1858.] Organic Bodies without the agency of Vitality, 543 



rock, and furnished with the necessary apparatus and inorganic 

 materials, to support life entirely without either animal or vegetable 

 food. No one of these nitrogenous constituents has however yet 

 been artificially produced, and the absence of all clue to their 

 rational constitution forms at present a formidable barrier to their 

 non-vital formation. 



It would be difficult to conclude a subject like the present, with- 

 out any notice of the considerations which naturally suggest them- 

 selves, regarding the possibility of economically replacing natural 

 processes by artificial ones in the formation of organic compounds. 

 At present, the possibility of doing this only attains to probability 

 in the case of rare and exceptional products of animal and vegetable 

 life. Thus valerianic acid, which for a long time was extracted 

 from the root of the Valeriana officinalis, could now probably be 

 more cheaply prepared from its elements ; but a still cheaper source 

 of this acid has been in the meantime discovered, viz. the oxidation 

 of amylic alcohol, a waste product formed in the manufacture of 

 spirit of wine, and obtainable at such a moderate cost as to prevent, 

 in an economical point of view, the successful production either of 

 amylic alcohol or valerianic acid by any artificial and exclusively 

 non-vital processes at present known. It is also highly probable, 

 that if we could produce artificially such bodies as quinine and the 

 rare alkaloids, or alizarine and similar powerful and valuable 

 organic colouring matters, we should be able to compete with 

 organic life in the formation of these bodies; nevertheless, the 

 discovery of the processes of artificial formation would doubtless be 

 preceded by a knowledge of methods, by which such rare bodies 

 could be produced from more abundant, and consequently cheaper 

 forms of vegetable or animal matter ; and it is therefore exceed- 

 ingly improbable, that any purely non-vital process will be suc- 

 cessfully, and at the same time economically employed for the 

 manufacture even of such rare and valuable vital products. Such 

 being the economical bearings of the case with regard to the rare 

 and exceptional educts of vitality, when we turn to consider the 

 great staple products of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the 

 hope of rivalling natural processes becomes faint indeed. By no 

 processes at present known could we produce sugar, glycerine, or 

 alcohol from their elements, at one hundred times their present 

 cost, as obtained through the agency of vitality. But, although 

 our present prospects of rivalling vital processes in the economi- 

 cal production of staple organic compounds, such as those constitut- 

 ing the food of man, are so exceedingly slight, yet it would be 

 rash to pronounce their ultimate realization impossible. It must 

 be remembered, that this branch of chemistry is as yet in its 

 merest infancy, and that it has hitherto attracted the attention of 

 few minds; and further, that many analogous substitutions of 

 artificial for natural processes have been achieved. Thus, under 

 certain circumstances, we find it less economical to propel our shij^s 



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