OE SUCCINIC AND PTEOTAETAEIC ACIDS. 
67 
chemists do not recognize, are now, I think, fairly established, seeing that these two 
acids can be obtained by similar processes from homologous hydrocarbons. 
The foregoing reaction, which, I think, we may now look upon as capable of general 
application, will no doubt place in our hands some of the missing acids of the succinic 
series. 
It is highly probable that there exists a series of isomeric acids running parallel to 
these, which may be obtained by similar processes from the diatomic radicals contained 
in the aldehydes. Thus from the cyanide of ethylidene (C4 Cyg) we may hope to 
get an isomer of succinic acid. 
The reactions I have just described lend, I think, some support to Feanklajstd and 
Kolbe’s “view of the constitution of these acids, namely, that they are composed of two 
equivalents of carbonic acid, in which two equivalents of oxygen are replaced by a 
diatomic radical. However this may be, it is convenient, at all events, to formulate 
these bodies according to the carbonic acid type : — 
TN ; — 
Succinic Acid. 
Pyrotartaric Acid. 
I propose to continue my researches in this direction, and to extend them to the 
cyanides of the triatomic radicals. 
