179. There is only one more transmutation of radiant energy that we know of, and that is when it promotes _chemical separation_. Thus, certain rays of the sun are known to have the power of decomposing chloride of silver, and other chemical compounds. Now, in all such cases there is a transmutation of radiant energy into that of chemical separation. The sun’s rays, too, decompose carbonic acid in the leaves of plants, the carbon going to form the woody fibre of the plant, while the oxygen is set free into the air; and of course a certain proportion of the energy of the solar rays is consumed in promoting this change, and we have so much less heating effect in consequence. But all the solar rays have not this power--for the property of promoting chemical change is confined to the blue and violet rays, and some others which are not visible to the eye. Now, these rays are entirely absent from the radiation of bodies at a comparatively low temperature, such as an ordinary red heat, so that a photographer would find it impossible to obtain the picture of a red-hot body, whose only light was in itself. 180. The actinic, or chemically active, rays of the sun decompose carbonic acid in the leaves of plants, and they disappear in consequence, or are absorbed; this may, therefore, be the reason why very few such rays are either reflected or transmitted from a sun-lit leaf, in consequence of which the photographer finds it difficult to obtain an image of such a leaf; in other words, the rays which would have produced a chemical change on his photographic plate have all been used up by the leaf for peculiar purposes of its own. 181. And here it is important to bear in mind that while animals in the act of breathing consume the oxygen of the air, turning it into carbonic acid, plants, on the other hand, restore the oxygen to the air; thus the two kingdoms, the animal and the vegetable, work into each other’s hands, and the purity of the atmosphere is kept up. FOOTNOTES: [4] This explanation was first given by Professors Thomson and Tait in their Natural Philosophy, and by Dr. Frankland in a lecture at the Royal Institution of London. [5] _See_ De La Rue, Stewart, and Loewy’s researches on Solar Physics. [6] _See_ the Magnetic Researches of Sir E. Sabine, also C. Meldrum on the Periodicity of Cyclones. CHAPTER V. _HISTORICAL SKETCH: THE DISSIPATION OF ENERGY._ 182. In the last chapter we have endeavoured to exhibit the various transmutations of energy, and, while doing so, to bring forward evidence in favour of the theory of conservation, showing that it enables us to couple together known laws, and also to discover new ones--showing, in fine, that it bears about with it all the marks of a true hypothesis.