I9I2.] BOGERT— CARBON COMPOUNDS. 263 



Kane, several years before (about 1840), had exposed himself to 

 no such difficulty. In his " Elements of Chemistry " he discussed 

 all organic compounds as carbon derivatives and prefaced this chap- 

 ter with the following remarks : 



" The element which is pecuHarly organic and which, with the one excep- 

 tion of ammonia, exists in all bodies derived from an animal or vegetable 

 source, is carbon. It is hence that I have deferred the description of carbon 

 and its compounds until I could pass directly from it to the great variety of 

 organic bodies of which it is the basis. With the constituents of inorganic 

 bodies it has but an accidental connection ; for, as I shall hereafter show, 

 there is no form of carbon which has not at some time made part of an 

 organized being." 



In the great " Handworterbuch " of Liebig, Poggendorfif and 

 Wohler (1851), we find the following: 



" Since, however, a natural boundary between organic and inorganic com- 

 pounds in general does not exist, and can no longer be assumed, since we 

 know that both are subject to the same combining laws, and since, therefore, 

 if a separation is desired, an artificial and arbitrary boundary line must be 

 drawn, it appears simplest to designate organic chemistry directly as ' the 

 chemistry of the carbon compounds,' and only a few, namely the simplest car- 

 bon compounds — CO2, CO, COCI2, CS2 and carbamic acid — are more conven- 

 iently referred to inorganic chemistry." 



Kekule later (1866) expressed himself in similar vein. He says: 



" We must come to the conclusion that the chemical compounds of the 

 vegetable and animal kingdoms contain the same elements as those of inani- 

 mate nature. We know that in both cases the same laws of combination hold 

 good, and hence that no differences exist between organic and inorganic com- 

 pounds either in their component materials, in the forces which hold these 

 materials together, or in the number or mode of grouping of their atoms. . . . 

 If, however, for the sake of perspicuity, a line of demarcation is to be 

 drawn, we must remember that this boundary is an empirical rather than a 

 natural one and may be traced at any point which seems most desirable. If 

 we wish to express by ' organic chemistry ' that which is usually considered 

 under the name, we shall do best to include all carbon compounds. We, there- 

 fore, define organic chemistry as 'the chemistry of the carbon compounds,' 

 and we do not set up any opposition between inorganic and organic bodies. 

 That to which the old name of organic chemistry has been given, and which 

 we express by the more distinctive term of the chemistry of the carbon com- 

 pounds, is merely a special portion of pure chemistry, considered apart from 

 the other portion only because the large number and the peculiar importance 

 of the carbon compounds renders their special consideration necessary." 



This change in the significance of the term " organic " chemistry 



