440 Observations on Organic Chemistry 



but a hydrogen compound ; not sulphur, but a sulphur compound, and 

 from this infers that nitrogen, also, cannot be assimilated as an element, 

 but only in the form of a compound, which inference is moreover sup- 

 ported by the most direct and positive proofs. 



In concluding these remarks, I cannot conceal from myself the little 

 probability there is of their accomplishing any good, because those who 

 have understood my works needed not a single line of explanation of 

 this kind, and as for my opponents, they would choose to consider the 

 most lucid explanation of mine as mere shadows and darkness. We 

 need not alarm ourselves that the trees will grow into the skies, since 

 nature and Providence alike forbid it; our own watchfulness, or an 

 army of preventive police would be superarogatory. 



I have pronounced my own opinions against the views of some indi- 

 viduals, who by the greatest and most transcendent merits have acquir- 

 ed my esteem, which will never diminish, but they must not forget that 

 they have also their opinions, which do not offend me, because nothing 

 can offend or disturb me on my way, since I shall ever maintain the 

 courage to proceed right onward as long as my powers continue. 



Note. — In the second volume of Berzelius's Manual, 5th edition, after 

 describing my method of separating antimony from arsenic (by fusion 

 of regulus of antimony with sulphuret of antimony and carbonate of 

 soda), he says, " the antimony thus obtained is not so free from arsenic 

 as that obtained by Wohler's method." 



If I understand this phrase aright, it means that antimony is not 

 by my method obtained free from arsenic. Now, although I am always 

 anxious to avoid discussions when my theoretical notions are assailed, I 

 cannot remain silent, for science and the truth's sake, when facts are 

 thus called in question. This method has been employed many 

 hundred times in my laboratory, and has never failed. It has been 

 repeated in other places also, and has invariably yielded antimony free 

 from arsenic. Besides a few observations of Buchner's (Rep. new series 

 8, p. 266), no objections against my method have reached me in chemi- 

 cal literature, and the remarks of Buchner did not apply to the remain- 

 ing presence of arsenic, but to loss of weight, &c, a subject discussed 

 in the Annalen, bd. 22, p. 58. I cannot conceive what reason Berzelius 

 has to condemn this method. 



In his 23rd Annual Report, p. 177, Berzelius remarks upon my 

 method of separating cobalt from nickel by means of cyanide of potas- 

 sium. " He (Liebig) further states that he has applied cyanide of potas- 

 sium as a means of separating metals from each other, and, for an 

 instance, he gives a method for the separation of cobalt from nickel, 



