CAROLINE.
But sugar, you have told us, is found in all vegetables; it cannot, therefore, be the product of their decomposition.
MRS. B.
It is true that this fermentation is not confined to the decomposition of vegetables, as it continually takes place during their life; and, indeed, this circumstance has, till lately, prevented it from being considered as one of the fermentations. But the process appears so analogous to the other fermentations, and the formation of sugar, whether in living or dead vegetable matter is so evidently a new compound, proceeding from the destruction of the previous order of combinations, and essential to the subsequent fermentations, that it is now, I believe, generally esteemed the first step, or necessary preliminary, to decomposition, if not an actual commencement of that process.
CAROLINE.
I recollect your hinting to us that sugar was supposed not to be secreted from the sap, in the same manner as mucilage, fecula, oil, and the other ingredients of vegetables.
MRS. B.
It is rather from these materials, than from the sap itself, that sugar is formed; and it is developed at particular periods, as you may observe in fruits, which become sweet in ripening, sometimes even after they have been gathered. Life, therefore, is not essential to the formation of sugar, whilst on the contrary, mucilage, fecula, and the other vegetable materials that are secreted from the sap by appropriate organs, whose powers immediately depend on the vital principle, cannot be produced but during the existence of that principle.
EMILY.
The ripening of fruits is, then, their first step to destruction, as well as their last towards perfection?