278 CHEMICAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 



any narrow limits, like those of inorganic bodies, hut are in fact 

 unlimited. 



The elements of sugar yield to every attraction, and to each 

 in a peculiar manner. In inorganic compounds, an acid acts 

 upon a particular constituent of the body which it decomposes, 

 by virtue of its affinity for that constituent, and never resigns its 

 proper chemical character, in whatever form it may be applied. 

 But when it acts upon sugar, and induces great changes in that 

 compound, it does this not by any superior affinity for a base ex- 

 isting in the sugar, but by disturbing the equilibrium in the mu- 

 tual attraction of the elements of the sugar amongst themselves. 

 Muriatic and sulphuric acids, which differ so much from one 

 another, both in characters and composition, act in the same 

 manner upon sugar. But the action of both varies according to 

 the state in which they are ; thus, they act in one way when di- 

 lute, in another when concentrated, and even differences in their 

 temperature cause a change in their action. Thus, sulphuric 

 acid of a moderate degree of concentration converts sugar into a 

 black carbonaceous matter, forming at the same time acetic and 

 formic acid. But when the acid is more diluted, the sugar is 

 converted into two brown substances, both of them containing 

 carbon and the elements of water. Again, when sugar is sub- 

 jected to the action of alkalies, a whole scries of different new 

 products are obtained ; while oxidizing agents, such as nitric acid, 

 produce from it carbonic acid, acetic acid, formic acid, sac- 

 charic acid, and many other products which have not yet been 

 examined. 



If, from the facts here stated, we estimate the power with which 

 the elements of sugar are united together, and judge of the force 

 of their attraction by the resistance which they offer to the action 

 of bodies brought into contact with them, we must regard the atom 

 of sugar as belonging to that class of compound atoms, which exist 

 only by the vis inertia of their elements. Its elements seem 

 merely to retain passively the position and condition in which they 

 had been placed, for we do not observe that they resist a change 

 of this condition by their own mutual attraction, as is the case 

 with sulphate of potash. 



Now it is only such compounds as sugar, compounds there 



