I9I2.] BOGERT— CARBON COMPOUNDS. 259 



The attempt was made to apply this system of classification to other 

 derivatives of alcohol and even to extend it to all organic com- 

 pounds ; but it never won any widespread recognition. 



Berzelius, in 1817, explained the difference between inorganic 

 and organic compounds by stating that every oxidized inorganic 

 compound contained a simple radical, while organic compounds 

 consisted of oxides of compound radicals; and that in vegetable 

 substances the radical usually consisted of carbon and hydrogen, 

 while in animal substances it consisted of carbon, hydrogen and 

 nitrogen. He therefore defined organic chemistry as " the chem- 

 istry of the compound radicals" (1843). His conception of the 

 structure of organic compounds was a dualistic electro-chemical 

 one, in which the organic radicals played the same role as the ele- 

 ments in inorganic compounds ; thus, both electro-positive and elec- 

 tro-negative radicals were assumed. 



Gmelin, in the first edition of his great ''Handbook" (1817), 

 says that a clear distinction should be made between inorganic and 

 organic chemistry, but that this is a distinction which can be more 

 readily felt than strictly defined. He describes inorganic compounds 

 as binary compounds, the simplest consisting of compounds of two 

 elements, a basic oxide or an acid oxide, which can again unite to 

 form a binary compound of a higher order, i. c, a salt. Organic 

 substances, on the other hand, are at least ternary compounds, or 

 are composed of three simple substances, generally united in less 

 simple ratio than in inorganic. Hence, he includes in the inorganic 

 portion of his book methane, ethylene, cyanogen, and the like. He 

 adds, further, that organic compounds cannot, like the inorganic, be 

 artificially built up from their elements. 



Berzelius also supported the last statement, claiming that in liv- 

 ing structures the elements obeyed totally different laws from those 

 which regulate their behavior in the inanimate world. Organic 

 bodies were thus regarded as the special products of a mysterious 

 vital force and, although he admitted that bodies occurring in nature 

 might be converted into other organic compounds by chemical re- 

 actions, he maintained that none could ever be built up from their 

 elements. Consequently, Wohler's production of urea from am- 



