96 ANIMAL CHEMISTRY LECTURE IT. 



to conclude a subject like the present without some notice of 

 the considerations which naturally suggest themselves regarding 

 the possibility of economically replacing natural processes by 

 artificial ones in the formation of organic compounds. At pre- 

 sent,, the possibility of doing this only attains to probability in 

 the case of rare and exceptional products of animal and vegetable 

 life. By no processes at present known could we produce sugar, 

 glycerin, or alcohol from their elements at one hundred times 

 their present cost, as obtained through the agency of vitality. 

 But, although our present prospects of rivalling vital processes in 

 the economic production of staple organic compounds, such as 

 those constituting the food of man, are exceedingly slight, it 

 would be rash to pronounce their ultimate realisation impossible. 

 It must be remembered that this branch of chemistry is as yet in 

 its merest infancy ; that it has hitherto attracted the attention of 

 but few minds ; and further, that many analogous substitutions 



of artificial for natural processes have been achieved 



In such cases where contemporaneous natural agencies have been 

 superseded, we have almost invariably drawn upon that grand 

 store of force collected by the plants of bygone ages and conserved 

 in our coal-fields.' 



