the Formation of Organic Bodies, ^S!7 



method of operating in this experiment, as well as the fact of 

 the distillation of the water conjointly with the alcohol, was, it 

 is true, known before M. Mitscherlich, but to him belonged the 

 merit of foreseeing the consequences. In a word, he demon- 

 strated, that at this temperature the sulphuric acid acted upon 

 the alcohol, in virtue of the same power which determines the 

 action of alkalies upon oxygenated water, since the water, sepa- 

 rating itself entirely from the mixture, had not obeyed any affi- 

 nity for the acid ; and he hence concluded, that the action of 

 the sulphuric acid and the diastase upon starch, whence result- 

 ed sugar, must be of the same nature. 



It is proved, therefore, that many substances, simple and com- 

 pound, solid and in a state of solution, possess the power of ex- 

 ercising upon compound bodies an influence essentially distinct 

 from chemical affinity, an influence which consists in the produc- 

 tion of a displacement, and a new arrangement of their elements, 

 without their directly and necessarily participating in it, some spe- 

 cial cases only excepted. Assuredly such a power, which is capable 

 of effecting chemical reactions in unorganised substances, as well 

 as in organised bodies, although still too little known to be ac- 

 curately explained, must play a far more important part through- 

 out nature than we have hitherto been led to suppose. In de- 

 fining it a new power, I am far from wishing to deny that some 

 connection exists between its influences and the electro-chemical 

 ones, with which we are more familiar ; on the contrary, I am 

 very much disposed to recognise in it a peculiar manifesta- 

 tion of these same influences ; but notwithstanding, so long as 

 we have not ascertained the real nature of this power, it will be 

 more simple, so far as regards our future researches, to consider 

 it as independent, and to confer upon it, for the facility of com- 

 prehension, a particular name. Accordingly, I shall designate 

 it, thereby following a well known chemical etymology, the c«- 

 talytic power of bodies ; and the decomposition it produces I 

 shall call catalysis^ in the same way as we have designated by 

 the term analysis^ the separation of the elements of a compound, 

 by means of the ordinary chemical affinities. This power seems 

 definitely to consist, in a faculty of bodies, by their simple pre- 

 sence, and without any chemical participation, to rouse up the play 



