100 Gerhardfs Organic Chemistry. 



In this series we observe a regular gradation from the volatile and 

 soluble formic and acetic acids to the solid fatty acids at the other 

 extremity of the scale. Those from the 4th to the 10th inclu- 

 sive are oily and sparingly soluble, and present a regular increase 

 of about 20° Centigrade in their boiling points ; higher in th 

 scale they are solid at the ordinary temperature, and the stearic 

 and margaric cannot be distilled without decomposition. Red- 

 tenbacher has recently shown that all the liquid acids of this 

 group, with the exception of the formics, are produced in the 

 oxydation of oleic acid by nitric acid. # Stearic acid by the ac- 

 tion of the nitric loses two equivalents of carbon and four of 

 hydrogen in the form of water and carbonic acid ; and yields the 

 margaric ; which by a farther oxydation affords several of the 

 volatile acids of the series. The other solid acids yield the same 

 results, and are perhaps intermediate products in the oxydation of 

 the margaric by nitric acid. 



By the action of nitric acid upon wax, we oxydize a portion 



of its carbon and hydrogen, and obtain a series of bodies lower 



in the scale ; among these are the succinic, pimelic, and suberic 



acids, which, as we have already seen, are homologues of the 



form R" 2 4 . Spermaceti yields the same products as wax, but 



if we expose its homologue of the 2d family, aldehyde, to this 



process, it cannot yield succinic acid, which belongs to the 4th 



family, but we obtain instead its homologue in the 2d family, 

 oxalic acid. 



The results of science are continually demonstrating the uni- 



maxim 



Natura non facit 



^^ jf~ ~~— ^^"^jj vnv uavi^i v*a^oihj.j.icci I'll V Ol^dJ. L-iiaiw.v>^*« ? 



but agreeing in constitution, when arranged acccording to their 

 chemical relations exhibiting such a gradation that it is difficult 

 to say where the seeming dissimilarity begins or ends, and we 

 may expect that future discoveries will show many bodies of 

 which but one or two homologues are now known to be mem- 

 bers of a complete series. 



The examples which we have given, will illustrate the features 

 of this classification ; which founded as it is upon the natural 

 affinities of bodies and the numerical relations of their elements, 

 must necessarily be permanent. 



( To be continued.) 



This Journal, ii Ser., Vol. iii, No. 8. 



