306 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



The alcohols having been got, many other important organic 

 compounds follow, and there is good reason for believing that with 

 the progress of the science all will be derived from them, so that 

 the series of the alcohols will constitute a kind of backbone to organic 

 chemistry. 



Most modern organic researches are capable of being looked at 

 from a synthetical aspect, for they generally disclose how to devise 

 some organic bodies from compounds which themselves either are, 

 or will be, capable of complete synthesis. Glycerine, the base of 

 the fats, has been derived from the propylic series, having been ob- 

 tained by Wurtz by a somewhat circuitous process from propylene 

 — the olefine of that series. 



The sugars have not been as yet unequivocally produced, but they 

 will be, for their connexion with the hexylic series is now placed 

 beyond a doubt. The production of glycerides from glycerine and 

 fatty acids is the proof that the natural fats are within our grasp. 

 The aromatic series, with its many derivatives, among which may be 

 mentioned the wonderful aniline dyes which rival those got more 

 immediately from the animal and vegetable kingdoms, becomes 

 accessible to synthesis through common alcohol, which on being 

 heated to redness gives benzole and carbolic acid — members of the 

 aromatic series. 



Wurtz's compound ammonias, and, above all, the immense and 

 wonderful development of the class of compound ammonias arising 

 from the labours of Hofmann, are the pledge that the natural alka- 

 loids — quinine, morphine, strychnine, and their congeners — will one 

 day be within our reach. 



Glycocoll, produced by Perkin and Duppa from acetic acid, and 

 the bases of the juice of flesh, which have been recently formed by 

 Volhardt and Hofmann, assure us that albumen — that essential in- 

 gredient of our food — will not elude us. 



Why should those medicines and foods which we find in nature 

 be the most useful which are possible ? Would it not rather be 

 strange if they were ? 



Hereafter, perhaps, medicines as much more potent than quinine 

 as quinine is than the extracts of the commonest herb that grows 

 wild may be the produce of our laboratories. 



LII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



FURTHER REMARKS ON THE TELESCOPIC APPEARANCE OF THE 

 EXTERIOR ENVELOPE OF THE SUN ; AND OF ITS SPOTS. BY 

 THE REV. W. R. DAWES. 



"D EFORE proceeding to consider the character and cause of the 

 J-* solar spots, it may be desirable to recur to some points connected 

 with the telescopic appearance of the general surface, in addition to 

 the remarks contained in my former paper (p. 156) on the subject. 



In speaking of the less luminous interstices between the intensely 

 luminous masses forming together the general surface of the sun, I 



