DESTRUCTIVE BESULTS OF OXIDATION* 49 



Oxidation Products 



Hi 4 



(47.) The tendency of oxidation, then, is to separate the con- 

 stituent carbon and hydrogen atoms from one another, until at 

 last there is left only the most stable mono-carbon compound 

 known to chemists, namely, carbonic anhydride, or, as it is fre- 

 quently called, carbonic acid. No matter what the complexity of 

 the original molecule, the chemist eventually succeeds in trans- 

 forming it by oxidation, though a series of less and less complex 

 molecules, into carb-anhydride, or oxide of carbon, on the 

 one hand, and water, or oxide of hydrogen, on the other the 

 identical bodies out of which the vegetable organism directly, and 

 the animal organism indirectly, builds up those complex bodies 

 which we have designated proximate organic principles. As was 

 observed by Gerhardt some twenty years ago, 'one of the two 

 extremities of the scale of organic compounds is occupied by al- 

 bumin, and gelatin, and fat, and cerebral matter ; the other ex- 

 tremity by carbonic acid, and water, and ammonia ; while an 

 infinity of bodies are included in the interval. The chemist r by 

 treating the superior substances with oxidising agents, gradually 

 descends the scale of complexity, converting these substances into 

 more and more simple products, by successively burning off a 

 portion of their carbon and hydrogen.' 



(48.) Thus, then, we have presented to us one important aspect 

 of organic chemistry, namely, its analytic or destructive aspect ; 

 that aspect upon which, until of late years, the attention of 

 chemists was almost exclusively directed ; that aspect, indeed, 

 which was at one time considered to be the only possible aspect 

 that could ever be presented. To quote again from the same dis- 

 tinguished chemist, of whom I am always proud to avow myself 



