Theory of Chemical Types f Electro-chemical TJieory. 189 



ride of the acetic radical, or acetic acid, in which for a por- 

 tion of the oxygen chlorine had been substituted ; yet this body 

 is nothing but the chlorinated sether of M. Malaguti. 



Just so, when I was occupied with the study of chloroform 

 C 4 H 8 Ch H 6 , the manner in which it acts with the po- 

 tassa, the formation of the chloride of potassium, and of the 

 formic acid which result from it, led me to consider it as 

 being formic acid, C 4 H 2 O 3 , in which equivalent quantities of 

 chlorine supplied the place of the oxygen ; yet M. Regnault 

 has lately shown that chloroform is nothing but some hydro- 

 chloric {ether of methylene, in which chlorine has supplied 

 the place of a portion of the hydrogen, the body C 4 H 6 Ch 2 

 being changed by this substitution into C* H 2 Ch 6 . 



The result of these examples, which might be multiplied, 

 would be, that the actions of bodies are not a faithful guide, 

 for they lead us to refer to acetic acid, a body derived from 

 aether, and to formic acid, a body which represents hydro- 

 chloric aether of methylene. But in looking nearer, we see, 

 in fact, 



^Ether C 8 H 10 O 



Chlorinated sether C 8 H 6 O 

 Ch 4 



Acetic acid ;. C 8 H O 



O 2 , 



belong really to the same molecular grouping, and that in 

 saying that chlorinated aether is derived from aether, and that 

 it produces acetic acid, nothing really contradictory has been 

 affirmed. 



On the other hand, 



Methylic aether C 4 H G O 



Formic acid C 4 H 2 O 



O 3 

 Chloro-methylic sether C 4 H 6 Ch 2 



Chloroform C 4 H 2 Ch a 



Ch 4 , 



constitute bodies of the same molecular grouping, so that 

 chloroform may be viewed as anhydrous formic acid, or as 

 bichlorinated chloro-methylic aether, without these two ways 

 of regarding it at all contradicting each other. 



The result of this is, that chemical actions, without possess- 

 ing the absolute character which has often been given to 

 them, deserve a confidence which may have been momentarily 

 shaken, but which a profound examination again establishes 

 in its true place in our minds. 



In fact, we have admitted that substitutions may unveil 

 the molecular grouping of bodies by furnishing a set of equa- 



