THE CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN CHEMISTRY 



its identity, and enter into chemical relations after the 

 manner of a simple body. A year later Ampere discov- 

 ered that nitrogen and hydrogen, when combined in cer- 

 tain proportions to form what he called ammonium, 



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JUSTUS VON LIEBIG 



have the same property. Berzelius had seized upon this 

 discovery of the compound radical, as it was called, be- 

 cause it seemed to lend aid to his dualistic theory. He 

 conceived the idea that all organic compounds are bi- 

 nary unions of various compound radicals with an atom 

 of oxygen, announcing this theory in 1818. Ten years 



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