Part 13 (1/2)

When your brother forgets the apples which he has set to roast, what happens to them?

They turn quite black, as you have seen more than once

It is always black, then, that these things turn, is it not? and a fine rich _charcoaly_ black, as you may see if you please to observe charcoal closely, for just such is the color of little burnt cakes, over-roasted chestnuts, and potatoes in their skins, which have been dropped into the fire

But there is a common term by which we can express more accurately the s--slices of bread, mutton-chops, apples, cakes, chestnuts, potatoes, and what-not, when ”burnt,” ”over-toasted,” ”over-roasted,” or ”over-baked” We may call them _carbonized_, or h the word _charred_ is generally used only for burnt _wood_ But _carbon_ being the principal ingredient of _charcoal_, and _charcoal_ being one of the purer foret at _carbon_, they are almost synonymous terms, and you may call your burnt food _carbonized_, or _charred_, or _charcoaled_, whichever you prefer

The next question is, how did charcoal or carbon get into the food so as to justify our talking of its being _carbonized_ or _charred_? Even e use charcoal stoves for cooking, the charcoal does not juet into the mutton-chops, etc, you may be sure Then it is clear it ht to the fire to be cooked; and such is indeed the case, only its black face escaped notice because it was in such gay-looking company, and kept itself hid behind the others like a needle lost in a match-box Set fire to theleft but the needle, which will then strike your eye at once And so with our burnt food; the fire has carried off all the other ingredients, and the charcoal is left behind alone, exposed to everybody's view, as if on purpose to teach them that it was always there; in the apples, ie, the potatoes,when the black rogue was hid, but from which nohen he is there by hiust

Charcoal is, in fact, a enerally distributed substance than you have been used to suppose, dear child That which comes from burnt wood is er proportion of charcoal in wood than anywhere else; but there is not a etable whatsoever, which does not contain charcoal In the sugar which you crunch, in the hich you drink, there is charcoal I could even find some in the water you wash in if I were to try hard There is charcoal in the goose-quill which I hold in , and in the handkerchief on ht of my wax taper, I shall soon see them turn black and betray the presence of our friend It exists in the wax taper itself, as also in the candle, as also in the oil lalass above their flah of it to blacken the tip of anybody's nose who presumed to doubt the fact

There is a portion of it in the air; a portion of it in the earth

Where is it not? In short, all the stones of all the buildings in the world are filled with it from top to bottom _Charcoal,_ under his more scientific and ireat lords of the world His doo round the world without getting out of it; he is even worse than the Marquis of Carabas

After this you will never, I hope, want to persuade me you do not eatcharcoal; for, indeed, you would be puzzled to escape doing so Of all the things you see on the dinner-table there is but one in which you will not find it--viz, the salt-cellar; and even while saying this, I mean only, in the _salt_ itself, for as to the salt-cellar, clear and transparent as its glass may be, there is charcoal in it!

Our bodies, therefore, are full of charcoal Everything that we eat supplies them with enormous quantities of it, which take up their quarters in every corner of our organs It is one of the principal materials of the vast collection of structures of which I spoke to you in the early part of these letters, and of which the blood, the steward of the body, is the universal master-builder If you remember, I told you then that these structures fell to pieces of the, and that the blood, which brings fresh s and heart, carries away the refuse ones on its return And, of all these refuse materials, old charcoal is one of those which takes up the reat deal of rooain, has his pockets quite craet rid of it as fast as possible, he would be disabled fros that he clears hiives it up to the air, which has need of it for a very interesting operation, of which I shall tell youwhich is quite indispensable to hians, as his authority would no longer be recognised

In the saoes to e

If he were to go home without money his ould receive hi which the blood obtains in his ?

Remember its name well: it is OXYGEN

And wehere of a very great and powerful personage, very superior even to CARBON If CARBON be one of the great lords of the world, OXYGEN is its king

There is a certain substance, irls, do not even know the naood half of everything we are acquainted with in the world And this substance is the very thing I have just nah as you can go, viz, to forty en_ forms the fifth part of that vast aerial ocean which surrounds the globe on every side

There it is free--is _itself_--if I as_; that is to say, it eludes our sight, though there is no difficulty in ascertaining its presence, when one kno to set about it

Go down into the depths of the sea People think they have good reasons for believing this to be two and a half ive a pretty little suht, as you will be convinced, if you take the trouble of observing the space it covers on aof lakes, rivers, streahout the interior or on the surface of continents, including that hich you wash your face every ht-ninths into the coht-ninths_, you understand, which is very near being the whole nine; in every nine pounds of water there are eight pounds of oxygen, the re left for another substance, of which we shall have occasion to speak presently, and which is called _hydrogen_

The earth on which you tread is full of oxygen So far as we have penetrated hitherto into the interior of the globe, we have found king Oxygen everywhere: hidden under a thousand forms, connected with a heap of substances, not one of which could exist without him; imprisoned in a thousand combinations, and always ready to resume his natural condition if his prison-house be destroyed The whole surface of the earth, plains, hills,you would look down upon, if on a clear day you could be carried high enough in a balloon to take in the whole earth at a glance:--all that en, out of which we should see it escaping in gigantic waves, if some superhuman chelobe into a retort of the saive you an exas, in which we have already discovered the presence of _carbon_, are alhs 100 lbs there are 48 lbs of oxygen, and the first chemist who passes by could make them come out of it if he chose, if he were to use a little trouble and skill

I enumerated to you last time many of the substances in which _carbon_ is to be found; but as regards _oxygen_ wea list; it would comprehend the whole dictionary Touch whatever lies under your hand--in your rooo--I will al--en Your very body, to conclude with, would becoen it contains extracted from it, that you would be perfectly a of the world, I did not say too reat norance of this all-i, which insinuates itself everywhere, which we make use of every instant of our lives, which may almost be said to be in some sort our very selves, since it constitutes three-fourths of our body, but whose name nevertheless would, I am certain, make many pretty little -roo ladies who are proud to knoho Caractacus ould be ashaen There is a foolish notion that women have no business with such subjects, probably because children are supposed not to breathe and mothers are not required to watch over them?

This reminds me that we are on the road to explain _respiration,_ which I had al up this corner of the veil behind which Nature hides her norant

It is _oxygen_ then, which the blood carries off triumphantly fros; and, by the way, it is, thanks to this oxygen that it returns froans, with that beautiful rosy tint which distinguishes _arterial_ froen on its road every time it performs the journey, and the perpetual course it perforans to the lungs, has for its chief object the perpetual renovation of this previous provision, which is as perpetually consumed