[July 6, 1872. 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE HYDROCARBONS. * 
which it does not appear to go. It is also said by 
•various authorities to be found in the Indian Archi¬ 
pelago and Indian seas as well as at Mauritius. 
It grazes on the thick grass which in those warm 
latitudes grows on the shallows between the islands 
and along the coasts, where it usually feeds in from 
one to four fathoms of water, coming up to breathe 
at short intervals. It is not amphibious, but comes 
in and goes out with the tide, feeding only during 
high water. Like most other animals of this oidei, 
it is gregarious, and vast mobs of many hundreds 
and even thousands are frequently seen. 
The dugong varies in length from seven to twelve 
feet, and its weight may be averaged at from six to 
seven hundredweight. The head is not unlike that 
of an ox lacking the horns, while the skin more 
nearly resembles that of the pig. The dam or cow 
brings forth its young alive and suckles it at the 
breast, holding it there with her arm-like flipper. 
Al l authorities join in attesting the wonderful attach¬ 
ment the female dugong has for her young, so much 
so that if the calf be killed, the mother makes no at¬ 
tempt to escape, but falls an easy prey. The skin 
averages from one to two inches in thickness, and 
the bones are perfectly solid and very similar to 
ivory, being very heavy, probably to assist the animal 
in sinldng easily to its pasture. The fat meat from 
which the oil is procured lies next the skin, and is not 
unfrequently mixed with layers of lean, giving it a 
perfect resemblance to bacon, like which it also tastes. 
Some eaten at the dinner before alluded to hi the 
exhibition was pronounced to be very fair ham. The 
lean meat is said to be very similar to tender lean 
beef, and is readily sold in its salt state as a break- 
fist relish in Queensland. 
It will be apparent that an article having the ad¬ 
vantage claimed for dugong oil, that it is capable of 
being taken as an article of food, will command a 
large sale if only its medicinal properties are such 
as is asserted. As 3 ’et there has been no opportunity 
for testing the oil to any extent in England, but 
several very strong testimonials as to its value as a 
medicine, given by colonial medical men, are published 
by the firm interested in its sale. In the pamphlet are 
narrated cases of dyspepsia, debility, consumption, 
liver complaint, indigestion, biliousness, etc., which 
are stated to have been cured by its use. The oil 
certainly deserves a trial by the profession with a 
view to arriving at its actual value. 
We believe we are correct in saying that at present 
there is not any attempt being made to introduce 
dugong oil to the English market. The gentleman 
who exhibits it at the International Exhibition has 
only imported a small quantity in order to bring it 
under the notice of the medical profession. At pre¬ 
sent the demand in the colony is quite equal to the 
supply, and before that can be greatly increased a 
much larger capital will have to be invested in the 
fishery. With a view to fostering this enterprise 
( which in Queensland is looked upon as likely to be¬ 
come of very great value), the Government proposes 
granting special rights for a few years if a certain 
amount of capital is invested, so that those who go 
to the expense attendant on creating a new industry 
and introducing this novel medicine to the world, 
may have a fair opportunity to repay themselves 
fpr their outlay. Arrangements are now in progress 
to take advantage of this concession. 
BY C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. 
It is now nearly 200 years since Lemery, in his celebrated 
‘ Cours de Chymie,’ separated mineral bodies from vege¬ 
table and animal substances, and since that time chemis¬ 
try has been divided into organic and inorganic chemis¬ 
try. Such a division appeared quite natural at a time 
when chemistry formed only a part of descriptive natu¬ 
ral science; yet even at that period the founders of the 
phlogiston theory considered it unscientific to divide 
chemical substances according to their origin, and they 
endeavoured to justify such a classification from a che¬ 
mical point of view. Thus Becher says, “ The elements 
occurring in the three natural kingdoms are the same, 
but they are combined in mineral bodies in a manner 
more simple than they are in vegetable and animal sub¬ 
stances.” Stahl thought that in minerals the earthy 
principle preponderated, whilst organic bodies contained 
more phlogiston and more of the aqueous principle. If 
we translate these definitions into our present chemical 
language, we find that thev are identical with views 
which were held not long ago. 
AVhen, with the discovery of oxygen, the era of quan¬ 
titative chemistry commenced, the distinction between 
organic and inorganic bodies was still kept up, because 
it was observed that compounds formed by the vital pro¬ 
cess possess certain peculiarities by which they can be 
easily distinguished from mineral substances. 
“Whilst formerly,” as Kekule says, “ chemistry was 
divided because a boundary was seen, afterwards such a 
boundary was looked for because it was found convenient 
to have one (Kekule’s 4 Lehrbuch,’ i. 8). This appeared 
easy enough at first; chemists then understood both how 
to decompose mineral compounds into their constituent 
elements, and also how to build them up again. 
But such was not the case with organic bodies ; their 
composition could be easily ascertained, but all efforts 
made to effect the synthesis of such compounds failed ; 
and hence Berzelius assumed that “ the elements present 
in living bodies obeyed laws totally different from those 
which rule inanimate nature.” It was said that organic 
bodies might be changed by chemical processes into other 
organic compounds, but it was thought to be impossible 
to obtain any such body by synthesis. 
The further development of chemistry soon showed 
that these views were erroneous. As soon as a clear in¬ 
sight into the chemical constitution of organic bodies 
was gained, methods were found by means of which 
bodies hitherto formed only by the vital process could be 
built up from their elements. 
Now, when the fact was established that the same 
chemical laws rule alike animate and inanimate nature, 
the difficulty presented itself of fixing a boundary lino 
by which inorganic bodies might be separated from or¬ 
ganic compounds. I need not dwell here upon all the 
views brought forward to explain the difference between 
these two divisions. You all know how the definitions 
of organic chemistry were changed from year to year, 
until in 1848 Gmelin first called attention to the fact 
that carbon was the only element essential to organic 
compounds. He said, “ if we' regard as organic those 
carbon compounds which have hitherto been classed 
among inorganic substances, viz. carbonic oxide, car¬ 
bonic acid, sulphide of carbon, phosgene, cast iron, etc., 
we might define organic compounds simply as the com¬ 
pounds of carbon. But the organic compounds are still 
further distinguished by containing more than one atom 
of carbon. Hence the term organic compounds includes all 
primary compounds containing more than one atom of car¬ 
bon ” (G-melin’s 4 Handbook,’ vii. 0 ). 
At that time the true atomic-weight of carbon was not 
known, and thus the above compounds were separated 
* A lecture delivered before the Chemical Society, April 
4th, 1872. Reprinted from the ‘Journal of the Chemical 
Society ’ for June, 1872. 
