CHEMISTRY 229 



E. Fischer, it is known that in distinctly alka- 

 line solutions formaldehyde spontaneously goes 



over into a mixture of sugars which resemble 

 glucose. Moreover, such a solution is un- 

 questionably made up of much the same 

 variety of substances as a glucose solution 

 which has been subjected to the action of 

 alkali in the same concentration. 



As stated above, it is evident that if any- 

 thing is to be done chemically with a mix- 

 ture of carbon dioxide and water, oxygen must 

 be split off from both carbon and hydrogen 

 so that they may enter into the same mole- 

 cule. If this chemical change, which, to be 

 sure, is no easy one in the laboratory, be ac- 

 complished, formaldehyde among other things 

 results ; and in alkaline solution formaldehvde 

 produces carbohydrates and leads to that 

 amazing tangle of substances and reactions, 

 whose nature has been briefly indicated above. 

 In short, the one chemical process ivhich is 

 open, if any transformations whatever are to be 

 accomplished with carbonic acid and water, 

 leads directly and to all appearances necessarily 

 to the greatest complexity that has been found in 

 any one chemical process; to a system made up 

 of possibly two hundred substances or more, 

 most of which possess very great chemical 

 activity. 



