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COMPOSITION OF THE ALU.
201
breath expired by animals, and with many other gases resulting from the
decomposition of organic matter. Between the action of nature and the
eternal movement of the atmosphere an exchange is constantly being effected, by which the gases, one instant in the animal, plant, or rock, fixed
in an organism or in the terrestrial strata, are disengaged and recompose
the atmosphere.
Animals and plants would soon be all destroyed, for want of necessary
aliment, if the mixture of vapors and gas were not effected by the incessant movement of the aerial masses. Men and animals would gradually
kill themselves by absorbing again the carbonic acid already expelled
from their lungs; and plants plunged in an atmosphere too full of oxygen
emanating from their leaves would end too by dying. Happily, the currents of air, which pass in immense spirals over the surface of the earth,
uniformly mix all the gases they carry away with them, and thus favor
life over their whole course. To the temperate regions, which are principally the domain of man, they bring the oxygen which the immense forests of the tropical zone have exhaled ; to these same forests they impart
the carbon which is life to trees, and would be the death of man. Still
more, they animate the globe itself, by carrying immense quantities of vapor to the mountains where the net-work of springs is elaborated, and in
causing to circulate above the sea a dry air eager to absorb the water
which evaporates from its surface. Like the heart in living organisms,
the productive zone of the atmospheric currents occupies the central region
in the ocean of air, and moves alternately to the north and south. It is
thus that a movement of systole and diastole is produced in all the aerial
mass, impressing the initiatory speed to the arterial currents which carry
fertility to all points of the planet.
Every particle of gas passes thus continually from life to life, and escapes from death to death ; by turns, wind, wave, earth, animal, or flower,
despite its smallness, is the symbol of infinite motion. The air is an inexhaustible source whence all that lives draws its existence, an immense
reservoir into which all that dies pours its last breath. Under the action
of the atmosphere all the scattered organisms are born and perish. Life
and death are equally in the air which we breathe, and perpetually succeed one another by the exchange of gaseous particles. The same elements which are exhaled from the leaves of the tree are carried by the
wind to the infant that is just born; the last breath of a dying man goes
to form the brilliant corolla of the flower, and compose its penetrating
perfume. The breeze which gently caresses the stems of the plants is
farther on transformed into a tempest, uproots large trees, and destroys
ships, with all their crews. It is thus, by an infinite series of minor catastrophes, that the atmosphere sustains the universal life of the globe.
Comparable to the ocean, as to the incessant circuit of its waves, the
great atmospheric sea is not, however, inclosed in a basin bounded on all
sides. The atmosphere travels without cessation, bearing away on its
wings all the light objects which are exposed to its currents. It takes
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000230 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | COMPOSITION OF THE ALU. 201 breath expired by animals, and with many other gases resulting from the decomposition of organic matter. Between the action of nature and the eternal movement of the atmosphere an exchange is constantly being effected, by which the gases, one instant in the animal, plant, or rock, fixed in an organism or in the terrestrial strata, are disengaged and recompose the atmosphere. Animals and plants would soon be all destroyed, for want of necessary aliment, if the mixture of vapors and gas were not effected by the incessant movement of the aerial masses. Men and animals would gradually kill themselves by absorbing again the carbonic acid already expelled from their lungs; and plants plunged in an atmosphere too full of oxygen emanating from their leaves would end too by dying. Happily, the currents of air, which pass in immense spirals over the surface of the earth, uniformly mix all the gases they carry away with them, and thus favor life over their whole course. To the temperate regions, which are principally the domain of man, they bring the oxygen which the immense forests of the tropical zone have exhaled ; to these same forests they impart the carbon which is life to trees, and would be the death of man. Still more, they animate the globe itself, by carrying immense quantities of vapor to the mountains where the net-work of springs is elaborated, and in causing to circulate above the sea a dry air eager to absorb the water which evaporates from its surface. Like the heart in living organisms, the productive zone of the atmospheric currents occupies the central region in the ocean of air, and moves alternately to the north and south. It is thus that a movement of systole and diastole is produced in all the aerial mass, impressing the initiatory speed to the arterial currents which carry fertility to all points of the planet. Every particle of gas passes thus continually from life to life, and escapes from death to death ; by turns, wind, wave, earth, animal, or flower, despite its smallness, is the symbol of infinite motion. The air is an inexhaustible source whence all that lives draws its existence, an immense reservoir into which all that dies pours its last breath. Under the action of the atmosphere all the scattered organisms are born and perish. Life and death are equally in the air which we breathe, and perpetually succeed one another by the exchange of gaseous particles. The same elements which are exhaled from the leaves of the tree are carried by the wind to the infant that is just born; the last breath of a dying man goes to form the brilliant corolla of the flower, and compose its penetrating perfume. The breeze which gently caresses the stems of the plants is farther on transformed into a tempest, uproots large trees, and destroys ships, with all their crews. It is thus, by an infinite series of minor catastrophes, that the atmosphere sustains the universal life of the globe. Comparable to the ocean, as to the incessant circuit of its waves, the great atmospheric sea is not, however, inclosed in a basin bounded on all sides. The atmosphere travels without cessation, bearing away on its wings all the light objects which are exposed to its currents. It takes |
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