° Tk 
i 
W. Gibbs on the Constitution of Organic Compounds. 19 
while acetic acid is referable to the type of two equivalents of 
water, and has the formula 
C130 
. O°} On. 
3. One pe of any ammonium may replace one equiva- 
lent of hydrogen. Thus the formula of the hydrate of the 
oxyd of the primitive ammonium, NH:10+HO, is also referable 
to the type of two equivalents of water, and we have for it the 
expression 
Ni 
H 
4, Certain radicals, whether divisible or indivisible, are binary 
or ternary in character, and replice two or three equivalents of 
hydrogen. Thus the radicals C202, CsO;, and S20: are binary 
while nitrogen, phosphorus, &c. are ternarv. These premises, 
as every chemist knows, are not new. I formulate them for 
t 
j O2. 
- convenience of reference, and to save repetition. 
a 
ro now to apply these principles to certain bodies to 
whic they have not Rian bean eetended and will consider 
the compounds in question seriatim. 
Glycocoll or glycosin—The empirical formula of glycosin was 
first definitely established by Horsford* in an elaborate memoir 
to which I shall frequently have occasion to refer. Of its ra- 
tional constitution no satisfactory theory has been proposed. I 
refer it to the type of hydrate of oxyd of ammonium, and con- 
sider it to have the formula 
428 Papi 
H 
This view of course (8) ultimately reduces glycosin to the type 
of two equivalents of water, Oz Glycosin, as is well known, 
combines with acids, bases, and salts. Its feebly acid character 
is explained, upon my view, by the presence of the two chlorous 
adicals; its basic properties, by the existence of two equivalents 
of hydrogen in the ammonium molecule; while its neutral char- 
acter—which resembles that of water—may be explained by 
po ral that the chemical sum of the chlorous and zincous 
affinities in the ammonium approaches the charaeter of an equiv- 
alent of hydrogen, so that we have the functionul equation (nearly 
true), 
{ CeHO2 
N ag =H, 
H 
* Ann. der Chemie und Pharmacie, lx, 1. 
