NON-NITROGENOUS ACIDS. 31 



If these well-established rules be followed, and the properties 

 of most albuminous matters and their derivatives be compared in 

 accordance with these considerations, we shall easily perceive what 

 credit should be attached to the formulae established for the compo- 

 sition of these bodies, and with what temerity these most proble- 

 matic of all formulce have been transferred to physiology only to 

 involve it in a new labyrinth of vague dreams and fantastic fictions. 

 This absence of reasoning power, this perfect ignorance of all leading 

 maxims having any scientific import, this superficial knowledge of 

 the true requirements of science, has led many physicians to make 

 elementary analyses of admixtures of several substances of a highly 

 variable composition : as, for instance, of blood, bile, muscle, &c., 

 and to establish chemical formulae from the data thus afforded. 

 Even were it not known that these animal fluids are composed in 

 their physiological condition of constituents having very variable 

 and different proportions, and that microscopic observation had 

 shown the muscular bundles to be composed of very distinct and 

 separate morphological elements, this offence against the first prin- 

 ciples of chemistry ought not to be palliated, on the supposition 

 that unchemical experiments might chance to yield valuable phy- 

 siological results ; for physiology demands from chemistry exact 

 and scientifically established facts, and not the mere ignes fatui of 

 chemical illusions. 



NON-NITROGENOUS ACIDS. 

 = C n H n _ I 3 +HO. 



The acids of this group possess (as is indicated by the above 

 formula) the following property ; in their isolated state, that is to 

 say when not combined with bases, they contain 4 atoms of oxygen 

 and a multiple of a carbo-hydrogen polymeric with olefiant gas ; 

 in their combination with bases they lose, however, 1 atom of water, 

 so that the resulting salt contains an acid in which 3 atoms of 

 oxygen are combined with a carbo-hydrogen whose hydrogen is 

 always too little by 1 equiv. exactly to produce olefiant gas with 

 the carbon. 



The number of this class of acids is considerable ; we have 



Formic acid C 2 H O 3 .HO=(CH) 2 O 4 . 



Acetic acid C 4 H 3 O 3 .HO=(CH) 4 O 4 . 



Metacetonic acid C 6 H 5 O 3 .HO=(CH) 6 O 4 . 



Butyric acid C 8 H 7 O 3 .HO=(CH) 8 O 4 . 



