B.— CHEMISTRY. 51 



certain glands of the Civet-cat. There is no doubt as to its structure, 

 which has been shown to contain a 17-membered ring, thus : 



CH. (CHa), 



II )^C0 



CH. (CHa), 



the evidence of structure being" derived both from a study of the degrada- 

 tion products of the substance and also by its recent synthesis. If this 

 compound is set up on the tetrahedral models, thus : 



it will be found to form a triplanar figure which is strainless ; the condition 

 being produced by the presence of the double bond in the position shown. 



Biochemistry. 



In its earliest days the science of organic chemistry dealt only with 

 those compounds which were derived from natural sources, and it was 

 regarded as certain that such substances could only be produced through 

 the agency of life and by no other means. Since then this theory has 

 been shown to be wrong by the preparation in the laboratory of many 

 substances identical with those formed during the operation of life pro- 



E 2 



