48 CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS IN RELATION, ETC. 



products resulting therefrom be known, we may determine the number and rela- 

 tion, of one, or two, or all its elements, that is to say, we can obtain their 

 formulae ; and thus the result of the analysis can be verified and corroborated. 



REASONS FOR THE CHEMIST TO STUDY THE PRODUCTS OF 

 DECOMPOSITION OF A BODY. 



The importance of formula; to chemistry is clear when considered from the fol 

 lowing point of view. A correct formula expresses the quantitative relations in 

 which one body stands to one, two, or more bodies. 



The formula for sugar expresses the whole sum of those of its elements, which 

 combine with an equivalent of oxide of lead, and it shows the quantity of car- 

 bonic acid and alcohol, into which it resolves itself by fermentation. This will 

 lead us to understand why chemists are often compelled to divide into numerous 

 products the matter, whose composition they wish to establish, and wherefore they 

 study combinations. These are all checks upon their analyses. No formula de- 

 serves implicit confidence, if the body whose composition is to be expressed have 

 not been subjected to this operation. 



MISUSE OF FORMULAE. 



While some modern physiologists forgot that the knowledge of the relations of 

 two phenomena must precede their expression in numbers, the formulae of che- 

 mists degenerated in their hands into senseles forms of jugglery. Instead of the 

 expression of a genuine relation of dependence, they sought to establish by num- 

 bers, relations which either did not exist in nature, or never had been observed. 

 This property, however, does not appertain to numbers.* 



HOPES. 



The time will come, although perhaps the present generation will barely live to 

 see it, when a numerical expression for chemical formulae shall have been obtained 

 for the measurement of all the normal energies of the organism, and of the devia- 

 tions in the functions of individual parts by means of the corresponding deviations 

 in the composition of the matter of which these parts consist, or of the products 

 to which they give rise. We shall thus obtain a better means of quantitatively 

 considering the effects which are induced by causes of disease, or by remedial 

 agents, and of more clearly and accurately observing the conditions of vital pheno- 

 mena. Then, indeed, it will be deemed impossible that there ever was a time, 

 when the share taken by chemistry in the acquirement of this knowledge could 

 be disputed, and when a doubt could be entertained concerning the way and 

 means by which this assistance has been afforded. 



* " Microscopic anatomy shows that in the composition of the brain and spinal cord, 

 there is a mixture of grey and white matter, and that albumen and oil occur together 

 in these organs. Instead of availing themselves of this anatomical fact, chemists have 

 analysed the fact as a whole ; that is to say, they have investigated an unknown mix- 

 ture of albumen and fat. By this means they have obtained a peculiar, apparently nitro- 

 genous fatty acid, to which the term cerebric acid has been applied, and have sought to 

 establish, on theoretical grounds, the anomaly of a nitrogenous fat. 



But by a simple chemical deduction, based on Mulder's formula for protein, it is easy 

 to show that we only obtain that which might be naturally expected, namely an evi- 

 dence that cerebric acid is a mixture of albumen, fat, and phosphorus. 

 For 1 at. cerebric acid = P C 178 H 170 N 2 . 5 Ogg.gg 



and 



t at. protein = C 20 H, 5 . 6 F 2 . 5 O 6 

 14-36 at. fat = C 158 H ]36 . 5 O,^ 

 18 at water = H 18 O 18 

 1 at. phosphorus = P 



P C 178 H 170 N a . 5 033.36 



Hence this apparent anomaly in reference to the composition of the brain disap- 

 pears." Valentin's Lehrbuch, Vol. i. p. 174. 



THE END. 



