BUNSEN MEMOEIAL LECTURE. 609 



fectly with the behavior of the whole alkarsin group that it woukl he 

 scarcely possible to find a more striking example of a conipouiKl i-adi- 

 cal. Alkarsin is kakodyl oxide, Kd; it can be directly oxidized -md 

 deoxidized. Alkargen is kakodylic acid, Kd.'" 



In a further notice (Jahresber., 1842 (21), 503) Berzelius writes: 



"By this investigation Bunsen has made his name mcmorahle. 

 Chemical science is bound to acknowledge its debt to him foi- the 

 investigation of a subject at once so hnportant and so dangerous— an 

 investigation of which it may well be said that it leaves little to be 

 desired." 



Again he reports (Jahresber., 1845 (24), 640): 



"Bunsen has now concluded his investigation on kakodyl. Through 

 the private communications with which the author has favored me, 

 I have been able each year to give an account of the experiments as 

 they progressed. The research is a foundation stone of the theoi-y of 

 compound radicals of which kakodyl is the only one the properties of 

 which in every particular correspond with those of the simple radicals." 



And he concludes his criticism with a paragraph referring once more 

 to the importance of this tedious and difficult research. 



To quote another opinion, that of one of the leaders of modern 

 chemical science, to place side by side with that of the great Swede, 1 

 would refer to that expressed by Adolf von Baeyer in his editorial 

 remarks in the reprint of Bunsen's work in Ostwald's collection of 

 scientific classics: 



"These researches have long been considered classical, and they 

 deserve such praise, particularly as pieces of model investigation 

 demonstrating how the most difficult pro])lems of experimental chem- 

 istry can be solved by a master's hand." 



Among the many remarkable new facts which these resean-lies con- 

 tain is that of the nonpoisonous properties of cacodylic acid, although 

 it contains no less than 54 per cent of soluble arstMiic. 



'•A solution of 8 grains of cacodylic acid injected into j'"' ^''"'i 

 jugularis of a ral^))it produced no deleterious result on the liealth ot 

 the animal.'' 



It is also of interest to read Bunsen's description of th.- properties 

 of cacodyl cyanide, by the explosion of which h.- lost the sight ..t his 

 right eve, was nearly poisoned, lying for days between life and (leath, 

 buttheinvestigation of which he nevertheless broughttoa satista.«..ry 

 conclusion. 



nide, 



oilv 



of' 



It is remarka))le that when one is exposed 



SM 99 39 



