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ARTICLE XXII. 
Opinions relating to the Composition of Organic Substances. 
By J. Berzevius*. 
[From Poggendorff’s Annalen, vol. xviii. p. 161.} 
No portion of the science of chemistry has given mse to so 
much difference of opinion as the composition of organic sub- 
stances. The greater number of those who have occupied them- 
selves with the subject, have often been led by their experiments 
to quite unexpected modes of combination, have taken up at the 
moment some peculiar ideas concerning them, and, without 
noticing the relationship which these may or may not bear to the 
whole system of the science, have pursued constantly the same 
course in search of further proof of their own views. Jn this man- 
ner almost innumerable different opinions have been broached. 
To these I do not intend to add another; but my object in this 
essay is simply to call attention to the want of unity thus brought 
into the science, and to the injury which it sustains from these 
purely fanciful views, to check and restrain the unscrupulous 
flight of the imagination in theoretical speculations, and to abide 
steadfastly, whenever it is possible, by that which can in some 
measure be proved by practical observation. I am prepared in 
doing this to dispense with the approbation of the many. 
Empirical and rational Composition—The composition of 
every organic substance can be determined by analysis. The 
atomic weight of the greater number can also be ascertained with 
some degree of certainty, by aid of which the number of simple 
atoms, as likewise the relative number of atoms of each element, 
can be satisfactorily established. This constitutes the empirical 
composition of the substance. For instance, the composition of 
oxamic acid is represented by the empirical formula C*H*N?0O°, 
Now arises the question, how are these elementary substances 
coupled together? Can and must this acid be considered as 
composed on the one hand of 5 atoms of oxygen, and on the 
other of a compound radical C4 H* N?? The mode of union of the 
elements in forming this radical is simple and not improbable; 
but we know that such is not the composition of the acid, but 
* Translated by E. Ronalds, Ph.D. 
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