/ 
ADDRESS. 93 
to which I have alluded. Adopting the views of Berzelius, 
we may regard the base of the ethers as a hydro-carbon, 
called ethule containing H*C*. It is an electro-positive 
base, analogous to the metals in many of its relations, combining 
with the electro-negative elements, and yielding an oxide 
which combines with acids, forming a class of compounds 
altogether remarkable and peculiar. 
The following table will illustrate this theory : — 
Ether ethule -f 0, or El. 
Alcohol El + H. 
Hydro-chloric ether El + Cl. 
Hydro-iodic El + I- 
Hydro-bromic El+Br. 
Nitrous ether El-fN. 
Acetic ether El-i-A^ &c. &c. 
We thus see that ether and alcohol differ only by the pre- 
sence of an atom of water in the latter, and we comprehend 
at a glance, the chemical relations of the acid ethers, which, 
without being salts, are analogous compounds with oxide of 
ethule for their base. 
The discovery of the organic alkalies has had a greater in- 
fluence on the interests of our business, than any other of these 
researches. The salts of morphia and quinia have already 
taken the place, in the shops, of the bulky preparations for- 
merly in use, and the latter, especially, has given rise to exten- 
sive laboratories, principally devoted to its preparation. Into 
the composition of all these vegetable alkalies, as into that of 
ammonia, there enters an atom of nitrogen. We do not know 
enough of these compounds to refer them to any general law; 
but it is highly probable, that they also will be found to be 
compounds of a highly complex radical. 
This is the case with the three alkalies of the Peruvian 
barks — quinia, cinchonia, and aricina. Supposing the exist- 
ence of a compound radical, consisting of NH^^C^Oj 
