OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. 237 



We have also seen, that peroxide of hydrogen and 

 the persulphuret of the same element, in the act of 

 decomposition, cause other compounds of a similar 

 kind, but of which the elements are much more 

 strongly combined, to undergo the same decompo- 

 sition, although they exert no chemical affinity or 

 attraction for them or their constituents. The 

 cause which produces these phenomena will be 

 also recognised, by attentive observation, in those 

 matters which excite fermentation or putrefaction. 

 All bodies in the act of combination or decomposi- 

 tion have the property of inducing those processes ; 

 or, in other words, of causing a disturbance of the 

 statical equilibrium in the attractions of the elements 

 of complex organic molecules, in consequence of 

 which those elements group themselves anew, ac- 

 cording to their special affinities. 



The proofs of the existence of this cause of 

 action can be easily produced ; they are found in 

 the characters of the bodies which effect fermenta- 

 tion and putrefaction, and in the regularity with 

 which the distribution of the elements takes place 

 in the subsequent transformations. This regularity 

 depends exclusively on the unequal affinity which 

 they possess for each other in an isolated condition. 

 The action of water on wood, charcoal, and cyano- 

 gen, the simplest of the compounds of nitrogen, 

 suffices to illustrate the whole of the transforma- 

 tions of organic bodies ; of those in which nitrogen 

 is a constituent, and of those in which it is absent. 



