Relation of Inorganic to Organic Bodies 65 



chemic, or electric energy needed to effect the change. But, 

 in order to reach correct biological conclusions as to the evolu- 

 tionary origin of the organic compounds, one has to lay em- 

 phasis on very different substances from those most fully 

 treated in manuals or text-books of organic chemistry. Even 

 the designation and definition given is often misleading bio- 

 logically. Thus organic chemistry has been described shortly 

 as the chemistry of hydrocarbons and their products. But all 

 evidences point very clearly to the view that the hydrocarbons 

 alike of plants and animals are amongst the ultimate products, 

 if they are not actually the extreme end products, of decom- 

 position or analytic changes. 



Therefore, were the attempt made to write what might be 

 called '*a biological text-book of organic chemistry," all present 

 knowledge points to the treatment first of sugars and other 

 crystalloid carbohydrates, next of the starch, cellulose, gum, 

 and other colloid carbohydrates; thereafter the oils, fats, and 

 fatty acids would have their origin traced; next the amides 

 and amino-acids; then the proteins, ferments, and protoplasm; 

 since all of these represent advancing biochemical bodies syn- 

 thesized by successive upward steps. In descending series the 

 protein derivatives, the glucosides, alkaloids, organic acids, 

 crystals, and finally the hydrocarbons, including rubbers, resins, 

 and volatile oils, would receive consideration. Want of know- 

 ledge as yet prevents such treatment, while the subject itself 

 is one of enormous extent. But the beautiful and often con- 

 tinuous series of organic compounds already constructed by 

 the chemist lead one to expect even more striking advances 

 for the future, and not least along the lines at present indicated. 



Now it may well be asked whether the plant, in elaborating 

 even its simpler substances like sugar and oils, effects the 

 unions by intricate means and highly lavish expenditures of 

 lower types of energy, or whether such are built up by more 

 direct action, and by the energizing agency of some more i)erfect 

 energy than we have hitherto recognized, or have only surmised 

 the possible existence of. In partial reply, it may not be 

 inappropriate here to quote shortly a few of the laboratory 



