An experiment proved to me that the mysterious Ternary, which has occupied the human mind from time immemorial, will not be found by physical analyses, which lack direction to a fixed point.

I will relate, in the first place, the experiment itself.
"'Sow cress-seed (to take one among the many substances of organic nature) in flour of brimstone (to take another simple substance).
Sprinkle the seed with distilled water, that no unknown element may reach the product of the germination.

The seed germinates, and sprouts from a known environment, and feeds only on elements known by analysis.
Cut off the stalks from time to time, till you get a sufficient quantity to produce after burning them enough ashes for the experiment.

Well, by analyzing those ashes, you will obtain silicic acid, aluminium, phosphate and carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, the sulphate and carbonate of potassium, and oxide of iron, precisely as if the cress had grown in ordinary earth, beside a brook.

Now, those elements did not exist in the brimstone, a simple substance which served for soil to the cress, nor in the distilled water with which the plant was nourished, whose composition was known.