668 
BERZELIUS ON A NEW FORCE. 
ner. First, the substances possessing domi- 
nant affinities enter into combination, and then 
tiioseof feeble affinities which were excluded 
from the first combination. Before the year 
J800, the existence, in these phsenomena, of 
any otlier determining cause than the degree 
of affinity, heat, and, in some cases, light, was 
scarcely suspected. The influence of electii- 
city was then discovered, and we soon saw 
ourselves in danger of confounding the electri- 
cal with the chemical lelationsof bodies, and 
of considering their affinities only as the 
manifestation of asiiong electrical contrast, 
increased by light and heat. Ttris system 
ofieied no other means of explaining the origin 
of a new compound, than by the supposition, 
that, by the approximation of bodies which 
are present, their electrical states become 
neutralized in a more perfect manner. 
Setting offfrom these ideas, deduced from the 
effects which occur in inorganic nature, and 
studying ihe chemical re-aciions presented by 
organized bodies, we perceived iliat in the 
0) gans of tlie latter substances the most various 
were elaborated, while the brute matter, 
whence they proceeded, consisted, in gene- 
ral, of but one liquid circulating in vessels with 
more or less velocity. I’he vessels ot the 
animal body, for example, pump blood from 
their origin without interruption, and, never- 
theless, secrete milk, bile, urine, &c. at their 
extremities, withoutadnsitiing any other liquid 
capable of producing, by double affinity, any 
decomposition whatever. A fact here evi- 
dently occurs, which the study of inorganic 
naiuie was then unable to explain. 
At this period M. KirckhofF observed, that 
starch, dissolved in diluted acid, became con- 
verted, at a certain temperaluie, first into 
gum, and afterwards into grape-sugar. In 
conformity with tlie principles then received 
with regard to effects of lliis kind, an eri- 
deavour was made to ascertain what the acid 
had removed from the starch to reduce it into 
sugar; but no gas had been disengaged, the 
acid re-appearing by means of the alkalies in 
its primitive quantity, had not been combined, 
and the liquid contained only sugar in an 
equal, or even a larger, quantity than the 
starch which had been employed. The cause 
of this alteration was as pioblernatical as that 
of the secretions in the organic body. M. 
Thenard then discovered the peroxide of hy- 
drogen, a liquid, the elements of which are 
retained in combination by a very weak affi- 
nity. Tlie acids do not produce any altera- 
tion in it ; the alkalies, on the contrary, pro- 
duce in it a tendency to decomposition, a 
species of fermentation, which re-produces 
water, in consequence of a disengagement, 
of oxygen. But the most interesting circum- 
stance is, that the same effect takes place from 
the action of differentsolid bodies insoluble in 
water, organic as well as inorganic; for ex- 
ample, from the presence of peroxide of man- 
ganese. of silver, platinum, and also the fib- 
brin of animal blood. The body whch deter- 
mines the decomposition does not undergo 
any alteration, it does not act as an element 
of a new compound, but by virtue of a 
peculiar force inherent in its mass, the ex 
istence of which, though unknown in its 
essence, is demonstrated by its effects. 
Shortly before M. Thenard, Sir H. Davy re- 
maiked another phaenornenon, the analogy of 
which with the one just described, was not 
immediately perceived- lie had proved that 
platinum, heated to a certain degree, and 
brought into contact with a mixture of the 
vapour of alcohol, or ether, and atmospheric 
air, possessed the power of determining and 
sustaining the combination of these todies, 
while gold and silver were devoid of this pro- 
perty. Soon after, iMr, E. Davy discovered 
a preparation of platinum in a stale of very 
great meclianical division, having, at ordi- 
nary temperatures, and after being moistened 
witli alcoiiol, the property of becoming incan- 
descent by the combusiion of alcohol alto- 
gether, in converting it by oxidation into acetic 
acid. Tlien lollowed the discovery of Dd- 
leiner, the most important of all. Me proved 
tliat it is the pioperiy of spongy jilatinum 
to inflame spontaneously a current of hydio- 
gen gas projected in tlie air; a phaenornenon 
which the researches of M. M. 'I'lienard and 
Dulong proved, is produced by several other 
bodies, simple as well as compound : with 
this restriction, however, that, wliile platinum, 
iridium, and some other affinal metals, act at 
temperatuies below zero, other bodies, such 
as gold, and more especially silver, require a 
much higliei temperature, and glass a heat 
even of af ove 300". Thus what was at first 
considered as an exceptive mode of action, 
appeared to be a general propeity though, 
variously graduated, of all bodies, and from 
the application of which, advantage might be 
derived. We know, for example, that in the 
act of fermentation, in the conversion of sugar 
into alcohol and carfionic acid, the action 
exercised by the insoluble substance named 
leaven, and which maybe replaced, though 
vvitli less success, by animal finrin, albumen, 
and gaseous substances, &c. cannot be ex- 
plained by any chemical re-action of the 
affinities of the sugar and the leaver!, and 
that no effect in inorganic nature approaches 
it so neaily as the action of platinum, silver, 
or fibrin, in the decomposition of the peroxide 
of hydiogen into oxygen and water. It was 
natural here to suppose an analogous mode of 
action. The conversion of starch into sugar, 
by means of sulphuric acid, had not yet been 
co-ordinated with the preceding facts; the 
discovery however of diastase (announced in 
the Annual Report for 1833), a substance 
acting upon starch in an analogous manner, 
only with more energy, directed attention to 
this analogy, which was definitively proved 
by the ingenious researches of IM. Mitscher- 
lich upon the formation of ether. Among 
the numerous theories upon the formation of 
ether one, we know, makes the propeity of 
sulphuric acid to convert alcohol into ether, to 
depend upon its pow’er of absorbing water, 
granting, that the alcohol, considered as a 
compound of one atom of etherine (C 4 H3), 
and of two atoms of water, is reduced into 
ether, by ceding the half of its water to the 
acid. This theory, equally simple and inge- 
