XXX11 CONSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS. 



have thus from one point of view determined its constitu- 

 tion. Again, by the action of certain reagents we find 

 that an atom of ox} r gen and an atom of hydrogen are 

 given off, and their place is taken by one atom of chlorine, 

 thus showing that the hydrogen and oxygen were present 

 in the compound in the form of a monovalent group, or as 

 h} r droxyl, which is the only form that satisfies these con- 

 ditions. These and other similar facts are looked upon as 

 proofs of the constitution of alcohol. 



It is in work of this kind that chemists are at present 

 largely engaged, and the results achieved are already of 

 great magnitude. The constitution of a large number of 

 substances occurring in nature has been discovered, and 

 the discovery of their constitution has in many cases led 

 directly to the artificial preparation (synthesis) of the sub- 

 stances. Although this cannot be considered the highest 

 aim of the science of chemistry, yet the cultivation of this 

 field promises rich reward, direct and indirect, and its 

 development will place us a step nearer that state in which 

 all chemical phenomena can be dealt with as other physical 

 phenomena are now dealt with, viz., as subject to mathe- 

 matical laws. 



