TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 119 



the opinion generally prevailed among chemists and physiologists that there was 

 some gi-eat and fundamental difference in the chemical phenomena and laws of 

 organic and inorganic nature. Now, however, this supposed barrier has been in a 

 great measure broken do-svai and removed, and chemists, with almost one accord, 

 regard the laws of combination of the elements as essentially the same in both 

 classes of bodies, whatever difl'erences may exist in actual composition, or in the 

 reactions of organic bodies in the more complex and often obscure conditions of 

 vitality, as compared with the simpler and, on the whole, better known pheno- 

 mena of a chemical nature observed in the mineral kingdom. Thus, by the syn- 

 thetic method, there have been formed among the simpler organic compounds a 

 great number of alcohols, hydrocarbons, and fatty acids. But the most remarkable 

 example of the synthetic formation of an organic compound is that of the alkaloid 

 conia, as recently obtained by Hugo Schitf by certain reactions from butyric 

 aldehyde, itself an artificial product. The substance so formed, and its com- 

 pounds, possess all the properties of the natm-al conia — chemical, physical, and 

 physiological — being equally poisonous with it. The colouring-matter of madder, 

 or alizarine, is another organic compound which has been formed by artificial 

 processes. It is true that the organized or containing solid, either of -N-egetable or 

 animal bodies, has not as yet jdelded to the ingenuitj^ of chemical artitice ; nor, 

 indeed, is the actual composition of one of the most, important of these, albumen 

 and Its allies, fully known. But as chemists have only recently begun to discover 

 the track by which they may be led to the synthesis of organic compounds, it is 

 warrantable to hope that ere long cellulose and lignine maj' be formed ; and, great 

 as the difficulties with regard to the albumenoid compoimds may at present 

 appear, the synthetic formation of these is by no means to be despaired of, but, on 

 the contrary, may with confidence be expected to crown their eflbrts. From all 

 recent research, therefore, it appears to result that the general natm'c of the 

 properties belonging to the products of animal and vegetable life can no longer bo 

 regarded as diflerent from those of minerals, in so far at least as they are the 

 subject of chemical and physical investigation. The union of elements and their 

 separation, whether occmTing in an animal, a vegetable, or a mineral body, must 

 bo looked upon as dependent on innate powers or properties belonging to the 

 elements themselves; and the phenomena of change of composition of organic 

 bodies occurring in the living state are not the less chemical because they are 

 different from those observed in inorganic nature. All chemical actions are liable 

 to vary according to the conditions in which they occur ; and many'"instances 

 might be adduced of most remarkable variations of this kind, observed in the che- 

 mistry of dead bodies from very slight changes of electrical, calorific, mechanical, 

 and other conditions. But because the conditions of action or change are infi- 

 nitely more complex and far less known in living bodies, it is not necessary to 

 look upon the phenomena as essentially of a diflerent kind, to have recourse to 

 the hypothesis of vital affinities, and still less to shelter ourselves under the slim 

 curtain of ignorance implied in the explanation of the most varied chemical 

 changes by the influence of a vital principle. 



On the subjects of zoological and botanical classification and anthropology, it 

 would be out of place for nie now to make any observations at length. I will 

 only remark, in regard to the first, that the period now under review has wit- 

 nessed a very great modification in the aspect in which the affinities of the bodies 

 belonging to these two great kingdoms of nature are viewed by naturalists, and 

 the principles on which groups of bodies in each are associated together in syste- 

 matic classification ; for, in the first place, the older view has been abandoned that 

 the complication of structm-e rises in a continually increasing and continuous gra- 

 dation from one kingdom to the other, or extends in one line, as it were, from group 

 to group in either of the kingdoms separately. Evolution into a gradually in- 

 creasing complexity of structure and nuictiou no doubt exists in both, so that 

 tj-pes or general plans of formation must be acknowledged to exist, presenting 

 typical resemblances of the deepest interest ; but in the progress of morphological 

 research it has become more and more apparent that the different groups form 

 radiations, which touch one another at certain points of greatest resemblance, rather 

 than one continuous line, or a number of lines which partially pass each other. The 



