FORMATION  OF  RACEMIC  FROM  TARTARIC  ACID. 
57 
taric  acid  a  particular  originality  is,  that  I  have  ascertained  that 
in  the  same  circumstances  laevo-tartaric  acid  also  becomes  convert- 
ed into  racemic  acid.  What  a  strange  tendency  is  exhibited  by 
these  natural  organic  bodies  !  a  totality  of  dissymmetric  dextro-  or 
laevo-molecules  becoming  half  transformed,  simply  by  the  influence 
of  an  elevated  temperature,  into  inverse  molecules,  which,  when 
once  produced,  combine  with  the  first. 
During  a  long  period  I  had  regarded  the  production  of  racemic 
acid  from  tartaric  acid  as  impossible.  In  fact  I  supposed  that  ra- 
cemic acid  was  a  combination  of  laevo-tartaric  acid  with  dextro- 
tartaric  acid.  The  conversion  of  textro-tartaric  acid  into  racemic 
acid  is  consequently  of  the  same  nature  as  that  of  the  transforma- 
tion of  dextro-tartaric  acid  into  leevo-tartaric  acid.  Now  all  that 
can  be  done  with  the  dextro-tartaric  acid  can  be  effected  under  the 
same  circumstances  with  the  laavo-tartaric  acid.  If,  therefore,  any 
operation  performed  with  the  dextro-  acid  changed  its  direction  of 
rotation  to  the  left,  the  same  operation  performed  with  the  Iegvo- 
tartaric  acid  would  render  it  right.  The  transformation  therefore 
appears  impossible  ;  at  the  most  we  may  arrive  at  an  inactive 
acid. 
Fortunately  experiment  has  contradicted  these  theoretical  deduc- 
tions. However,  they  served  me  as  guides  ;  and  the  less  I  was  dis- 
posed to  seek  for  the  conversion  of  tartaric  acid  into  racemic  acid, 
the  more  I  endeavored  to  produce  inactive  tartaric  acid.  Not 
only  did  the  existence  of  this  acid  appear  to  me  to  be  theoretically 
possible,  but  I  also  know  the  intimate  connexion  between  tartaric 
and  malic  acids,  and  I  had  already  obtained  inactive  malic  acid. 
Now  it  is  in  seeking  for  inactive  tartaric  acid  that  I  ascertained  the 
convertibility  of  tartaric  acid  into  racemic  acid.  But  the  same 
operation,  fortunately  and  singularly,  furnished  me  also  with  con- 
siderable quantities  of  inactive  tartaric  acid.  In  other  words,  I 
have  obtained,  together  with  racemic  acid,  a  tartaric  acid  which 
has  no  action  upon  polarized  light,  and  which  is  moreover  capable 
of  being  resolved,  under  the  same  circumstances  as  racemic  acid, 
into  dextro-  and  lcevo-tartaric  acids;  an  extremely  curious  acidj 
crystallizing  readily,  and  giving  salts  which  yield  neither  to  the 
tartrates  nor  to  the  racemates  in  beauty  or  form.  I  have  already 
said,  that  after  treating  tartrate  of  cinchonine,  w7hich  had  been  ex- 
posed for  several  hours  to  a  heat  of  338°  F.,  with  water,  and  add- 
