218 Bioc/rajJiy of Bcrzelhin. 



tigations to organic substances, and published a very impor- 

 tant paper on the definite proportion in which the elements 

 are combined in organic nature. He there shewed at length, 

 that however different organic bodies might at first sight 

 appear to be from inorganic, in regard to their elementary 

 composition, still the only certain clue by which we could 

 hope to arrive at a correct conception of the nature of the 

 composition of those bodies which are produced under the 

 influence of vital processes, was what was already known of 

 the composition of inorganic bodies. He had therefore the 

 great merit of having extended the doctrine of the simple 

 chemical proportions in which bodies combine to organic 

 bodies. 



The first accurate experiments on the elementary composi- 

 tion of organic bodies had been instituted a few years pre- 

 vious to the appearance of this paper, by Thenard and Gay- 

 Lussac, in 1811. Nevertheless, they contented themselves 

 with drawing no other inference from their results than that 

 a vegetable substance is always acid when it contains oxy- 

 gen in a proportion greater than is necessary to form water ; 

 that, by an excess of hydrogen, resinous, oleaginous, or al- 

 coholic substances were formed ; and lastly, that when oxy- 

 gen and hydrogen were present in the same proportions as 

 in water, these substances were neither acid nor resinous, 

 but analogous to sugar, gum, starch, milk sugar, or woody 

 fibre. These conclusions were correct, only for the sub- 

 stances which they examined, and proved untenable when a 

 greater number had been studied. From the results of their 

 investigation of animal substances, they could not draw even 

 similar inferences ; they contented themselves with remark- 

 ing, that they contained a greater quantity of hydrogen than 

 was necessary to form water with the oxygen present, and 

 that it was united with nitrogen in the form of ammonia. 



Gay-Lussac and Thenard had burnt the organic substances 

 by means of chlorate of potash, in a special form of appara- 

 tus ; Berzelius borrowed from them the use of chlorate of 

 potash, but his mode of combustion was incomparably more 

 advantageous. He had already become convinced that it 

 was necessary to estimate the carbonic acid obtained by its 



