ADDRESS. 95 
The conversion, by fermentation, of sugar into alcohol, and 
of alcohol into acetic acid, are beautiful examples of this in- 
terchange of elements; while the isomerism of alcohol and 
pyroxylic spirit, of sugar, starch, and gum, of citric and malic 
acids, renders it probable that they will some day be found 
easily convertible into each other. 
The point to which all these discoveries tend, is the arrange- 
ment of organic substances under a few general, yet simple 
and comprehensive laws ; which shall reduce its apparent 
confusion into order, and teach us that the change of one 
substance into another, takes place by the abstraction or 
addition of a few simple elements, very often of water and 
carbonic acid. In the same manner as a pure oxalic acid is 
prepared from sugar, and true sugar of grapes, made from 
lignin and fecula, we may not unreasonably expect, that 
many of the most valuable articles of the Materia Medica 
will hereafter be elaborated by chemists from materials 
at our doors, low in value and easy of access. Why, for exam- 
ple, should not camphor be prepared from its base, camphene, 
or in other words from spirits of turpentine. 
It is this wide, and in a great measure untrodden field of 
research, that we invite you to explore; and the rewards 
which are held forth to those who enter it with zeal and in- 
dustry are as solid as they are brilliant. The period is not 
far distant when it will be thought discreditable to announce 
a new remedy from the organic kingdom without insulating 
the principle on which its ejSicacy depends. We may look 
with confidence to the future arrangement of organic products 
into a few great classes of definite, and probably in most cases 
of binary compounds, formed by the union with the simple 
bodies, of a series of highly complex radicals, similar to 
those of which I have spoken. 
When this revolution in organic chemistry is effected, our 
shops, instead of being filled with tinctures in which the pe- 
culiar character and virtues of a medicine are overpowered 
by the stronger stimulant of alcohol, will contain acids and 
bases and salts, unalterable by age, and capable of the same 
