8o _ THE SYNTHESIS OF FATS 



and the latter by loss of two molecules of carbon dioxide gave 



CH 3 CHOH CH 2 CHO -► CH 3 CH 2 CH 2 COOH 



Butyric acid 



In addition, smaller quantities of caproic and caprylic acids, 

 containing six and eight carbon atoms respectively, were 

 obtained. These investigations, together with those mentioned 

 on an earlier page, provide a fair amount of experimental 

 evidence in support of the view that sugars give rise to fats 

 by an initial breaking down to compounds containing a small 

 number of carbon atoms, and then combining these to form 

 compounds of higher molecular weight. The methods out- 

 lined above also account for the loss of oxygen necessitated 

 in passing from a carbohydrate containing six carbon atoms 

 to a fatty acid of the same number of carbon atoms as is 

 shown by the formulae C 6 H 12 6 ->C 6 H 14 2 , an operation which 

 would be very difficult by direct reduction, but is overcome 

 by the removal of hydroxyl groups as water. 



