ADDRESS. lxi 
of Chemistry, Hors, always introduced Davy’s then new hypothesis; and 
I now better appreciate the celebrated Edinburgh Professor's disinclination 
to abandon the old doctrine of the compound nature of chlorine, &c. 
Organic chemistry becomes simplified as it expands; aud its growth has, 
of late, proceeded, through the labours of Hoffmann, Berthelot, and others, 
with unexampled rapidity. The results of the recent experiments of M. Ber- 
thelot have more especially tended to reduce the various and numerous 
ternary oxygenated organic substances into a small number of fundamental 
groups. The important power of synthesis has grown with this growth. 
Since Wohler, in 1828, succeeded in artificially producing ‘urea,’ Kolbe 
has similarly, by the combinations of inorganic elements, produced acetic 
acid and the new organic radical ‘methyl.’ Berthelot has formed glycerine, 
the basis of animal and vegatable oils and fats, and has also formed grape- 
sugar. It is true, that in the latter synthesis the contact of putrefying animal 
matter is requisite ; although such matter contributes none of its constituents 
to the new compound, nor undergoes any appreciable change in the process. 
Berthelot has very recently shown that cholesterine is a true alcohol, analo- 
gous to éthal; and that, treated by acids, it is transformed into corresponding 
ethers, similar to other éthilic ethers. 
A substance resembling camphor has been this year made by the action of 
acids, e.g., the chorhydric, upon essential oil of turpentine. By treating this 
substance with strong alkali it is changed into a liquid carburet of hydrogen ; 
but, if feeble alkalis are employed or slightly alkaline salts, a solid carburet 
is obtained identical with camphor. By oxidizing the artificial camphor, 
ordinary camphor is obtained; by adding hydrgoen to such ordinary cam- 
phor, the camphor of Borneo is obtained. M. Berthelot has thus realized 
the synthetic preparation of camphors. 
An important series of alcohols and their derivatives, from amylic aleohol 
downwards; as extensive a series of ethers, including those which give their 
peculiar flavour to our choicest fruits; the formic, butyric, succinic, lactic, 
and other acids, together with other important organic bodies, are now 
capable of artificial formation from their elements, and the old barrier divi- 
ding organic from inorganic bodies is broken down. To the power which 
mankind may ultimately exercise through the light of synthesis, who may 
presume to set limits! Already natural processes can be more economically 
replaced by artificial ones in the formation of a few organic compounds, the 
‘valerianic acid,’ for example. It is impossible to foresee the extent to 
which Chemistry may not ultimately, in the production of things needful, 
supersede the present vital agencies of nature “‘ by laying under contribution 
the accumulated forces of past ages, which would thus enable us to obtain in 
a small manufactory, and in a few days, effects which can be realized from 
present natural agencies, only when they are exerted upon vast areas of 
land, and through considerable periods of time *.” 
* Frankland, Lecture, Royal Institution, May 28, 1858. 
