never falls below the 
 congealing point, no matter how severe the cold 
 may be outside. These resinous trees keep up a 
 kind of low " tree heat," as do the bears a low 
 animal heat, in freezing weather. Consequently 
 the circulation of sap goes on, and the immature 
 seeds are ripened. In some localities in the north- 
 ern part of our country those evergreens grow 
 
 16
 
 242 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 which bear true leaves, like the ivy, laurel, or per- 
 haps the holly. We call these plants evergreens ; 
 but in fact they change their leaves as do the de- 
 ciduous varieties. The change is made gradually, 
 one leaf dropping off when another has grown to 
 replace it, and so the tree is never wholly deprived 
 of its foliage. It is probable that in winter there 
 is considerable vegetative activity in these ever- 
 greens, as it is impossible that these changes can 
 take place when the sap is completely dormant. 
 Sunlight and warmth are agents of tremendous 
 power in connection with plant activities. If in the 
 depth of winter a mild day occurs, we shall find, by 
 making incisions in the stem or branches of trees, 
 that the slumbering forces are partially awakened, 
 and the sap is in motion. 
 
 If we allow that in the higher orders of flowering 
 plants winter is a time of repose, it can hardly be 
 supposed that there is no interchange of matter be- 
 tween the air and the body of the plant, for some 
 such movement is needful to its life. The hiber- 
 nating animals in their dens are practically dead, 
 but still a feeble form of life remains; the heart 
 slowly beats, and waste goes on. There is, in fact, 
 a continuous interchange of particles between the 
 air and the body, and so there must be between 
 the air and all plant structures. Men and animals 
 sleep during the night-time, but the functions of
 
 FARM PENCILLING S AT LAKESIDE. 243 
 
 life go on undisturbed. Winter to deciduous trees 
 and herbaceous, plants is their night-time, when 
 they sleep, to recuperate their vital energies, and 
 becojne prepared for the labors of reproduction 
 when the spring opens. As is the case with human 
 beings, it is better that this sleep be continuous 
 and undisturbed, in order that full strength may 
 be had for work in the season of activity. A win- 
 ter in which there are many fitful changes, first 
 warm and then cold, is unfavorable for the growth 
 and perfection of seeds and fruit ; and trees and 
 plants suffer more from these causes than from 
 drought or wet in summer. 
 
 We have spoken of the trees as being bare of 
 foliage in winter; but this is not absolutely true, 
 for trees have winter leaves as well as summer 
 leaves. The winter leaves are less apparent, but 
 they are no less real or perfect. If we take from a 
 tree one of its buds, and examine it carefully, we 
 shall see that it is composed of a little bunch of 
 true leaves, nicely compressed together in layers, 
 resembling fish-scales. These are the winter leaves 
 of trees, and every species has them perfectly char- 
 acteristic of its kind. 
 
 This winter dress of trees is no apparel suddenly 
 formed, or put on late in the autumn ; it is the 
 growth of all the spring and summer months. 
 During the hot season, when the sap is active, it
 
 244 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 was diverted away from the buds by the great 
 demands of the expanding summer foliage, so that 
 their growth was slow. They remain immature 
 until the summer leaves begin to fall, when the 
 sap flows towards the buds, and they are perfected. 
 The winter dress of trees has a purpose in the 
 economy of plant life. The structure in winter 
 does not demand nutrition, but it must have pro- 
 tection, and this the buds afford. In them is 
 stored up all the beauty and glory of the vegeta- 
 tion of the coming year, and thus they possess an 
 interest of the highest kind. Nature is very care- 
 ful of these buds, for it seems to be understood that 
 in them exist latent forms of life, most intimately 
 connected with the welfare of the race. In order 
 fully to protect them, they are compressed together 
 very tightly in the smallest possible space, and are 
 covered in under an air-tight and water-tight roof. 
 The outer layer of buds is either covered by a 
 warm coat of fine hairs, or cemented closely with a 
 resinous or glutinous secretion, which resists the 
 action of water. How wise and careful is Nature 
 in all her wonderful operations ! Can we doubt for 
 a moment the existence of a great and good Being, 
 who guides and directs all these movements ?
 
 REMINISCENCES OF AN EXPERIMENTER. 
 
 TN examining recently the contents of certain dark 
 attics and closets in some of our buildings, we 
 came upon confused heaps of wheels, magnets, coils, 
 batteries, retorts, alembics, beakers, pyrometers, 
 galvanometers, etc., etc., encumbering the shelves 
 and floor ; many of which were curious enough in 
 the rudeness of their form and construction, and 
 aptly illustrative of the science of a former period. 
 
 In these piles of rubbish, the cast-off debris of 
 many years of study and toil, is written the his- 
 tory of the progress of discoveiy for more than 
 three decades. Here is an electro-magnet, with 
 lever-attached armature, and an arrangement of 
 wheels, the remains of rude telegraphic appara- 
 tus which we had in operation in 1845, about the 
 time Morse's experiment began to attract atten- 
 tion ; here are iron cups, connected with copper 
 and platinum conductors, designed to illustrate the 
 practicability of exploding magazines under water 
 by electricity ; here are galvanic batteries of every 
 conceivable form and size, most of which are now 
 cast aside as practically useless ; and also discs and 
 cylinders, of glass and rubber and gutta-percha, for
 
 246 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 experiments in statical electricity; here is a for- 
 midable iron cylinder, which resembles a piece of 
 ordnance, designed for the purpose of solidifying, or 
 rather liquefying, carbonic acid gas, a fashionable 
 experiment twenty years ago. In overturning the 
 dusty contents of the rooms we discover appara- 
 tus illustrative of the discoveries and inventions 
 of each decade. At the commencement of the last, 
 we have the spectroscope. This instrument is 
 probably the first one ever constructed and used in 
 this country. It was made for us by the late Mr. 
 Fitz, of New York, in 1860, immediately upon the 
 appearance of Bunsen's and Kirchhoff's papers 
 upon spectrum analysis. 
 
 A third of a century devoted to the study of the 
 physical sciences, and their practical, experimental 
 investigation, is an interesting period to look back 
 upon. How greatly extended have been the 
 boundaries of human knowledge, how vast and 
 sublime the results of scientific labor and re- 
 search ! How many important and useful dis- 
 coveries and inventions have had their birth and 
 development in that period ! We have lived to 
 see a thousand timid, hesitating suggestions in 
 science ripen into demonstrated facts ; to see a 
 thousand important truths snatched from the do- 
 main of surmise, conjecture, or doubt, and trans- 
 ferred to that of established, unquestioned cer- 
 tainty.
 
 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 247 
 
 A third of a century ago, when our labors began, 
 we had no lines of telegraph, no ocean steamships, 
 no street rail-cars, no photographic pictures, no ani- 
 line colors, no kerosene oil, no steam fire-engines, 
 no painless surgical operations, no gun-cotton, no 
 nitro-glycerine, no aluminium, no magnesium, no 
 electro-plating, no spectroscope, no positive knowl- 
 edge of the physical constitution of the stellar 
 worlds, and but five hundred miles of slow steam 
 railway in the United States. Our telescopes and 
 microscopes were defective, and comparatively of 
 low power, and we had few of those delicate scien- 
 tific instruments now so important in every depart- 
 ment of research. 
 
 The last third of a century has been the most 
 active, the most important period of time that has 
 elapsed since time began. Indeed, more of the 
 great resources of Nature have been developed, 
 more of her intricacies unravelled, a deeper pene- 
 tration made into her mysteries, than in all the six 
 thousand years since the advent of man upon our 
 earth. 
 
 Do we who have lived during the accomplishment 
 of these results, and perhaps actively participated 
 in them, realize the stupendous greatness of this 
 epoch ? It is difficult to do this. We are pleased 
 to talk about it, but our natures do not admit of a 
 full realization of the importance of modern scien-
 
 248 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 tific discovery. We are whirled past these great 
 events as our planet is whirled through the inter- 
 planetary spaces ; we know it moves with tremen- 
 dous velocity, but its motions are wholly un- 
 observed. 
 
 The reminiscences of an experimenter and stu- 
 dent in science for a period of a third of a century 
 are always of the deepest interest, but they are not 
 always of the most pleasing character. There are 
 recollections of so many instances of the rankest 
 injustice 'done to ingenious, toiling, self-sacrificing 
 fellow-experimenters, which have sprung from jeal- 
 ousy, selfishness, or hate, that the desire is some- 
 times felt that the powers of memory might be 
 abridged at will. Many of the books in which 
 great discoveries are described and claimed have 
 the wrong names upon the title-page. So powerful 
 is the influence of prestige and great names, most 
 of these errors, we fear, will never be corrected. 
 
 There are also recollections pf disappointments 
 and sad failures in the results of experiments ; 
 often some great truth or principle has apparently 
 been within easy grasp, when, lo ! unexpected hin- 
 drances or errors were discovered, and all our ex- 
 alted imaginings and dreams of a name immortal 
 vanished into thin air, and from a flight most lofty 
 we were compelled to gravitate down to earth 
 again.
 
 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 249 
 
 Experimental labor is exacting, expensive, and 
 in some departments perilous. It is exacting, be- 
 cause it demands the- whole time and the most in- 
 tense thought. The hours of the day when other 
 kinds of labor are prosecuted, and which cease with 
 the setting sun, do not suffice for the experimenter. 
 An idea or difficult scientific problem, pressing on 
 the mind, becomes almost a material object there ; 
 and if it were a brick, or a lump of lead, it could 
 not more effectually disorder the natural functions 
 of the brain and prevent sleep. A great deal of 
 agitation is made over the hours of labor at the 
 present time, and eight hours of labor and sixteen of 
 rest are clamored for by an influential party. This 
 relates to physical labor. Hard work in this world 
 is not alone the lot of those who handle the hoe and 
 spade, or swing the sledge-hammer. The laborer 
 in the field of experimental research reverses the 
 modern idea, and devotes sixteen hours to work, 
 and eight to imperfect rest. 
 
 Experimental research is expensive, as there is a 
 constant drain upon the purse for the implements 
 wherewith to prosecute the labor. Platinum and 
 gold and silver, among the expensive metals, are 
 requisite, and in a thousand little ways money dis- 
 appears as if by magic. From imperfect memo- 
 randa in our possession it is shown that we have 
 expended, during the past third of a century, for
 
 250 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 apparatus and materials, more than sixty thousand 
 dollars. This does not relate, of course, to the 
 large working apparatus in our manufacturing 
 establishment, but solely to that needed in experi- 
 mental labor. Most of this is now thrown aside as 
 worthless, or retained only as interesting relics of 
 the past. 
 
 The experimenter in some departments, as in 
 that of chemical manipulation, is constantly liable to 
 accidents which endanger life and limb. We can 
 look back upon a score of explosions and narrow 
 escapes from vapors and poisonous gases, and the 
 indelible scars remaining show how painful have 
 been some of these casualties. But, upon the 
 whole, the retrospective glances of an experimenter 
 are of the most interesting and pleasant character ; 
 and no youth who has the necessary qualifications, 
 the intelligence, the ingenuity, the perseverance, 
 the enthusiasm, should be deterred from entering 
 this field because of the exhausting, exacting, or 
 expensive nature of the labors. 
 
 When we review in this way the experiments of 
 bygone years, several inventions and art processes, 
 regarded as very new and wonderful by the multi- 
 tude, seem quite old to us. We have watched the 
 progress and adventures of these art processes and 
 devices for many years with the same interest that 
 parents watch the career of their children, for the
 
 REMINISCENCES, ETC, 251 
 
 reason that they are indeed the children of our 
 brain. Many of our readers have doubtless noticed 
 the huge piles of what is called " leather board," 
 heaped upon the sidewalks and in the leather stores 
 of our cities. Seventeen years ago we made the first 
 sheet of the article ever produced in the United 
 States, or in the world. Noticing the immense 
 heaps of " leather scraps " (the worthless refuse of 
 shoe factories), which are seen in New England 
 towns, we conceived the idea, in 1854, of attempt- 
 ing to utilize them by disintegrating, or tearing 
 them injto fine shreds, and forming from the parti- 
 cles a cheap leather board which might serve many 
 useful purposes in the mechanic arts. An old pa- 
 per-mill, belonging to the late Mr. Flagg, of Exe* 
 ter, New Hampshire, was hired for the purpose of 
 experiment, and after surmounting many difficulties, 
 we succeeded, during the year, in manufacturing 
 several tons of the new article. As soon as the 
 problem was fairly worked out, it was allowed to 
 pass into the hands of other parties, who have since 
 carried on the manufacture upon an immense scale. 
 No patent protection was sought, and no remunera- 
 tion for our labors has ever been received. An 
 exclusive right to make this article, on a patent 
 protection, would have been worth a great many 
 thousand dollars. Although the production of the 
 " patent leather," as it is often called, has been of
 
 252 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 advantage to producers, its invention has not been 
 particularly advantageous to the consumers of 
 shoes. The interior " soles " of most cheap shoes 
 are now constructed of this material, and when 
 water penetrates into them, the result shows that it 
 is a poor substitute for good leather. We fear 
 that paterfamilias will never thank us for devising 
 " leather board." 
 
 Twenty-three years ago, we engaged in a series 
 of extended experimental investigations upon the 
 hydrocarbon liquids, and one of the results of these 
 labors was the production of an apparatus fpr light- 
 ing buildings by employing air for the conveyance 
 of the light vapors to gas burners. From this in- 
 vention have come all the " portable gas machines," 
 " gasoline apparatuses," " air lights," " automatic 
 gas" devices, which are so numerous in our cities. 
 Every one of these is claimed as " very new," and 
 all are covered by " patents." The, perusal of an 
 article published in the " Traveller " newspaper of 
 Boston in 1849, describing the results of our labors, 
 will show that but few important improvements 
 have been made in our original devices, during 
 more than twenty years. Sixteen years ago we 
 constructed an apparatqs for extinguishing fires 
 by the employment of carbonic acid, or aerated wa- 
 ter under pressure. The instrument was almost 
 precisely similar to the one now claimed as new, and
 
 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 253 
 
 owned by a company who control the right to make 
 " Fire Annihilators." We did not at the time we 
 invented the apparatus, nor do we now, regard it as 
 of much practical importance. Nearly seventeen 
 years ago we put in position the first apparatus for 
 cooling mineral waters and syrups at the place of 
 outlet, or upon the counter of the dealer. All the 
 new " soda water " devices seen in the shops are 
 based on our original device, and are but modifica- 
 tions of our invention. Upon this no patent pro- 
 tection was secured, but we have been informed by 
 an extensive manufacturer that its value^ at present 
 would be not less than fifty thousand dollars. The 
 numerous devices which have been lately introduced 
 for protecting lamps and fluid cans from explosions 
 are simply the reappearance of contrivances which 
 we made public twenty or more years ago. At 
 that time we covered metallic lamps with glass, and 
 prevented flame from entering the reservoir by a 
 chamber of wire gauze ; and also some wick ar- 
 rangements, now claimed as new, are found in our 
 old lamps. Time is worse than wasted in en- 
 deavors to make lamps safe which are designed to 
 hold and burn dangerous, inflammable liquids. 
 More severe accidents are caused by spilling and 
 igniting the liquids than by explosions. The in- 
 flammable light naphthas sold so often as kerosene, 
 cannot be harbored in any dwelling with safety.
 
 254 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 No matter what lamps or cans are used, the danger 
 is not in any important degree removed by their 
 agency. There is safety only in expelling every- 
 thing of the kind from household use. 
 
 We might increase the list of so-called " new 
 inventions," which originated with us many years 
 since, but our object is not to " tell what we have 
 done," but to present some reliable examples, illus- 
 trating the nature of many of the " new patents " 
 which are constantly thrust upon public attention. 
 Our readers may have reason to thank us for 
 affording them some insight into the merits of the 
 claims of those who seek from them pecuniary 
 assistance.
 
 INFECTIOUS GERMS. 
 
 nnHE spread of the new cattle disease, epizootic 
 aphtha, in this country, under circumstances 
 so remarkable, has awakened in the minds of farm- 
 ers and others a desire to leanj something of the 
 nature of the contagious principle, and the myste- 
 rious manner in which it is communicated from 
 one animal to another. 
 
 An agent of infection so subtle that a dog or cat 
 walking through a barn where diseased animals 
 are kept, and then running four or five miles in 
 the open air and entering another barn, infects a 
 herd of healthy animals without contact, must be 
 regarded as extraordinary in its nature. After 
 all, it is no more extraordinary or wonderful than 
 the infectious germs of small-pox, scarlet fever, or 
 measles, which are readily conveyed very long 
 distances in the clothing, and in the air, and which 
 remain uninfluenced by meteorological agencies, 
 heat and cold, wet and dry. The susceptibility 
 of different individuals to the influence of -conta- 
 gious germs is no less wonderful than the nature 
 of the germs themselves. It may be said that no 
 two persons are affected alike by them, and it is
 
 256 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 probable that the same difference prevails among 
 animals. Indeed, we have instances of some herds 
 attacked by the new disease, in which five, ten, 
 and even twenty per cent, of the animals re- 
 main in perfect health. They are confined in the 
 same stalls with those diseased, and breathe the 
 poisoned air night and day, and yet not a function 
 is disturbed or a vital movement interfered with. 
 Among human beyigs, we know that a physician, 
 nurse, or any person leaving a room in which there 
 is a patient sick with scarlet fever or measles, may, 
 in passing a child upon the opposite side of the 
 way, communicate to it the disease ; while during 
 the same walk another may be taken in the arms 
 and suffer no detriment. There is a small class 
 of persons who can never be brought under the 
 influence of kine-pox virus, and such are usually 
 greatly distressed in consequence of this idiosyn- 
 crasy of organization. There is but little occasion 
 for anxiety, however, for such will usually escape 
 the more severe disease of small-pox, if exposed to 
 infection. In our view, those who are most read- 
 ily and severely influenced by vaccine virus are 
 the persons who will be most likely to contract 
 varioloid, when brought in contact with the germs 
 of small-pox ; so that the feeling of safety cher- 
 ished by such is not well founded. There are 
 individuals and families in every community who
 
 INFECTIOUS GERMS. 257 
 
 are continually suffering from every form of mala- 
 ria, poison, and contagion known to medical men, 
 and certainly they are deserving of sympathy. 
 Personal cleanliness and the strict observance of 
 all hygienic laws are of no avail with thousands in 
 warding off these disturbing agencies ; they are the 
 victims of an organization susceptible to the malign 
 influences of poisons and contagions which lurk 
 constantly in the atmosphere, and even in food and 
 drinks. 
 
 We know but little regarding the exact nature 
 of the germs which are capable of implanting dis- 
 ease in the system. That they have substance and 
 form, no one can doubt. As distinct atoms or par- 
 ticles of matter, they are inconceivably small, and 
 capable of being buoyed up or supported in air, and 
 carried from place to place through its agency. In 
 a barn containing animals suffering from pleuro- 
 pneumonia, or from the epizootic aphtha, we must 
 suppose the atmosphere to be loaded with the infin- 
 itesimal particles. If our eyes could be opened so 
 that we could see the particles as we see snow- 
 flakes in the winter, what a fearful spectacle would 
 be presented ! The disgusting, poisonous atoms 
 would be seen flying in all directions, and resting 
 upon everything; upon the clothing of those in 
 charge of the animals, upon the hay, upon the ma- 
 nure, floors, scaffolds, and upon the backs of any 
 
 17
 
 258 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 dogs, cats, or birds which might be present. A 
 perfect shower of infectious spores would be seen 
 to prevail, and probably we should no longer won- 
 der how the poison is carried so rapidly from one 
 point to another. It is probable that when one or 
 more of these germs are taken into the system 
 through the organs of respiration, a kind of fer- 
 mentation is set up in the blood, analogous, per- 
 haps, to that which occurs in vegetable substances 
 during the vinous or acetic change. 
 
 In studying disease, or any of the changes which 
 occur in the animal organization, we must con- 
 stantly bear in mind that the body is simply a piece 
 of chemical apparatus, and that all the movements 
 or changes that occur are" simply chemical reac- 
 tions of one form or another. The disease germs 
 themselves are chemical substances ; and the dif- 
 ference in chemical composition gives rise to the 
 different forms of blood poison which manifest 
 themselves as scarlet fever, measles, typhus, etc., 
 in human kind, and pleuro-pneumonia, hoof and 
 mouth disease, etc., in animals. 
 
 There is reason to suppose that scarlet fever, 
 measles, and typhus ferments resemble albumen 
 in complexity, and like albumen they may be 
 altered in composition and action by heat, alcohol, 
 and other agents. Small-pox ferment is of a dif- 
 ferent kind, and is remarkable for the small quan-
 
 INFECTIOUS GERMS. 259 
 
 tity of substance which produces such extraordi- 
 nary changes. An atom so small that a microscope 
 of the highest power is incapable of defining it, 
 enters the system through the lungs, and passes 
 on into the blood, and from thence into every 
 texture, nerve, and secretion. In a few days the 
 chemical actions of oxidation and nutrition through- 
 out the whole body are completely altered, and 
 the little particle of matter has reproduced itself 
 infinitely. Pustules appear over the whole skin 
 surface, each one loaded with an infinite number 
 of germs identical in nature with the original 
 particle which set in motion the train of dis- 
 organizing forces. There is general peroxidation 
 going on ; there is inflammation of the ears, the 
 eyes, the mucous membranes, the joints, the serous 
 membranes ; everywhere there is great chemical 
 disturbance. This is small-pox, and the terribly 
 disgusting, wretched condition of the bodily func- 
 tions is due to the introduction of a particle so 
 infinitesimally small that no optical instrument 
 can discern, and no balance can weigh it. 
 
 The poisonous .germs producing intermittent 
 fever, or fever and ague, from whatever source 
 they may arise, are probably of a highly complex 
 and nitrogenous nature, and are capable of being 
 dried and carried great distances by the wind. 
 They enter by the mouth with the dust, pass into
 
 260 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 the blood, and soon produce a kind of fermentation, 
 which results in high fever preceded by a chill. 
 After this is over, the poison is spent in part ; but 
 during the remission of from one to three days, 
 sufficient is* reproduced to go through the same 
 action again. This remarkable poison, producing 
 intermittent chill and fever, will work on, unless 
 utterly destroyed by medication, until the victim 
 is so far weakened as to falter and die. The ague 
 ferment is totally unlike that producing small-pox 
 and measles, for by the action of the latter the 
 textures of the body are so changed that they are 
 incapable of going through the same process again ; 
 but one can have ague a dozen or more times in 
 the course of his life. It is indeed a great mercy 
 that some of our worst zymotic or infectious* dis- 
 eases can attack us but once. 
 
 We might as well expect to learn the nature 
 of soul or spirit, as to expect to obtain any precise 
 knowledge of the chemical differences in the germ 
 poisons which affect men and animals. How can 
 we ever know anything regarding the actual differ- 
 ence between a germ producing pleuro-pneumonia 
 or disorganization of the lungs in a cow or ox, and 
 one producing suppurating sores and ugly ulcers 
 in the mouths and hoofs of the animals ? Both 
 are specific poisons, exerting specific action upon 
 different parts of the animal organization. It is
 
 INFECTIOUS GERMS. 261 
 
 inconceivable how this can occur ; and yet perhaps 
 it is no more inconceivable or mysterious than 
 most diseases, which, after all, are but derange- 
 ments of the chemical reactions or forces of the 
 animal economy. 
 
 We can manage and control chemical changes 
 quite perfectly when they occur in inorganic bod- 
 ies, and, thanks to science, we can manage tolera- 
 bly well those which occur in the human or animal 
 organization when they happen under ordinary 
 conditions, and are not of too violent a nature. 
 There is a class of reagents called " remedies," 
 which, when rightly used, serve to control in some 
 degree destructive chemical action in the body. 
 We have learned that the poisonous germs which 
 we have had under consideration cannot maintain 
 their vitality in the presence of certain chemical 
 agents, among which are carbolic and cresylic 
 acids, sulphurous acid, the chlorides of some of the 
 metals, etc. These destroy the life of spores, as 
 arsenic or prussic acid destroys life in the human 
 body, and therefore they are the proper agents to 
 employ to arrest the spread of infectious diseases. 
 By using proper caution, by observing the laws of 
 hygiene, by keeping the body clean, and the blood 
 in good condition, by plenty of air and exercise, 
 we can in a considerable degree fortify ourselves 
 against the attacks of poisonous germinal affections.
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 
 
 nnHE most delightful and instructive of the stud- 
 ies connected with the farm relate to plant 
 life, and the food of plants. It may seem to many 
 that a consideration of the food of plants implies the 
 necessity of a belief in the possession by plants of 
 certain organs or powers of digestion and assimila- 
 tion, and this belief should be entertained, for it is 
 founded upon fact. Plants do indeed in a most 
 proper sense eat and drink, and they are as capri- 
 cious in regard to the kind and quality of the food 
 which they demand as are animals or human be- 
 ings. It is as interesting to study the nature of the 
 appetite and wants of a stalk of corn, or wheat, or 
 a blade of timothy, as that of a child which the 
 mother so carefully and anxiously watches and 
 tends during the weeks and months of early in- 
 fancy. 
 
 What a mystery there is in the life of a plant ! 
 How does a tree, or a shrub, or a blade of grass, 
 grow ? This interrogatory has often been put to 
 men of science, and the patient researches which 
 have been made, by the aid of that beautiful and 
 wonderful instrument, the modern microscope, en-
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 263 
 
 able them to give a tolerably satisfactory answer. 
 The nature of the substances employed in building 
 up the plant structure is well understood, and 
 also the form of mechanism which is adopted in 
 the first beginnings of growth, and the chemical 
 changes and transformations which occur ; but the 
 nature of the vital force which guides, and upon 
 which all activity depends, we do not understand, 
 and it is probable that human research will never 
 shed much light upon this mysterious but most 
 interesting problem. The little microscopic cell is 
 the workshop in which great changes are elab- 
 orated, and during the season of vegetable growth 
 this is the seat of the most intense activity. Every 
 plant that grows upon our earth, however great 
 or small, must be considered as having originated 
 from a single cell, so infinitesimally minute, that 
 the highest powers of the microscope are required 
 to observe it. If we turn over one of the pebbles 
 common in our brooks, we shall find a slimy ma- 
 terial of a greenish hue, adhering to its under 
 sid^. This covering is a true plant, but it is one 
 of the lowest of known forms. ' If we examine 
 it with the microscope, it will be found to be perfect 
 in structure, having an organism so wonderful as 
 to command our admiration. Feeble and insignifi- 
 cant as it is, it corresponds in structure with the 
 huge oak which grows by the stream and over-
 
 264 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 shadows it with its branches. The plant that 
 adheres to the rock consists of a single cell, but 
 that cell is as perfect and beautiful as any of those 
 which make up the structure of the oak. The tree 
 is but an aggregation of cells ; cells piled upon 
 cells, and the work that is carried on within them 
 is no more complex than that which goes on in the 
 workshop of the humble unicellular plant. , 
 
 It is with a choice of terms that we designate the 
 cell as the workshop of the plant, in which the 
 materials that enter into its organization are elab- 
 orated and fitted to aid in the increase of its 
 substance. The nature of the food which is ma- 
 nipulated within the cell is indeed peculiar, inas- 
 much as plants gather together the waste products 
 of men and animals, and again fit them for the use 
 of higher organisms. Plant food is oxidized food 
 food which it is impossible for animals to assimilate ; 
 and the plant, in all its functions and in the objects 
 of its growth, manifestly occupies an intermediate 
 position between ourselves and the insensible rocks. 
 This is absolutely essential to the existence of man 
 upon the earth. Of all the functions of plants, the 
 most remarkable are connected with, or related to 
 the solar rays, for they possess the power of utiliz- 
 ing the sun's heat in a way which enables them to 
 pull apart, as it were, some of the most complex 
 and refractory compounds known to modern chem-
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 265 
 
 istry. The most tiny, feeble leaf, or blade of grass, 
 has a power in chemical decomposition greater by 
 far than is possessed by Liebig, Boussingault, or 
 any of th^ great experimenters of the age. The 
 separating in silence, in the quiet of the meadows, 
 by organisms so frail that we can crush them be- 
 tween the thumb and finger, of a compound so 
 fixed as carbonic acid, is one of the marvels in 
 nature which puzzles and confounds the philosopher, 
 and leads him to bow in humility before the God 
 of nature, whose power so infinitely surpasses that 
 of man. But after all, this analytical power of the 
 plant is no less amazing than its synthetical capabil- 
 ities. The work of tearing apart oxidized bodies, 
 is immediately followed by that of rearranging* the 
 elements, and forming new compounds still more 
 complex, and into these, as a fixed principle, less 
 oxygen is allowed to enter. The great work of the 
 plant is, to disassociate oxygen from compounds, 
 and thus store up energies which are made appar- 
 ent when we burn vegetable substances as fuel 
 upon our hearthstones, or as food in our bodies. 
 All the forces resulting from heat and muscular 
 exertion have their origin in plants, and however 
 great may be the exhibition of power, the leaves of 
 the trees, and the grasses of the field, have utilized 
 or elaborated it all from the solar rays. 
 
 Although the food of plants, as well as the
 
 266 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 method of appropriating it, differs from that of 
 animals, there are analogies not only apparent but 
 real between them. In animals we have the res- 
 piratory functions, and so we have in*plants, for 
 plants breathe as truly as we do ourselves ; we re- 
 quire our food to be composed of certain ele'ments 
 arranged in certain combinations, so do plants ; 
 we find it essential that our food should be in par- 
 ticular forms or mechanical conditions, so do 
 plants ; we must be regularly supplied with food, 
 and this is the case with plants. These are some 
 of the similarities existing between plants and ani- 
 mals, and serve to show how intimate is the relation 
 which subsists between plants and the higher forms 
 of organized structures. 
 
 Although we have learned with certainty re- 
 garding the elements essential to plants, and also 
 the forms of combination required, we have yet to 
 learn the exact mode in which they acquire their 
 food, and how they are able to build up such bodies 
 as cellulose, starch, albumen, oil, etc., from these 
 elements. No processes which chemists venture 
 upon in the laboratory are found so difficult as the 
 synthetical production of organic compounds. In- 
 deed, organic chemistry has thus far proved totally 
 incompetent to instruct how to form any one of 
 these bodies from the elements, and for their elab- 
 oration we must look solely to the vital chemistry 
 of animals and plants.
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 267 
 
 It is a well understood fact that without plants, 
 animals could not exist upon our planet. In the 
 wonderful economy of things it is absolutely essen- 
 tial that there should be some intermediate or con- 
 necting link between ourselves and the mineral 
 kingdom, and plants constitute this important link 
 in the chain of life. The three kingdoms, animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral, are correlated, and involved 
 in a cycle of changes, which are unintermitting, 
 and wonderful in their nature. We are incapable 
 of being nourished by any form of mineral sub- 
 stances, but such nourish plants, and are transformed 
 by them into vegetable tissues and products ; and 
 subsisting as we do upon plants, we draw support 
 indirectly from the insensible rocks. The plant 
 consumes the rock dust, and attracts to itself the 
 carbon of air and earth ; we transform these into 
 flesh and bones", and, as a last step in this perpet- 
 ual circulation of matter, after death they relapse 
 again into their dead inorganic condition. 
 
 It was formerly thought by chemists that plants 
 lived upon humus, a compound entirely organic in 
 its nature, and when some of the metals were found 
 in the ash of plants, they were regarded as acci- 
 dental ingredients, or extraneous bodies which 
 somehow intruded themselves into the incinerated 
 mass. In our time, we know that these mineral 
 bodies enter the vegetable structure as food, and
 
 268 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 that it cannot exist without them. The mineral 
 portion of plants is small indeed, compared with 
 the nitrogenized and carbonaceous parts, and this 
 paucity of the mineral substances was undoubtedly 
 the reason why the early experimenters were led 
 into error. 
 
 At present, we are acquainted with sixty-five 
 elements or primary bodies, of which all things 
 animate and inanimate are made. Twenty-two of 
 these have been found in plants, and therefore are 
 to be regarded as food material. Let us for a 
 moment consider the strange metals and other sub- 
 stances which plants absorb into their structures. 
 Among the metals we find iron, potassium, calcium, 
 sodium, magnesium, manganese, copper, caesium, 
 rubidium, and zinc. It has been stated that arsenic 
 has been found in plants, but this is doubtful. The 
 non-metals are iodine, bromine, fluorine, chlorine, 
 phosphorus, silicon, carbon, hydrogen, * nitrogen, 
 oxygen, and sulphur. Nothing can appear more 
 singular than the fact that the refractory metal, 
 iron, can find its way into the stalks and leaves of 
 plants, or that the rarer metals should be hunted 
 out of the soil by them, and appropriated as food. 
 Some varieties of plants have peculiar appetites, 
 and require most extraordinary elements in order 
 to thrive. Tobacco is one of these, and the ash 
 which clings to the end of the smoker's cigar con
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 269 
 
 tains substances found in but one or two other 
 plants known to man. Among the rarer bodies are 
 the newly discovered metals caesium and rubidium, 
 and how or where the plant obtains them is indeed 
 a mystery, as the most delicate chemical tests have 
 failed to detect these elements in soils. In common 
 garden beets, also, the same substances have been 
 found. Copper has frequently been observed in 
 vegetable products used for food, and what is very 
 singular, the metal has recently been discovered in 
 the feathers of birds, and some of the tints in the 
 plumage are due to its presence. The fluorine 
 which is found in the enamel of teeth, in men and 
 animals, comes from plants, as does also the man- 
 ganese which accompanies iron in the blood. Alu- 
 minium, the metal which within a few years has 
 been regarded with special interest, as of great 
 service in the arts, has been found in certain spe- 
 cies of Lycopodium, and zinc has been found in the 
 Viola, caliminaria. a plant common in some sections 
 of France. Bromine and iodine are found in the 
 marine algoe, or sea weeds, and for a long time the 
 entire amount of these important substances em- 
 ployed in medicine and the arts was derived from 
 sea plants cast on shore by the waves. 
 
 The organic constituents of plants, elaborated or 
 formed from combinations of the elements, car- 
 bon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, make up the
 
 270 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 largest portion of their bulk, and therefore must 
 be regarded as of essential importance as food. 
 Before considering the sources and value of these 
 agents to vegetable structures, it will be interest- 
 ing to examine briefly the conditions under which 
 plants start into existence, and the forces or agents 
 which are involved in developing and sustaining 
 the embryo before the plant has the power of seek- 
 ing its own food. 
 
 In all the changes and evolutions constantly 
 going- forward in the vegetable world, the sunbeam 
 plays a most important part. Analysis of a sun- 
 beam shows that it possesses three distinct functions 
 or powers. It is capable of supplying light and- 
 heat, and also it has actinic force, or the capability 
 of producing chemical decomposition and recompo- 
 sition. Upon the chemical -influence of the sun's 
 rays depends the germination of seeds, as well as 
 the growth of the plant. We bury the seed in the 
 ground and shut it out from the influence of light, 
 but we do not place it beyond the reach of the 
 sun's actinic influence, for that penetrates like heat 
 to the little earthy couch where the embryo plant 
 lies hid, and arouses it into life. Light, or the 
 luminous rays of the sun, so important to the well 
 being of the plant, is actually inimical to the excita- 
 tion of vitality in the seed. How singular is this 
 fact ! A series of carefully conducted experiments
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 271 
 
 have proved that seeds will not germinate in light, 
 although supplied with heat and moisture, when 
 the actinic rays are cut off. Deprived of the lu- 
 minous rays, with the .actinic in full force, they 
 spring into life with great rapidity. Seeds sown 
 upon the surface of the earth will scarcely germi- 
 nate, as soil cultivators very well know ; and on the 
 other hand, seeds buried deep, so that the actinic 
 rays cannot reach them, will certainly perish. The 
 planting of seeds so as to secure the proper distance 
 below the surface is a most important point in 
 husbandry, as it has much to do with the early 
 starting of the plants, and the success of the crops. 
 How beautiful and wonderful is the process of 
 germination, when the chemical and vital phenom- 
 ena are set in motion by the actinic rays ! The 
 starchy particles of the seed become converted into 
 gum and sugar upon which the young plant feeds. 
 The tiny root peeps out from the husk, and with 
 mysteriously directed powers plunges downward 
 into the fertile soil. The slender plurm^e pushes 
 upward towards the light. The soil cracks and 
 heaves, and the infant vegetable emerges fresh and 
 moist into the world of air and sunshine, with the 
 unfolding of the first pair of leaves ; and with the 
 first lighting of the sunbeam upon their tender 
 tissues commences a series of chemico-vital phe- 
 nomena wholly different from that of the preced-
 
 272 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 ing stage of existence. The plant is now fairly 
 dependent for food upon its own energies, and root 
 and leaf are the theatres of great activities. 
 
 None of the elements named as constituting the 
 food of plants exist as such in them, save oxygen 
 and nitrogen. Half the weight of a dried plant is 
 carbon, and yet it does not exist in it as free car- 
 bon ; it is all locked up in combinations of greater 
 or less complexity. There is not one of these ele- 
 ments of food that can be supplied to the plant 
 in its naked condition, as they not only have no 
 power to nourish, but are positively poisonous. 
 There is much misapprehension regarding these 
 points among ^farmers, which arises from not clearly 
 understanding the statements of writers upon the 
 chemistry of agriculture. Not unfrequently in- 
 quiries are received concerning the cost of nitro- 
 gen, carbon, phosphorus, etc., and sometimes 
 orders are sent for these agents, which are de- 
 signed to be used for fertilizing purposes. While 
 it is true Aat nitrogen is an element needful in the 
 nutrition of plants, it must be presented not alone, 
 but in one of two forms of combination, either 
 as ammonia, or nitric acid ; and further, the acid 
 must be in association with an alkali, as soda or 
 potash, in order to be safely employed by the 
 farmer. In either one of these forms, it is of im- 
 mense value as plant food. Nitrogen is a gaseous
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 273 
 
 body, and has neither taste, color, nor smell. It 
 cannot be burned, it will not support combustion, 
 and it cannot be breathed into the lungs. It is a 
 strange, negative element, and yet without its in- 
 fluence not a stalk of corn nor a blade of wheat can 
 grow. It is the most costly of all our fertilizing 
 agents, and yet millions and billions of tons are 
 present in the air constantly, and every plant is 
 surrounded by and immersed in it. Is not this 
 statement perplexing or paradoxical ? Nitrogen as 
 it exists in nitrogenous bodies is alone available for 
 plants, and the cheapest source, outside of refuse 
 animal compounds,- is in the form of nitrate of soda. 
 This salt, known as Chilian saltpetre, is sold at the 
 present tinie at about four cents per pound, whi'ch 
 makes the nitrogen it contains cost about twenty- 
 eight cents per pound. The nitrogen in sulphate of 
 ammonia, at present market rates, costs thirty-five 
 cents, and I have not found it so readily available, 
 or prompt in its action upon my fields. For grass 
 lands, as a top dressiifg, the nitrate of soda has 
 proved with me a profitable agent. It brings in 
 the better quality of grasses, and largely increases 
 the crops. It should be pulverized fine, mixed 
 with an equal quantity of fine seasoned peat, and 
 sown evenly over the field, giving to each acre two 
 or three hundred pounds of the salt. Without a 
 supply of nitrogenous food plants become feeble 
 18
 
 274 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 and ultimately die; -and hence we must supply it 
 in some form, either as it exists in manure, or in 
 commercial substances. The soil does not furnish 
 it in sufficient abundance, neither does the atmos- 
 phere, in any available f<^rm. There is always a 
 little ammonia in moist air, which comes from 
 decaying animal or vegetable matter, and also 
 there are traces of nitric and nitrous acids in rain 
 water, but these sources of supply are wholly in- 
 adequate to the wants of plants upon most fields. 
 
 An acre of wheat yielding twenty-five bushels 
 requires, in straw and grain, forty-five pounds of 
 ammonia. The results of careful experiments show 
 that under the most favorable circumstances no 
 more than ten pounds of ammonia is ever supplied 
 to an acre of soil by rain-water; so if all the ammo- 
 nia of the rain-fall is assimilated, thirty-five pounds 
 in addition would have to be supplied, to meet the 
 wants of the wheat field. 
 
 Carbon, the agent so largely consumed by plants, 
 fortunately costs us nothing. The farmer need 
 not trouble himself concerning this important ele- 
 ment in plant food, for the atmosphere furnishes 
 an abundant supply for all our wants. It is sup- 
 plied in the form of carbonic acid, and we do not 
 know that it can be assimilated through any other 
 carbon compound. A carbonate, unless it be of 
 potash or soda, is practically valueless to the farmer,
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 275 
 
 Carbonate of lime, in any form, cannot be regarded 
 as a fertilizing substance having a commercial 
 value. Very strenuous attempts have been made 
 to induce farmers to purchase ground clam and 
 oyster shells, the venders alleging that they were 
 equal to ground bones in fertilizing value ; but 
 this is a fraud of a serious nature. Clam shells are 
 composed of carbonate of lime, while bones are 
 made up of the phosphate, of lime, quite a dif- 
 ferent substance, chemically and agriculturally con- 
 sidered. The shells are composed of carbonic acid 
 and lime, the bones of phosphoric acid and lime, 
 the former acid having no money value, the latter 
 having a high value. 
 
 Calcic carbonates should not be confounded with 
 sulphate of lime, which is plaster or gypsum. In 
 this substance sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol, is in 
 combination with the lime, in place of carbonic acid, 
 and a very different chemical and fertilizing agent 
 is supplied. It has high value as an application to 
 some fields, although its action is not well under- 
 stood. The experiments which the writer has 
 made with plaster go to prove that its good effects 
 are due rather to the acid than the lime. It has 
 the power of fixing the ammonia of the atmosphere, 
 and forming sulphate of ammonia, which is a salt 
 of much value. In applying gypsum to soils, it 
 must be remembered that but a small quantity can
 
 276 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 be made available in a season, as it requires nearly 
 five hundred pounds of water to bring one pound 
 of it into solution. Half a ton is a sufficient dress- 
 ing for an acre of ground. 
 
 The element hydrogen is freely supplied to plants 
 by dew, mist, and rain, and therefore is costless 
 to the husbandman. It is only through water that 
 hydrogen can be presented to the plant, but this is 
 by no means its only important office. It enters 
 the plant as water, and it is through its agency 
 that all the various forms of food are rendered 
 assimilable. It is the liquid medium which holds 
 all the inorganic substances, and from the aqueous 
 current which unceasingly flows through the little 
 cells of plants, they are absorbed and appropriated 
 as food. 
 
 Enormous quantities of water annually descend 
 upon the land. If the rain-fall be but twenty inches 
 per annum, it corresponds to something like two 
 thousand and twenty tons of water falling upon 
 each acre every year. Much of this is carried off 
 by evaporation, or through drainage. Still, a large 
 proportion is retained by growing plants, or passes 
 through them, aiding in most important functions. 
 It can be shown that a gallon of water passes 
 through a single plant of wheat in a season, and 
 the aqueous exhalations from the broad disc of a 
 common sunflower each day amount to six or 
 eight ounces.
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 277 
 
 The wonderful substance (formerly so rare and 
 costly), phosphorus, is so essential an ingredient 
 in the food of plants, that not one of any kind can 
 flourish without it. This highly combustible body, 
 so offensive to taste and smell, and withal so poi- 
 sonous, enters the plant in combination with oxygen, 
 with which it forms phosphoric acid. The entire 
 supply o phosphorus employed in the arts comes 
 from plants, and they hunt it. from the soil atom 
 by atom,*and incorporate it into their structures. 
 Animals feeding upon plants abstract the element, 
 and it takes its place in the bones in combination 
 with lime, forming basic phosphate of lime. We 
 gather the bones of the dead animals, and after 
 calcination, subject them to chemical treatment, 
 and thus isolate the phosphorus in a pure state in 
 large quantities. How curious is this cycle of 
 changes and transformations ! We can in no way 
 obtain a clearer conception of them, than by re- 
 flecting \ upon the fact that the phosphorus found 
 upon the end of every friction match we use in our 
 dwellings has been gathered from the soil by veg- 
 etables, and passing through their organization, 
 it has taken its place in the bones of oxen, cows, 
 or horses, and from thence passed into the labora- 
 tory of the chemist, where it is fitted to subserve 
 the most useful purposes. If this substance had 
 a tongue, what an interesting history of adventures 
 it could unfold J
 
 278 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 The amount of phosphorus or phosphoric acid 
 in the soil is usually insufficient to meet the wants 
 of the plant, and hence the farmer must furnish 
 supplies if he wishes to increase his crops. For- 
 merly there were but two sources of supply, that 
 from manure or animal excrement, and that from 
 the bones of animals ; but now we have a third 
 source in the mineral coprolites, or phosphatic de- 
 posits, found upon the coast of South Carolina. 
 From these substances what are popularly known 
 as superphosphates are made and sold largely in 
 the market. 
 
 Potash holds a most important place in the list 
 of substances consumed by plants, and hitherto 
 much anxiety has been manifested regarding a sup- 
 ply equal to our wants. A few years ago we were 
 acquainted with no sources of the agent save that 
 of the ash of plants, and as mineral coal came into 
 use for furnishing household warmth, wood ashes 
 and the potash salts obtained from them became 
 very scarce and costlv. Every year the farmer 
 removed from the soil large quantities of potash in 
 his crops, which he could not return again through 
 the excrement of his animals, and therefore it was 
 evident his lands were becoming impoverished to 
 an alarming extent. High cultivation, as respects 
 potash, increases this impoverishment, as all culti- 
 vated plants are richer in this substance than those
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 279 
 
 growing spontaneously. To obtain a clear under- 
 standing of the needs of the soil, it may be stated 
 that an acre of wheat producing $5 bushels of 
 grain, and 3,000 pounds of straw, removes about 
 40 pounds of potash in the crop. Can any farmer 
 conceive of that amount of potash existing in the 
 soil of any one acre of land upon his farm ? We 
 know it must be present, and within easy reach 
 of the plants, else not a blade of wheat can grow 
 and mature the seed. Nearly all soils of course 
 contain potash, but the quantity is often insufficient 
 for crops of any of the cereal grains. A crop of 
 corn, of 100 bushels to the acre, removes in kernel 
 and stalk 150 pounds of potash and 80 pounds of 
 phosphoric acid. We cannot raise large crops of 
 corn without furnishing potash in some assimilable 
 form, for a small crop of fifty bushels to the acre 
 requires about 75 pounds of the agent. A fair crop 
 of oats, say 50 bushels to the acre, removes only 
 about 13 pounds of potash. Barley and rye re- 
 move not far from 30 pounds each. 
 " Now we have observed the great deterioration 
 in our potato crops during the past ten or twenty 
 years, and what is the cause of this alarming de- 
 crease of tubers ? Can science, can chemistry 
 point out the reason, or aid in remedying the diffi- 
 culty ? I think it can, and in order to understand 
 the matter it is necessary to understand the kind
 
 280 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 and amount of food which the potato demands. A 
 field of potatoes yielding 300 bushels to the acre 
 will remove /rom the soil in tubers and tops at 
 least 400 pounds of potash ; also it will remove 150 
 pounds of phosphoric acid. Now these amounts 
 are very large, and show that the potato plant is 
 a great consumer of the two substances, and also 
 show that in order to restore our potato fields to 
 their former productive condition, we must sup- 
 ply phosphatic compounds and substances holding 
 potash in large quantities. For six or eight gener- 
 ations in New England our fathers have been ex- 
 hausting the soil, by removing these agents in their 
 potato and other crops, and we have reached a 
 time when the vegetable is starving in our fields 
 for want of its proper food. Our farmers have 
 found that new land gives the best crops, and this 
 is due to the fact that such fields afford the most 
 potash. But so long as we crop our pastures so 
 unreasonably, we cannot resort to new land, as 
 land is not new that has had its potash and phos- 
 phatic elements removed by grazing animals. A 
 potato field which gives but 100 bushels to the 
 acre requires at least 140 pounds of potash, but 
 by allowing the tops to decay upon the field, 60 
 pounds are restored to the soil again, as that amount 
 is contained in them. A medium crop of potatoes 
 requires twice as much phosphoric acid as a me-
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 281 
 
 dium crop of wheat, so that in two years with 
 wheat the land is deprived of no more of the agent 
 than it loses in one year with potatoes. 
 
 The aim has been in this essay to point out the 
 nature of the materials which plants require, and 
 to impress upon the mind of the reader the great 
 truth'that when the farmer has gained this knowl- 
 edge, and also learned the quantity necessary for 
 a given crop, the accumulation and use of these 
 materials are as simple as supplying raw materials 
 for making cloth, boots and shoes, or any other man- 
 ufacture. A field in proper condition for culture 
 should contain in ample abundance all the inor- 
 ganic materials which the intended crop requires, 
 and these materials should be in an assimilable con- 
 dition, or in other words, they should be in a solu- 
 ble condition, so that by the aid of water they can 
 be taken up and carried through the plant organ- 
 ism. The proper manures for wheat and corn are 
 the nitrogenized varieties, or those which hold 
 nitrogen, either in the form of ammonia or as nitric 
 acid. These should be conjoined with phosphates 
 and potash in considerable amounts. For potatoes, 
 potash, phosphates, and lime are required; the 
 latter element, lime, enters largely into the leaves, 
 and is an important article of food for the vegetable. 
 Gypsum or plaster, which holds lime and sulphurous 
 acid, is a valuable manurial agent for potatoes, es-
 
 282 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 
 
 pecially on moist land. But enough has been said 
 to show that each variety of plants demands peculiar 
 kinds of food, and unless this is supplied by the soil, 
 or through our agency, it is impossible for them to 
 flourish. 
 
 There has never been a time when soil cultiva- 
 tion, as a pursuit, was more hopeful or promising 
 than the present. We have just learned the impor- 
 tant fact that an abundance of plant food has been 
 stored up for our use in mines and rocks, and that 
 we have only to reach out our hands and take all 
 that we require. Ten years ago who could have 
 dreamed even of such vast deposits of potash as 
 have been opened up to us at the Stassfurth salt 
 mines in Germany. Some idea of the supply may 
 be formed from the fact that at the present time 
 more potash is furnished from these mines than 
 from the wood-ash sources of supply of the whole 
 world. Only about 13,000 tons of potash were 
 sent to market from the United States and British 
 America in 1870, and yet from Stassfurth, where 
 a dozen years ago it was not supposed that a single 
 ton could be procured, 30,000 tons of the muriate 
 of potash were manufactured and supplied to con- 
 sumers upon both continents, during the past year. 
 The surface salts at these mines, which hold the 
 potash, are practically inexhaustible, and millions 
 of tons will be supplied in succeeding years. No 
 doubt our own salt mines will be found upon care-
 
 THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 283 
 
 ful examination to afford potash, and hence we may 
 look with confidence to the rapid cheapening of 
 this most useful product. 
 
 Ten years ago who could have supposed that 
 along the river beds upon the coast of South Car- 
 olina there were millions of tons of rocks holding 
 that important element of plant food, phosphoric 
 acid ? These rocks were indeed known, but their 
 important character was not understood. The 
 phosphatic rock beds of that region extend over an 
 area of several hundred square miles, and in some 
 places they are twelve feet thick. It is estimated 
 that from five hundred to a thousand tons underlie 
 each acre. How vast is this supply of an agent of 
 the highest importance to agriculture, and what a 
 source of national wealth it opens to us ! 
 
 Two important considerations force themselves 
 upon our attention. One is, that nature has pro- 
 vided ample materials to supply all our wants. In 
 mountains, and caverns, and streams, she has depos- 
 ited all elements and combinations which are essen- 
 tial for our well-being and progi-ess, and it is un- 
 reasonable and wicked to doubt regarding the 
 -future. The other is, that science must be sustained 
 and fostered, for it holds the key which is alone 
 capable of unlocking nature's storehouses, and 
 bringing forth from the dark recesses of earth those 
 rich materials which have been provided for our 
 sustentation and happiness.