NEUOFFENBARUNGThe nature and composition of the air (29 January 1847)
1. The water of the sea, as also in the lakes of the mainland, form a kind of compressed air in which animals can live. But this air belongs actually still to the earth-body itself, and indeed to it's outermost bark; Therefore it cannot be counted with the atmospheric air, but to the atmospheric air only that part of the water can be added which is found in fogs and clouds, as well as the free hydrogen gas in the air itself, even if it cannot be seen as fog or cloud.
2. What does the atmospheric air consist of in all it's parts?
3. The atmospheric air or the inhalation air, consists of a myriad of all kinds of air, all of which have the name gases or better, simple kinds of air.
4. Natural scientists are soon finished with the enumeration of the gases of which the atmospheric air consists; according to them, the air consists of a certain ratio of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and actual nitrogen gas. With these four species alone, the actual atmospheric air would be very badly served, if it did not possess other types of air; and if the air did not possess such other types of air, which are not known to naturalists, then the growth of plants, the formation of minerals, and the animal world would look extremely bad.
5. Every plant sucks from the atmospheric air into itself the simple kind of air that suits it alone, and eliminates any other. If this were not the case, then each plant would not have it's very own form, it's very own taste and smell after it's kind. But if every plant sucks in only one simple kind of air corresponding to it's kind, then there must be as many simple kinds of air as there are consumers in their kind and manner.
6. But that this is really the case and must be, is proven already as clear as day by the smell of each individual plant, and even more by it's inner substance; just smell a rose, a carnation, a lily, a violet, then a henbane, and then ask yourself whether one flower smells like the other.
7. The smell of the rose will have a strengthening effect on the olfactory organs and sharpen the sight; the clove will have a contracting effect on the olfactory organs and weaken the sight; the lily will make the olfactory organs flabby and in time even have a nauseating effect on the stomach organs, which not infrequently produces a pain in the head. The violet will have an exhilarating effect on the olfactory organs and even strengthen the brain, while the dirty yellow henbane will cause instant disgust and, if touched for a long time, dizziness and dilation of the visual pupil.
8. Question, can this alone be attributed to the four known simple kinds of gases, or can this alone be brought about by their possibly differently proportioned mixture? Yes, if these four gases were really the four simple basic substances from which all things are finally formed, it would be a disgrace for the highly learned chemists that they had not long since produced gold, silver and diamonds from them in the greatest abundance; for between the four simple kinds, a lot of all kinds of quantity mixtures can soon be accomplished, and from each mixture, if not exactly gold, then perhaps some new plant, or even some new race of miniature oxen, donkeys, and calves, or something else of the sort, would have to emerge; But see, such a thing does not happen in spite of the most erudite facial muscle contortions of such heroes of wisdom, and nothing comes to light but at most some whitish dust, which can be recognized as small crystals when examined with microscopes, by which, however, it does not want to have said much, because such crystalline dust is produced by nature in the open without the chemical kitchen – even better and more diversely by far. In autumn, you only need to observe a ripe plum or a ripe grape, or various tree leaves, and you will discover such dust as a so-called rime on the above-
mentioned fruits and leaves. Add a microscope and it will teem with the most beautiful crystals.
9. From this it follows again that there must be still more simple kinds of air than the four known alone. Thus there are also plants that breathe out such an extremely harmful air that animals and other plants must immediately die in it, just as there are other miraculous plants by which even the dead, if they have not been dead too long, could be revived; These two types of plants, the one extremely deadly, the other extremely invigorating, must nevertheless each, according to their kind, suck in a quite peculiar basic substance from the air, otherwise they would not become what they are.
10. But if this is undeniably the case, then it is again clear how many kinds of composition the atmospheric air must have in order to nourish the variety of created things in it according to their kind. But if the plants already need so many basic kinds in the atmospheric air for their existence, how much more different kinds of basic material must there be in the atmospheric air for the sake of the animals, so that every animal finds in the atmospheric air the inhalation material that suits it.
11. Each animal inhales the entire atmospheric air volume, but retains only that part of the inhaled volume which is homogeneous to it's nature; everything else is expelled.
12. I think, for the one who is able to think only a little more maturely, it will be enough with what has been said so far, to see how highly complicated the atmospheric air must be, so that in it, all the countless many most different beings find what corresponds with their nature. But if we have understood this easily, it will not be so difficult to understand the innumerable and peculiar appearances in the atmospheric air in so far as everyone finds a difference in the nature of the appearances according to his sensory perception, and must say to himself: This phenomenon is similar to an earlier one, but it's form is different; and if this is the case, there must also be a strange reason that did not exist before.
13. And again you will see appearances which always remain the same; these will also surely have the always same reason.
14. Once on the earth there were plants and animals which, as is known, do not exist any more on this world-body at present; but in their stead, other plant- and animal genera have developed which were not present at that time. Behold, these are phenomena, which are similar in certain relations, in others, however, very dissimilar. The Mammoth has similarity with the nowadays living elephant, so the giant ox with the current smaller one. These two animals have similarity in one respect; they belong to one and the same species, but they are very dissimilar in size and also in other formation. Thus, there were once giant trees, as already mentioned at the beginning of this communication; also at present, especially in the tropical countries, there is still a multi-stemmed tree species, which has a resemblance to the former largest tree, but is nevertheless no longer what this tree once was. There is a big difference both in the size and in the design.
15. All these phenomena are caused by the fact that the former gigantic species have not found the food corresponding to them in the atmospheric air any more, so they have finally died out completely. So there would be a basic air substance no longer there, which was once there; but for it, another came into being, which was once not there. Such a reason lies also mostly in the not seldom newly appearing diseases, both for plants and animals, with which the physicians also make such a face, as the chemists, if they endeavor to make gold, and in the end win a lump of very strongly stinking dirt instead of gold. It is true that similarities can be brought about; thus, newly developed diseases can also have a similarity with diseases that existed before; but if one compares the artificial gold with the natural one, there will be a difference like between 1000 and 1. In the same way, if one wants to cure a new disease with the same medicine that cured a previous similar disease, one will cut oneself tremendously; because this
new disease is the result of the lack of the raw material in the air, if it is consumed for some reason and as soon as it has not been produced again, and then it should be difficult to find a medicine that would contain the lost raw material in itself, by which the new disease could of course be lifted instantly. But since this matter can be of the most essential use to mankind, if it is brought into better knowledge, we shall speak of it more substantially next time, and take a look at the causes why certain basic substances in the air are lost either wholly or in part, and sometimes others take their place.