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XXVIII. On Toluidine^ a new Organic Base. By James 

 Sheridan Muspratt, Ph.D., and Augustus William 

 HoFMANN, Ph.D.* 



THE artificial formation of different compounds hitherto 

 considered as exclusively the products of the vital pro- 

 cess has been during the last ten years among the most in- 

 teresting results furnished by the study of the metamorphoses 

 of organic bodies. We have found in cyanic acid and ammonia 

 the compounds by whose union iirea is produced ; by the ox- 

 idation of uric acid with pure oxide of lead allantoin formed, 

 a crystallizable matter existing in the allantoic fluid of the 

 cow ; and salicine and Jiisel oil, when properly treated with 

 substances rich in oxygen, furnish us the acid's produced in 

 the process of the vegetation ofSpircea Ulmaria and Valeriana 

 officinalis', and, lastly, the composition and properties of the 

 volatile oil of Gaultheria iprocumbens were only necessary to be 

 known for its artificial production to succeed immediately in 

 the hands of the chemist. 



Still the greater part of the researches made during the 

 last ten years in organic chemistry have been of a purely ana- 

 lytical nature. Although the metamorphoses of a consider- 

 able number of organic bodies have been studied, still this has 

 not been with the view of obtaining certain compounds which 

 suggested themselves to the theoretical inquirer, but rather 

 with the intention of drawing conclusions as to the composition 

 and properties of the body which was the starting-point of 

 the investigation from the properties and nature of the pro- 

 ducts of its decomposition. 



From such inquiries we have reaped a rich harvest of ex- 

 perience, they have made us somewhat better acquainted with 

 the transformations which an organic substance suffers under 

 the influence of the most different agents, and have thus qua- 

 lified us for attempting the formation of a given compound in 

 one or the other way. But few such synthetical experiments 

 have as yet been performed; it is likely that a great number 

 will be made without success, which may be probably owing 

 to suppositions contrary to nature ; but it cannot be doubted 

 that we shall proceed in this direction with greater certainty 

 when a number of even unsuccessful trials of this kind has 

 been undertaken. 



The artificial production of bodies occurring in nature 

 presents at first a purely theoretical interest, but all will agree 

 that such endeavours may become of the highest practical 

 importance when they consider those compounds which now 



* Communicated by the Chemical Society ; having been read April 7, 

 1845. 



