The Creation of God by Jacob Hartmann (color ebook reader TXT) 📖
- Author: Jacob Hartmann
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We have other vegetable products called alkaloids, that are principally found in the bark and the leaves. A few examples will suffice:
The alcohols, acids, ethers, and so on, are all composed of these elements:
The combinations are infinite. Volumes are filled with organic chemistry. Mere mention only can be made, to show the wonderful power these elements display when variously combined.
The products of destructive distillation of coal yield a remarkable series of combinations:
These may undergo a vast variety of changes and combinations. Chloroform, alcohol, ethers, acids, oils and fats, resins, balsams, etc., etc., all have these elements in combination.
Does it not seem strange that the different numerical combinations of the same elements should have such different effects upon the animal system?
Why should starch and sugar compounds be good for the sustenance of animal life while other compounds of the same elements prove destructive to life? Or, why should morphia have such a peculiar effect upon the animal tissues—especially the nervous? And why should alcohol have such a peculiar effect upon the master tissues of the body? The difference in the chemical composition of quinine and strychnine is not so very great, yet the action upon the system is by no means the same. The effect upon the tissues is not the same.
Those who believe in a God easily dispose of these questions by simply exclaiming, They are the wonderful works of God!
That one drop of hydrocyanic acid upon the tongue of an animal should kill is very astonishing; that acid being composed only of one of Carbon, one of Hydrogen, and one of Nitrogen (C N H). Why should it paralyze the brain first, before it affects the heart, since it has to be carried by the blood through the circulation to the brain? The derangement of the functions of that center causes death.
The revelations of these important combinations and actions man had to make for himself. They were not brought down to us on tablets of stone by some supernatural agent, nor did spirits or angels communicate the mysteries and the powers of these elements.
It is owing to the development of man’s intellectual faculties, that the combinations of these elements has been made possible. It was quite a discovery when it was found that nitre, sulphur, and charcoal made gunpowder. There are only five elements in that compound, viz., Nitrogen, potassium, Oxygen, Carbon, and sulphur. Chili saltpeter is used for domestic purposes. Harmless to animal life, so is each one of these elements when they enter into combinations that are not destructive to life.
The forces and powers exercised by any compound depend on the number and kind of elements that enter into the composition. And the influence that bears directly upon their mutual activity again depends, when in a state of nature, upon the presence of heat. When a seed, as of wheat or of any starchy vegetable, is thrown into the ground, it will not germinate except in the presence of a certain amount of moisture, and heat, the heat varying from 50° to 80° Fahrenheit, in addition to free communication with the air.
Temperature, moisture, air, electricity, kind and quantity of the various elements in the soil present, cause the immense variations in plant life and plant compositions. Yet the same elementary compositions will be found in the same species, and the same conditions generally will be required to reproduce them.
Each group of elements that enters into the composition of any substance, carries with it qualities and capabilities peculiar to itself, throughout the vegetable kingdom. Its influence upon the animal economy will depend on the various atomic elements, and the quantities of each, that enter its combinations. For example, the atmosphere, the balance of power between O and N, is essential to both plant and animal. So with water, O H2. And so with those foods, starch and sugars, C18H30O15 or C6 H12O6; in each of these substances Carbon has its complement of Hydrogen and Oxygen. That is, the Carbon is, as it were, diluted in a sufficient quantity of water to make it suitable for food. Rob it of its Oxygen and it becomes a poison, an active poison. The less the quantity of Oxygen in any substance of organic origin the more unfit it becomes as a food. And it becomes poisonous to the animal system in proportion as the Oxygen is absent or removed from the composition. We have representatives of poisonous substances in alcohol, C2H6O, a mild poison; and in hydrocyanic acid, C N H, the strongest poison known.
Moreover, we see already peculiar manifestations in vegetable life, humble in character, low in degree. Plants not only rest from activity, but have their sleep and exhibit sensible movement from irritation. The foliage of the locust, and of most leguminous plants, and that of oxalis and wood-sorrel, seem to have their sleep, as seen by the position of their leaves and blossoms. Irritate the mimosa plant, as by roughly touching it, and the leaflets will suddenly change position. In the Dionæa muscipula, or Venus’s flytrap, the touch of an insect, alighting upon the upper surface of the outspread laminæ, causes its sides to close suddenly, the strong bristles of the marginal fringe crossing each other like the teeth of a steel trap, and the two surfaces pressing together with considerable force, so as to retain, if not destroy, the intruder, whose struggles only increase the pressure which this animated trap exerts.
It is evident that the elementary combinations under certain conditions and the influence of heat, will exhibit vital action, in an organic form—manifest phenomena of life, that are only in degree, and not in kind, inferior to the lowest plant life. The process is the same. The mode of living differs in degree, though the results are different.
The combination and exchange of elements takes place in the simple plant life as in the higher animal life. The watery portion of plant life is composed of O and H2, the same as water in a free state or water in animal life, and the combination of Oxygen and Hydrogen with Carbon. The food substances are found in the vital machinery of vegetation.
The characteristics of life exhibited in the lower grade of vegetation, are seen in a more perfect degree in animal life—respiration, exchange of gases, imbibition, absorption, assimilation, evolution of heat and motion, the power of incorporating material in its own substance, endosmosis, subjectibility to irritation, exhaustion, spontaneous movement, rest and sleep, capability of being influenced by various stimuli, etc., etc.
The combination of O, C, and H, organized and vitalized, in conjunction with a few other less important elements, manifests in conformity with the laws of nature all functions and activities that plant lie is capable of realizing. It would neither be extravagant, nor an exaggeration, considering the important role these elements play in vegetation, if they were rightfully termed the soul-life of plants.
All substances taken into the stomach as food are of three kinds, carbohydrates, proteids, and fats. This means, starch, sugars, meats, and fats, besides water and some salts.
Food substances carry their own complement of water, serve nutritive purposes when taken into the system, and are easily dissolved by the various fluids in the body.
Food may be taken into the system for three purposes: 1. Simply for the maintenance of health; 2. For fattening purposes; 3. For the sake of muscular energy.
The body, the human body, consists, speaking in general terms, of carbohydrates, fats, and proteids, and water and saline matters.
We have seen that the work done by the master tissues causes a loss, or produces a certain amount of waste material, consisting of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, and some mineral matter—salts. This loss or waste has to be replaced in quantity and quality sufficient in order to maintain a healthy condition of the body.
And, since we know the precise, or almost the precise, quantity of material excreted, which consists of Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Hydrogen, etc., we can also estimate, with considerable precision, the quantity needed to replace it.
More than 41 per cent of the entire weight of the body is made up of muscular tissue. The nervous tissue constitutes not quite two per cent.
The chemical composition of muscular and nervous tissue—of the solid part only—is
The watery portion of the muscle is not mentioned. Please notice the large quantity of Carbon and the small quantity of Hydrogen in the composition of the solid part of the muscle.
We are aware that the muscles are always producing Carbonic Acid—that is, C and O2—and when a muscle contracts, there is a sudden and extensive increase of the normal production.
The blood that comes from a contracting muscle is richer in Carbonic acid—that is, it contains one atom more of Carbon and two atoms of Oxygen more.
The blood that has passed through the lungs changes from venous to arterial blood. The venous discharges about 5 vols. of Carbonic acid (C O2); the arterial carries away about 5 vols. of Oxygen (O) to the tissues.
The carbohydrates taken into the system:
About 32 ounces of saliva converts the starch into sugar. That is, the saliva changes starch (C18 H30 O15) into sugar (C6 H11 O5). Meats are acted upon by the gastric juice, it requiring about ten to twenty pints to dissolve three-quarters to one pound of meat-stuff; and the substances in the stomach are changed into chyme. The fats are emulsified by the gall from the liver—about 30 to 40 ounces for 3 to 4 ounces of fat. And the pancreatic juice completes the work and still farther dissolves all three kinds of substances, so that, with the aid of the succus entericus, the whole mass is changed into a substance called chyle. All the carbohydrates and proteids in solution, together with the fluids taken into the system, are taken up by the veins
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