Researches respecting the radical of Benzoic Acid. 281 



of needle-form crystals are deposited, which are unchanged ben- 

 zoin. 



General Observations. — Reviewing and collecting together the 

 relations described in the present essay, we find that they all group 

 around one single compound, which does not change its nature and 

 composition in all its combining relations with other bodies. This 

 stability, this consequence of the phenomena, induced us to consider 

 that body as a compound base and therefore to propose for it a pe- 

 culiar name, i. e. benzoyl. 



The composition of this radical we have expressed by the formula 

 14C + 10H+2O. 



In combination with one atom of oxygen, benzoyl forms dry ben- 

 zoic acid, and in combination with one atom of oxygen, one of water, 

 the crystallized acid. 



In combination with two atoms of hydrogen, it constitutes pure 

 bitter almond oil. When this oil changes in the air into Benzoic 

 acid, it takes up two atoms of oxygen, one of which with the radi- 

 cal generates benzoic acid and the other with the two atoms of hy- 

 drogen forms the water of the crystallized acid. 



Farther, the hydrogen of the oil or the oxygen of the acid may 

 be replaced by chlorine, bromine, iodine, sulphur or cyanogen, and 

 the bodies proceeding thence, comparable with the corresponding 

 compounds of phosphorus, all form, by their decomposition with wa- 

 ter, on the one side a hydracid, and on the other benzoic acid. 



The replacement, of two atoms of hydrogen in the bitter almond 

 oil by an acidifying base, appears to us in all cases a strong argument 

 for adopting the opinion, that this hydrogen is in a peculiar manner 

 combined with the other elements ; this peculiar method of combi- 

 nation may be hinted at rather than pointed out by the idea of the rad- ' 

 ical, which is borrowed from inorganic chemistry. 



Although both benzamide and benzoin were originally in connection 

 with the radical, they are wholly without its sphere, and must be con- 

 sidered as peculiar bodies, bearing no nearer relation to benzoyl,- than 

 the cuttings of bone to ammonia. 



Since we cannot compare the ternary base with cyanogen, be- 

 cause the greater number of elements must occasion far more com- 

 plicated decompositions, and because they have no prevailing resem- 

 blance, we believe it not improbable, that there is more than one 

 group of organic bodies, for example, the fluid oils, which may have 

 this same radical as a compound basis. How far such a conjecture 



