5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



plying a special process of hydrogenization to the alkaloids of the 

 peridic series, has pointed out a process of synthesis of the vola- 

 tile vegetable alkaloids. He has obtained an alkaloid presenting 

 the same composition as cicutine, differing from it only in a few 

 physical and chemical properties, but possessing the same toxic 

 action as the alkaloid of the hemlock. 



These results, and others, were of a nature to cause hopes to 

 rise ; but still the synthesis of. the sugars, and of the proteic sub- 

 stances which are the essential basis of protoplasm, seemed to defy 

 the efforts of chemists. 



To give an idea of the manner in which these results were 

 regarded only yesterday by the partisans of the special, irre- 

 ducible character of life, I quote a few lines from a book recently 

 published (1886) by M. Denys Cochin, under the title Evolution 

 et la Vie. After having recognized that modern chemistry en- 

 tered with Wohler and Berthelot into the way of synthesis ; that 

 it had made the synthesis of urea, formic acid, and ethylic alcohol ; 

 that these results had been for a long time regarded as contradic- 

 tions of the laws of mineral matter and as impossibilities ; and that, 

 consequently, science has imitated some of the works of Nature, 

 M. Denys Cochin adds (page 208) : " These are arguments of 

 which it would be wrong to exaggerate the weight. It is enough, 

 to show this, to recall roughly the facts on which the discussion 

 bears. Organic matter, vegetable or animal, is formed of very 

 complex substances. The most complex, those which we may re- 

 gard as the superior products of the synthesis performed by life, 

 are the sugars and the albumens. These superior products are 

 subjected during life to a slow combustion, which is fed by every 

 effort and every expenditure of energy. The complex albumens 

 are split and transformed into simpler albumens ; the simplest of 

 all is urea, a product of secretion, the waste of vital combustion ; 

 and urea itself splits into water and carbonate of ammonia. Or- 

 ganic matter thus returns to the mineral world. The sugars un- 

 dergo a series of similar combustions and end by giving carbonic 

 acid and water. . . . Now, the products of which chemistry per- 

 forms the synthesis are always products of combustion, wastes 

 of living matter, like alcohol, urea, and formic acid. They are 

 never albumens of complex formula, not even sugars, the most 

 perfect products of vital synthesis. 



" Is there a line between superior and inferior organic prod- 

 ucts ? Is there a characteristic that permits us to separate be- 

 tween them ? Superior organic products are endowed with a 

 curious power. Dissolved in water and traversed by a ray of 

 polarized light, they cause the plane of polarization to turn at a 

 certain angle to the right or the left. There is an unforeseen re- 

 lation between this power of dissolved bodies and their crystalline 



