these metalloids have been styled the organogens, or organ-forming elements. The chemist tells us that wood, sap, starch, muscle, blood, nerve, and all other organized substances, result from the combination of these four principles in varying proportions.

Vegetables feed upon inorganic matter; they derive their carbon from carbonic acid, their nitrogen from ammonia, and their oxygen and hydrogen from water.

Animals are dependent upon the vegetable kingdom for their sustenance. A large number of races feed directly upon herbs and fruits; others prey upon the bodies of these vegetable-feeders. When animals die, their bodies suffer decomposition, and their original constituents-water, ammonia, and carbonic acid, return to the atmosphere, to nourish another generation of plants, for another generation of animals to feed upon.

The elements are indestructible, and death merely alters the arrangement of their atoms.

The ancient philosopher contended that all things were formed out of four elements: the modern philosopher declares that the two great organic kingdoms spring from a few invisible gases. The theory seems almost as credible as the fact! The following words from the pen of a celebrated chemist,* read like a page of some wild romance, and

* Liebig.

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yet they deal with facts that are incontrovertible : "Man is formed of condensed air (or solidified and liquefied gases). He lives on condensed as well as uncondensed air, and clothes himself in condensed air. He prepares his food by means of condensed air, and by means of the same agent moves the heaviest weights with the velocity of the wind. But the strangest part of the matter is, that thousands of these tabernacles formed of condensed air, and going upon two legs, occasionally, and on account of the production and supply of those forms of condensed air which they require for food and clothing, or on account of their honour and power, destroy each other in pitched battles by means of condensed air."

We have now arrived at a true solution of the great problem-what is the world made of?

The three kingdoms of nature are built up of some sixty-three elementary bodies, endowed with the most diverse properties and affinities; each being destined to perform some important part in the great system of creation. Truly has it been said, that the powers of not one element could be modified without destroying at once the balance of harmonies, and involving in one ruin the economy of the world!

Although the ancient doctrine of the Four Elements has been exploded by chemistry, we must still honour the mighty sages by whom it was propounded. The doctrine is not wholly false, and

were we to confine our observations, as they did, to the external properties of matter, we should be forced to acknowledge the justice of their conclusions.

In some sense the world is really made up of the four elements. Fire may be said to represent the imponderable agents-heat, light, and electricity; the remaining elements, the three physical states of ponderable matter, namely, the gaseous, liquid, and solid. The difference between our present views and those of the ancients consists in this, we regard these states as mere modes of existence, while they believed them to be distinct principles.

We must now take leave of the Four Elements, as we fear our readers are growing impatient for another story from the plenteous budget of Science.