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more would be hurtful. The rationale of itseffects in ay be deduced from its extraordinaryseptic power, for it is found to accelerate pu-trefaction in a higher degree than any othersubstance*; and hence it is not ploughed inlike other manures, but barely strewed on thesurface of the land; and in the month of Fe-bruary, to convert the old grass quickly intocoal, to nourish the young growth.

2dly. From its being itself no inconsiderablepart of the food of many plants, particularlyof clover, pulse, and com, but the land onwhich it is strewed must be dry, such as wouldnaturally suit clover, &c. otherwise it wouldbe useless.

Thus far I have endeavoured to illustrate theimportant subject proposed by the Academy ,collecting and reflecting upon it the scatteredrays resulting from the latest chemical re-searches. The intimate connexion betweenmany of these, seemingly the most abstractand remote, with the hidden processes of na-ture, may now' be clearly perceived. These

* Histoiie de la Putrefaction, 36.