86 ELECTROLYSIS AND ELECTROSYNTHESIS. 



direct addition of water to this compound capronic 

 acid results, and this then breaks up into the acids and 

 other decomposition products mentioned above. 



A critical review of the subject-matter which has 

 here been presented will bring out, concerning the 

 electrolysis and electrosynthesis of organic com- 

 pounds, several important points which promise to 

 be of great assistance, at no very distant date, in con- 

 nection with future research in the field of organic 

 chemistry. These points may be summarized as fol- 

 lows: the oxidation reactions which occur in the 

 electrolysis of acids of the aliphatic series, the reduc- 

 tion reactions in the case of the aromatic series, and, 

 lastly, the reactions involving substitutions, concern- 

 ing which but few researches have been published. 

 Of these the first is apparently the most promising. 



Since in all the experiments which have thus far 

 been made the dependence of all reactions upon 

 current density, temperature, and concentration is 

 clearly evident, the attention of experimenters is 

 again called to the importance of exact data con- 

 cerning the conditions of experiment. 



