A REVIEW OF RECENT SYNTHETIC WORK IN 
THE CLASS OF CARBOHYDRATES 1 
Evolution is so universal, whether as exhibited in the unfold¬ 
ing of human conceptions or in the making of worlds, that in 
all reason it may be accepted as a cosmic principle. The fac¬ 
tors of evolution are essentially constructive and destructive 
ones, since growth and decay, progress and retardation, syn¬ 
thesis and decomposition, accompany the rhythmic pulsations 
of this general condition of change. Likewise, the chain of 
chemical causality may be conceived of as closely correlated 
with this presentation of evolution. The notion advanced in 
this consideration precludes the thought of permanence. In 
chemical activity the atoms are ever shifting their position in 
space, and this unrest is indicative of the fundamental law of 
advance. Howsoever stable and fixed may seem the individual 
links of this chain, in reality the seeming stability is a condition 
of variation and rearrangement of the atoms and molecules. 
The molecule, that smallest portion of matter self-existing, 
when considered as the resultant of chemical reaction, is but a 
state of force equilibrium between the becoming and the van¬ 
ishing. 
In this evening’s review of recent synthetic work, in the 
sugar group, these constructive and destructive processes are 
well exemplified; also, the unfolding changes so apparent 
in other manifestations of universal phenomena are likewise 
observable in the realm of chemistry. This underlying unity 
and dominant principle unites all aspects of the cosmos, and 
connects the parts into a living universe of the whole. 
Evolution, when applied to chemistry, as elsewhere, com- 
1 A lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, March 8, 1895. Printed 
in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, September, 1896; also in pamphlet 
form, Philadelphia, 1896. 
