454 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



it did not always produce a natural, l)ut frequently a 

 purely artificial, compound. The practical effect of this 

 discovery has been remarkable, not to say astonishing. 

 New industries have been founded, and a branch of 

 science has been created called " organic chemistry," but 

 more correctly the " chemistry of carbon compounds," 

 which was undreamt of in the beginning of the century. 

 52. At that time "organic chemistry" meant that branch of 



Change in o ./ 



orga'^nic*"' ^ ^^ scieucc which dealt with the compounds which were 

 chemistry. fQy^Y^^[ [y^ i\^q structurcs of the Vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms, and which were peculiar to them.^ This 

 meaning of tlie term " organic chemistry " has disap- 

 peared ; but the branch of science which deals specially 

 with the substances contained in living matter has not 

 disappeared. Only the development of chemistry on the 

 lines pre-eminently prescribed by the atomic view of 

 nature has diverted the attention of many investigators 

 and philosophers from the original problems of organic 

 chemistry the study, the analysis, and the reproduction 

 or synthesis of such compounds as are immediately con- 

 nected with living matter. 



To the extent that these problems which have not lain 



1 The merit of having upheld the 

 twofold aspect of organic chem- 

 istry and of having urged the 

 necessity of two distinct ways of 

 analysing organic substances, be- 

 longs in this century pre-eminently 

 to Chevreul. Not only are his 

 ' Recherches sur les Corps gras 

 d'Origine animale,' carried on from 

 1813 to 1823, a model work of 

 great theoretical and practical 

 value ; but he has in various writ- 

 ings, notably in his historical 

 memoirs ('Journal des Savants,' 



1852-60), insisted on the necessity 

 of studying what he terms, after 

 Fourcroy, " les principes im- 

 mediats, qui constituent les 

 vegdtaux et les auimaux." This 

 study is based upon quite a different 

 method from that usuallj- called 

 " analyse el^mentaire. " Chevreul's 

 great work has been continued and 

 developed by M. Berthelot in his 

 celebrated book, ' Chimie organique 

 fondce sur la Synthese,' 1860, two 

 vols. 



