DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 11 



lot, to which he gave the name arachic (or arachidic) 

 acid. He next investigated the cocoa-nut oil, and found 

 it to consist, not only of stearin and olein, as earlier 

 pointed out by Boussingault and Stenhouse, but also 

 of palmitin, the first mentioned in such predominating 

 proportion that it was considered one of the best ma- 

 terials for the preparation of pure stearic acid. 



In 1854 he published the results of his memorable 

 research on the conversion of thialdin into leucin. In 

 this research was verified the relation supposed to ex- 

 ist by M. Cahours between thialdin and leucin. The 

 former, C 6 H 13 NS 2 , he converted into leucin, C 6 H 13 NO 2 , 

 by treatment with oxide of silver and water at 212 

 Fahr. These results were at once communicated by 

 Wohler to Jean-Baptiste Dumas, Perpetual Secretary 

 of the French Academy of Sciences, and appeared in 

 the Comptes rendus the same year. It is interesting to 

 recall that in the years 1853 to 1856 (almost simultane- 

 ously therefore) Frerichs at Breslau and Virchow at 

 Wiirzburg were conducting investigations on the occur- 

 rence and separation of leucin and tyrosin in the ani- 

 mal organism, especially in the human liver. 



Soon after this he investigated the compounds of 

 leucin. He showed that leucin might be considered the 

 amide of a compound acid consisting of valeral (alde- 

 hyde of valeric acid) and formic acid, a view subse- 

 quently confirmed by his colleague Limpricht. He 

 showed, moreover, that leucin forms salts with oxide of 

 copper and with peroxide of mercury; and that with 

 oxide of lead two series of salts are formed, one insolu- 

 ble and the other soluble. He also prepared leucic acid 



