W. Gibbs on the Constitution of Organic Compounds. 38 
82. > 
The views above developed have led me to the consideration of 
the rational constitution of certain organic acids, some of whic 
. 
have been already mentioned. In en eavoring to establish the 
from the products of its decomposition, and not merely from the 
number of equivalents of replaceable hydrogen which it con- 
tains. Thus the empirical formula of lactic acid is CoHeOc, and 
as the acid with this forthula is monobasic, it is usually reduced 
to the type of two equivalents of water, 
CsH504 
H ' 03, 
the compound CeHsO. being considered as having the value _ 
of one equivalent of hydrogen. eae 
_T have endeavored to show that, inasmuch as lactic acid is de- 
rived from alanin by the replacement of Os by N, and separa- 
tion of an equivalent-.of water, the true type is that of four 
equivalents of water, the rational formula being 
O1H302 
C2 0:, 
H 
and upon this view I have endeavored to Re the difference 
etween the lactic acid derived from flesh and that formed in the 
fermentation of sugar, this difference being explained not by the 
assumption of two isomeric radicals, CcHsOs, but by an actual - 
' difference in the structure of the acid. I haye su also 
| that there may be a species of glycosin having the formula 
yf OHS born. 
In this case there must also be a body isomeric with alanin, and 
aving the formula 
y { OFS |o+Ho, 
Supposing of course that the two radicals which I have assumed 
ethyl correspond rol ly upon the supposition 
BP ponds to four volumes only up 
‘that the acid is monobasic. The rational formula above pro- 
_ SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXV, NO. 18.—JAN., 1858. 
5 
