though light is essential to their growth, yet pure air is not.

The constituent principles of vegetables are more numerous and complicated than those of minerals. They are defended by a general covering, of bark, which is analogous to the skin of animals, and consists of three parts-the cuticle, the cellular, and the corticle.

The leaves perform an important office in the economy of vegetables, and have been compared to the lungs of animals. They extract from the atmosphere the same principles which the roots draw from the earth.

The food of plants appears to be water, carbonic acid, &c. From these different substances, comes the sap, or blood of the plant, which produces the various secretions, as gums, resins, mucilages, &c.

Q. What does the term, animal imply ?

A. The term animal, in a general sense, is applied to every thing that is supposed to be alive to the sensations of pleasure and pain. Such are men, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects. Linnæus says, stones grow; vegetables grow and live; animals grow, live, and feel.

The constituent radical principles of animals, are carbone, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxigen, lime, and phosphorus.

Having thus briefly touched upon a very few

of the numerous subjects of chymical investigation, we conclude this article by observing, that there is, perhaps, no branch of science which so wonderfully displays the extent of the divine wisdom and goodness as this; and, at the same time, so interests and gratifies the inquisitive mind.

Note. This brief abstract is here introduced, principally, with a view of awakening, in Youth, a spirit of inquiry, and thereby leading them to a more minute and useful investigation of the variqus objects with which they are surrounded.

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FINIS.