32 W. Gibbs on the Constitution of Organic Compounds. 
Lai 
Upon the view above taken that albumen is reducible to the | 
type of hydrate of oxyd of ammonium in which hydrogen is | 
partially replaced by certain amids, we may assign to it the — 
ormula 
| 
. 
N.H.CeHu02 a i 
N.H.CsH302 0+ HO=C22HaiN +O. 
C2HO2 
T again observe that I bring forward this formula simply as an 
illustration of a particular view, and not as a definite expression 
for the constitution of albumen. Speculations of this kind are 
not without value, since it is, to say the least, possible that all 
the crystalline nitrogenous vegetable and animal products are re- 
ducible to the same general type of two or more equivalents of 
water in which hydrogen is more or less completely replaced by 
complex ammonium molecules. I will even venture to hazard 
N.H.OuHs502 
N 
cule taking the place of the oxygen displaced. If we admit that : 
oxygen and nitrogen replace eac other in the manner supposed, 
jong to the same type. Substitutions of oxygen for nitrogen 
sometimes occur, as in the conversion of acetonitril into acetic 
acid, since we have 
C+HsN-+-3HO=01H:03-+-N Hs, 
