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312 CHEMICAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 



zc acid and ammonia are produced by the decompo- 

 sition of its radical. 



Thus, a substance into the composition of which 

 only two elements (carbon and nitrogen) enter, yields 

 eight totally different products. Several of these 

 products are formed by the transformation of the 

 original body, its elements being shared between the 

 constituents of water ; others are produced in con- 

 sequence of a further disunion of those first formed. 

 The urea and carbonate of ammonia are generated 

 by the combination of two of the products, and in 

 their formation the whole of the elements have as- 

 sisted. 



These examples show, that the results of decompo- 

 sition by fermentation or putrefaction comprehend 

 very different phenomena. The first kind of trans- 

 formation is, the transposition of the elements of one 

 complex compound, by which new compounds are 

 produced with or without the assistance of the ele- 

 ments of water. In the products newly formed in 

 this manner, either the same proportions of those 

 component parts which were contained in the mat- 

 ter before transformation, are found, or with them, 

 an excess, consisting of the constituents of water, 

 which had assisted in promoting the disunion of the 

 elements. 



The second kind of transformation consists of 

 the transpositions of the atoms of two or more com- 

 plex compounds, by which the elements of both 

 arrange themselves mutually into new products, with 

 or without the cooperation of the elements of water. 

 In this kind of transformation, the new products 

 contain the sum of the constituents of all the com- 

 pounds which had taken a part in the decomposition. 



The first of these two modes of decomposition is 

 that designated fermentation, the second putrefac- 

 tion ; and when these terms are used in the following 

 pages, it will always be to distinguish the two pro- 

 cesses above described, which are so different in 

 their results. 



