CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 209 



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 coloring 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 exceedingly improbable that any purely non-vital process will be 

 successfully, and at the same time economically employed for the manufac- 

 ture even of such rare and valuable vital products. Such being the econom- 

 ical 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 economical production of staple 

 organic compounds, such as those constituting the food of man, are so 

 exceedingly slight, yet it would be rash to pronounce their ultimate realiza- 

 tion 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 ships by the force of the wind, and 

 our carriages by animal power, than to employ steam power for these pur- 

 poses. We do not find it desirable to wait for the bleaching of our calicoes 

 by the sun's rays ; and even the grinding of com is no longer entirely confined 

 to wind and water power. In such cases, where contemporaneous natural 

 agencies have been superseded, we have almost invariably drawn upon that 

 grand store of force collected by the plants of bygone ages, and conserved 

 in our coal fields. It is the solar heat of a past epoch that furnishes the 

 power which we now utilize in our steam-engines. One important element 

 in cheap production is time, and it is precisely in regard to this element, 

 that we economically supersede, in the above instances, the contemporary 

 resources of Nature. Now time is also an important element in the natural 

 production of food ; and although it is true that the amount of labor required 

 for the production of a given weight of food is not considerable, yet it is 

 nevertheless true that this weight requires a whole year for its production. 

 By the vital process of producing food we can only have one harvest in each 

 year. But if we were able to form that food from its elements without vital 

 agency, there would be nothing to prevent us from obtaining a harvest every 

 week ; and thus we might, in the production of food, supersede the present 

 vital agencies of nature, as we have already done in other cases, by laying 

 under contribution the accumulated forces of past ages, which would thus 

 enable us to obtain in a small manufactory, and in a few days, effects which 

 can be realized from present natural agencies, only when they are exerted 

 upon vast areas of land, and through considerable periods of time. 



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