red," five economic points in relation to it demand the
feeder's attention: these are--the first cost of the mechanism, the
expense of maintaining the mechanism in working order, the price of
the raw materials intended for conversion into meat, the value of the
meat, and the value of the manure. In proportion to the attention given
to these points, will be the feeder's profits; but they are, to some
extent, affected by the climatic, geographic, and other conditions under
which the farm is placed.

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: If the elements were only capable of combining with each
other in simple ratios, the number of their combinations would be as
limited as that of the letters of the alphabet; but as one, two, or
more atoms of oxygen can combine with one, two, or more atoms of
other elements, we can assign no limits to the number of _possible_
combinations. There are hundreds of distinct substances formed of but
two elements, namely, hydrogen and carbon.]

[Footnote 2: In a paper by Professor Sullivan, of Dublin, the conversion
of one of these substances into another _outside_ the animal mechanism,
is almost incontrovertibly proved.]

[Footnote 3: _Experimental Inquiry into the Composition of some of
the Animals Fed and Slaughtered as Human Food._ By John Bennet Lawes,
F.R.S., F.C.S., and Joseph Henry Gilbert, Ph.D., F.C.S. _Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society._ Part II., 1860.]

[Footnote 4: From the Greek _plasso_, "to form." Plastic materials are
sometimes termed _formative_ elements; both terms imply the belief that
they are capable of giving shape, or form, not only to themselves, but
also to other kinds of matter not possessed of formative power.]

[Footnote 5: The slow conversion of phosphorus into phosphoric acid
takes place in the animal organism; its gradual oxidation in the open
air gives rise only to an imperfectly oxidised body--_phosphorous acid_.
But the latter fact does not invalidate the general proposition, that
the heat emitted by a substance undergoing the process of oxidation is
proportionate to the amount of oxygen with which it combines, and is not
influenced by the length of time occupied by the process, further than
this, that if the oxidation be _very_ rapidly effected, a portion of the
heat will be converted into an _equivalent_ amount of light.]

[Footnote 6: This statement is not absolutely correct, but the range
of variation is confined within