in the soil or medium in which plants grow, will be sought out and appropriated to their use. "The roots of plants," says Liebig, "are constantly engaged in collecting from the rain, those alkalies, which formed a part of the sea-water, and also of the water of springs, which penetrate the soil. Without alkalies and alkaline bases, most plants could not exist, and without plants, the alkalies would disappear gradually from the earth. "When it is considered that sea-water contains less than one-millionth of its own weight of iodine, and that all combinations of iodine with the metallic bases of alkalies are highly soluble in water, some provision must be supposed to exist in the organization of sea-weed and the different kinds of fuci, by which they are enabled during their life to extract iodine in the form of a soluble salt from sea-water, and to assimilate it in such a manner, that it is not again restored to the surrounding medium. These plants are collectors of iodine, just as land-plants are of alkalies; and they yield us this element in quantities such as we could not otherwise obtain from the water, without the evaporation of whole seas."-p. 167-168. There have come under our own observation cases in which the soil of a garden has been so completely exhausted, of all alkaline elements and nitrogenized compounds, that the seeds of garden plants would never arrive at perfection. Beets, cabbages, etc. would grow of immense size, by the immense supply of carbonic acid, yielded by the constant addition of nearly pure carbonaceous manures, and just enough of the other elements to sustain vegetation, but when the period for the ripening of seed came on, the essential elements were wanting, and they withered in the earliest stage of development. They died of asphyxia, or starvation, and could no more reach perfection, without the given elements, than an animal could, who was supplied with abundant food, but no air. The second part of Dr. Liebig's work is devoted to the subjects of fermentation, eremacausis, (decay,) and putrefaction. We are well aware that some physiologists have objected to Dr. L's. principles and reasonings, as contained in this part of the work before us, and in the volume devoted more exclusively to animal chemistry; but his results are too well established, by well ascertained facts, to be affected by the labors of the mere examiner of organs. The conclusions of the latter are results of hypothesis on the influence of life, which is made the great agent in all operations, many of which are as strictly chemical as any that occur in the laboratory. We have neither inclination or space even to allude to these objections, but shall content ourselves with giving a brief view of some important points contained in this part of the work. The spontaneous changes of organic products have been divided into fermentation, eremacausis and putrefaction; and this division has contributed much towards an intelligible classification of many phenomena before imperfectly systematized and has afforded further illustration of the admirable uniformity of all those laws which govern nature's operations. Fermentation "is the transposition of the elements of one complex compound, by which new compounds are produced, with or without the assistance of the elements of water."-p. 274. Thus sugar (grape) is composed of carbon, 12 atomsoxygen, 12 atoms-and hydrogen, 12 atoms. Now when this substance is in contact with any fermenting substance, the elements take a new arrangement, and form two new compounds, very unlike each other and the parent substance from which they originated. 8 atoms of the carbon, and the 12 atoms of hydrogen, and 4 atoms of oxygen unite and form 2 atoms of alcohol; the remaining 4 atoms of carbon and 8 of oxygen unite and form 4 atoms of carbonic acid,— thus from the simple alteration in the arrangement of the elementary molecules of sugar, two new compounds are produced; and this change, and all similar transformations, are called fermentation. Putrefaction "consists of the transpositions of the atoms of two or complex compounds, by which the elements of both arrange themselves mutually into new products, with or without the co-operation of the elements of water." Thus cyanogen, consisting of nitrogen and carbon only, by being placed in water, becomes decomposed and forms, by the element of water, compounds, which, by their affinities, produce other compounds, so that when the transformations are complete, no less than eight different products are formed. The putrefaction of meat which consists of numerous products results from the different affinities being called into active operation, by the contact of so many highly complex substances. Eremacausis, decay, or slow combustion, as the term implies, is the action of oxygen on the elements of a compound, performing precisely the same operation as in combustion, and the process is the same, with the exception of the production of sensible light and heat. The rotting, and ultimate decay of wood, is, in all essential particulars, a similar operation to that of burning it. The oxygen unites with the hydrogen and carbon of the wood, and forms carbonic acid and water in both cases. The conditions in which fermentation and putrefaction take place, and the force by which the operations are commenced and continued, are topics of prime importance, the understanding of which might administer to the interests of every one, even in the most common operations that occur in the conservatory and kitchen. The conditions of the commencement of fermentation or putrefaction, are the presence of water, heat and atmosphere; the latter is not needed when ferment is added. Ferment is thus defined by Liebig: "This substance, which has been called yeast or ferment, from the power which it possesses of causing fermentation in sugar, or saccharine vegetable juices, possesses all the characters of a compound of nitrogen in the state of putrefaction and eremacausis."-p. 278. "Yeast produces fermentation in consequence of the progressive decomposition which it suffers from the action of air and water."p. 279. The reader will bear in mind that yeast produces fermentation not by any specific action on the fermenting substances, but from the change its own elements are undergoing, it induces a change in the elements of substances, with which it is in contact; not that the change is the same as that taking place in itself, for that may be, as is the case with yeast, putrefaction and eremacausis, the change in the contiguous body may be fermentation. This principle is of most extensive application, and although but recently advanced as a force producing chemical action, yet its truth is most conclusively established by innumerable phenomena with which every one is acquainted. We all know that a piece of putrid meat placed on a piece that is fresh, will make the fresh meat immediately commence the same process; a rotten limb will, not unfrequently, induce rapid decay in the whole tree, whereas, by removing the decaying limb, the health of the tree is restored. Organic nitrogenized compounds will, of themselves, when in contact with water and of sufficient temperature, commence spontaneously these changes. Hence the juices of all plants, which contain the nitrogenized substances, gluten, albumen, fibrine, and casseine, will undergo spontaneous fermentation. The exhibition of these principles of change in one compound body, induced by a change going on in another, constitutes the principal interest of this part of the volume under consideration. And we knew of no subject that promises so much aid to our daily operations as this branch of organic chemistry. Dr. Liebig applies it to the action of poisons, contagions, miasms, etc., but we must leave the subject and the volumes with the reader, most earnestly recommending their perusal to every one. Oxford: 1833. ART. IX.-Researches into the Politics, Intercourse and 1836. INDIA presents many interesting subjects of consideration and speculation to the students of history. The oriental scholar, especially, has found it the richest mine of information upon all subjects touching the literature and mythology of the East. At the head of the great company of learned orientalists is Sir William Jones, whose example first recommended this department of literature to the European world. Their labors have certainly removed, in a measure, the mystery in which it was buried, without accomplishing, however, the principal purpose of their studies-the determination of the degree of influence which the East has exercised on the civilization of the West. In this respect all have failed. The Hindoos themselves have preserved no information on this subject; and the inferences deducible from the facts before us, are by no means free from doubt. So that although it is highly probable, and, indeed, not without some semblance of proof, that from this people, the most cultivated of the Eastern nations-the rest of Asia and Europe derived, originally, most of their knowledge and information,-the fact cannot be proven. Unlike the "boiling gulf," described by Milton, between the nether and the upper world, over this dark abyss no architect, of philosophic speculation, has succeeded in paving a "broad and beaten way," nor made it tamely to "endure a bridge of wondrous length," by which men, "with easy intercourse, may pass to and fro." Indeed, in the same poet, we find an apposite description of the fate of some scholars, whose adventurous muse had seduced them to undertake the task. "At last his sail-broad vans He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke Audacious; but that seat soon failing meets A vast vacuity-all unawares, Flutt'ring his pennons vain, plumb down, he drops The "high antiquity" of Hindoo civilization cannot, however, be doubted. This opinion was common among the most ancient, as it is among the modern nations; and we will endeavor to show that the reasons for adopting it, are sound and sufficient. However indisposed we might be to believe Herodotus, the oldest heathen historian, a doubtful witness on other points, on this he is good authority. He mentions India as an old and populous country. So also other Greek writers repeat, the reports brought them by travellers, of its arts, wealth and refinement, with an astonishment bordering upon incredulity. Frequent mention too is made, by the Jewish historians, of the wisdom of the East, and of those rich productions which were the objects of the cupidity of all the ancient nations. Passing by, however, these merely presumptive arguments, we will consider the positive historic testimony which exists. The first authentic accounts of India, which we possess, were written by the officers who accompanied Alexander in his Indian expedition. Among other things, they inform us that at that time the distinction of castes prevailed, and that the country was divided into kingdoms of great wealth and populousness. These two facts, if they stood alone, would be sufficient proof that, even at that early period, the Hindoos had attained a high degree of improvement. The castes were divided into four orders, and each of them was unchangeably fixed in a certain station of society. The priest-the soldier-the husbandman-and the operative, could never quit his own or be received into a different caste. The distinctions between them were sanctioned by |