664 BERZELIUS ON THE COMPOSITION OF 
of Chemistry’ (pt. 1. S. 544. Stockholm, 1817), in the following 
words :— We find the following to be the difference between 
organic and inorganic bodies; all oxidized bodies in inorganic 
nature have a simple radical, whereas all organic substances are 
oxides of compound radicals. In vegetable substances these 
radicals are generally composed of carbon and hydrogen; in 
animal substances, of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. Acids 
with compound radicals are therefore synonymous with acids of 
organic origin. In like manner as ammonia is an alkali with a 
compound radical, 7. e. of organic origin, being chiefly obtained 
from the animal kingdom, but nevertheless has the greatest ana- 
logy to the alkalies which have a simple radical, and are derived 
from inorganic nature, so we shall find the same analogy to exist 
between the acids of organic and those of inorganic origin, and 
as potash and soda are related to ammonia, so are sulphuric, 
nitric, and phosphoric acids related to acetic, oxalic and citric 
acids, &c.” 
The number of analysed organic substances was confined to 
those which had been the subject of Thénard and Gay-Lussac’s 
and my own experiments. The view thus put forth was pro- 
bably considered by the greater number of chemists as prema- 
ture, for it remained twenty years quite unnoticed. 
The notions which in the course of time prevailed were of 
quite a different nature. Organic bodies were looked upon as 
binary compounds of elementary substances, or as binary com- 
pounds united with an element. Prout endeavoured to show 
that the greater number of vegetable substances, particularly 
those used as food by animals, could be considered as combina- 
tions of water with carbon in different relative atomic propor- 
tions. Thénard and Gay-Lussac had already conceived this idea, 
although they saw at the same time that it was not tenable. 
Other chemists began to calculate how organic substances, ac- 
cording to circumstances, might be considered as combinations 
of two or more binary compounds; carbonic acid, water and 
carburetted hydrogen, in different proportions. There was no 
other foundation for these calculations but individual opinion 
and accordance with the per-centage result of analysis; all the 
views differed, and now no longer belong to the science, but to 
its history. | 
The idea of the union of binary compounds had in the mean — 
time received a strong support from Gay-Lussac’s examination 
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