xvii MOLECULAR ARCHITECTURE 409 



almonds (benzaldehyde) he proposed to remedy this error 

 by regarding the compound, not as benzoyl hydride, 



(C 7 H 5 0)H, 



but as an oxide, (C^H^O, of a radical PiCRAMYL=Pk = 

 C7H0, 1 from Trixpo?, bitter, d/x,uySaA.r7, almond (Jahresbericht, 

 1843, 22, 328). This policy of robbing the radicals of their 

 oxygen had already been adopted in 1830 by Hermann, who 

 had suggested that 



" The vegetable acids all share the characteristic that they are 

 compounds of oxygen with hydrocarbons. They are thus 

 all to be regarded as different stages of oxidation of hydro- 

 carbons. Thus vegetable acids = CH + #0 " (Poggendorfs 

 Annalen der Physik, 1830, 18, 396). 



This view had been favourably received by Berzelius (fahres- 

 bericht) 1832, 11, 210) and was afterwards adopted by 

 Liebig (p. 405) when he gave to the radical C 2 H 3 the name 

 "acetyl," thus implying that the radical of acetic acid was 

 a simple hydrocarbon. 



But, if Berzelius thus objected to the presence of oxygen 

 and chlorine in the organic radicals, he had a still greater 

 objection to the idea that these elements could creep 

 in by a process of substitution for hydrogen. 



. " An element so eminently electro-negative as chlorine, 

 can never enter an organic radical : this idea is contrary to 

 the first principles of chemistry ; its electro-negative nature 

 and its powerful affinities would prevent it from entering 

 except as an element in a combination peculiar to itself " 

 (Comptes rendus, 1838, 6, 633; Ann. Chim. Phys., 1838, 67, 

 309)- 



In order to maintain this opinion, Berzelius was obliged, 

 in every actual case of substitution, to extradite the chlorine 

 from the electro-positive to the electro-negative part of the 

 molecule and to invent some new method of constructing 

 the radical. One example will suffice to illustrate his 

 1 C 14 H 12 , in the original. 



