Starch food substances, 18 13 15
Sugar, grape, 6 12 6
,, cane, H2O + 12 22 11
Oils, aniseed, etc., 10 12 1
Acids, tartaric, 4 6 6
,, , citric, etc., 6 8 7
Hydrocyanic, or prussic, acid, one of the
strongest poisons, 1 1 1
Tannin or tannic acid, 27 22 17
Turpentine oil (composed of carbon and
hydrogen only) 10 16
We have other vegetable products called alkaloids, that are principally
found in the bark and the leaves. A few examples will suffice:
C H N O
Morphia, 17 19 1 3
Strychnine, 21 22 2 2
Quinine (sulphate H2SO4), 20 24 2 2
The essence of coffee and tea, caffein or thein, 8 10 4 2
The alcohols, acids, ethers, and so on, are all composed of these
elements:
C H O
Alcohol, 2 6 1
Acetic acid, 2 4 2
The combinations are infinite. Volumes are filled with organic
chemistry. Mere mention only can be made, to show the wonderful power
these elements display when variously combined.
The products of destructive distillation of coal yield a remarkable
series of combinations:
Carb. Hyd.
Light carburetted hydrogen, marsh gas,
or fire-damp, is composed of 1 4 (C1H4)
Aceteline, another product, 2 2 (C2H2)
Heavy carburetted hydrogen, olefiant gas,
the gas we burn, ethelene, 2 4 (C2H4)
These may undergo a vast variety of changes and
combinations. Chloroform, alcohol, ethers, acids, oils and fats,
resins, balsams, etc., etc., all have these elements in combination.
Does it not seem strange that the different numerical combinations
of the same elements should have such different effects upon the
animal system?
Why should starch and sugar compounds be good for the sustenance
of animal life while other compounds of the same elements prove
destructive to life? Or, why should morphia have such a peculiar
effect upon the animal tissues--especially the nervous? And why
should alcohol have such a peculiar effect upon the master tissues
of the body? The difference in the chemical composition of quinine
and strychnine is not so very great, yet the action upon the system
is by no means the same. The effect upon the tissues is not the same.
Those who believe in a God easily dispose of these questions by simply
exclaiming, They are the wonderful works of God!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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