190 Soap. 
ist. That the discovery of a small number of species of 
fat bodies, susceptible of uniting together in indefinite pro- 
“portions, explains the differences of fusibility, odour, and 
taste, which are found in ave prodigious quantity of tallows, 
fats, butters, and oils, which are met with in organized 
bodies, and at the same A it reduces to the laws of definite 
combinations, an entire class of substances which seemed to 
be withdrawn from it. It is evident that stearine, oleine, 
butirine, phocenine, piscine and cetine, are to the tallow, 
fat, butter, and oil, which they constitute, what those metals, 
which, (like tin and lead, tin and copper,) are capable of 
uniting in indefinite proportions, are to their alloys, 
2d. That the species of fat bodies which I have established, 
form in organic chemistry a new class of substances which 
present groups extremely distinct from each other: thus we 
have fat bodies which are acids, and fat bodies which are 
not so. bec the former are found, 1. the stearic, mar- 
garic, and oleic acids, which, relativel to the manner in 
which they are affected by heat, correspond with the benzoic 
acid; 2. the volatile acids, of which I have spoken in the 
memoir, which c correspond with the acetic acid. Among 
the fat bodies not acids, there are some, as cholesterine aa 
ethal, which experience no alteration by the most powerful 
alealjes, whilst others, as stearine, oleine, butirine, phocenine, 
and hircine, are all converted, under the alcaline influence, 
intoa mild principle on the one part, and into fat acids, fixed 
or volatile, on the other part; and it is not impossible that 
this last species may be constituted immediately by the 
same acids, and a mild anhydrous principle, which performs 
the functions of a base. However this may be, we cannot 
avoid commuering the substances which produce odoriferous 
acids by saponification, as resembling others, which are 
regarded as compounds of acids and alcohol. It is very 
probable that butirine. such as I have prepared it, is a union 
of several species of immediate principles, each of which is 
characterized by the property of wines reduced, under the 
a ve ine influence, into a mild principle, and a single volatile 
aci 
