132 



HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 



[LECTURE vin. 



that is to say, it seemed to contain an atom of water 

 more than the newly discovered compound. Berzelius now 

 draws attention to the fact that the latter compound cannot be 

 converted into the barium salt of sulphovinic acid by boiling 

 it with water, and that therefore the view underlying these 

 formulae (in accordance with which the substances contain 

 ready formed water) is erroneous. According to him, alcohol 

 and ether are the oxides of two radicals, C 2 H 6 and 2 H 5 = 

 C 4 H 10 . The compound ethers are thus still regarded as com- 

 posed of ether and of acid ; but there is no longer ready formed 

 water in them, and they now become comparable with salts : 



Ether - - - - C 4 H 10 O 



Haloid Ether - - C 4 H 10 C1.> 



Acetic C 4 H 10 + C 4 H 6 0~ 



Nitric ,, -C 4 H ]0 O + N 2 O 5 



KO 



KC1, - 

 KO + C 4 H 6 3 



KO+NoOg 



Potash 



Muriate of Potash 

 Acetate ,, 

 Nitrate 



Berzelius very clearly perceived the importance of his sug- 

 gestion. He had now attained what he had long striven for. 

 The dualistic conception was now applicable to organic com- 

 pounds, or at least to the most fully investigated group of 

 them ; and he does not conceal the pleasure which this occa- 

 sions him. He states- that the organic substances^are now to 

 be regarded (in the same way as mineral substances) as binary 

 groups, but that in them compound radicals alone play the part 

 of the inorganic elements a view which Dumas and Liebig 

 afterwards develop fully in a special treatise. 9 (Compare 

 p. 128.) 



A ground for discord was now provided, and it was not to 

 be long before the contention should begin. The next incite- 

 ment to it is given by Liebig, who throws down the glove to 

 the etherin theory. 10 According to him, this theory has no 

 justification, and all the grounds that can be advanced in its 

 favour rest upon fallacious experiments. Amongst these there 

 is, in the first place, an observation of Hennell, 11 according to 

 which sulphuric acid absorbs etherin (olefiant gas), and pro- 



9 Comptes Rendus. 5, 567. 

 240; 1828, 365. 



10 Annalen. 9, I. n Phil. Trans. 1826, 



