ORGANIC C031POUNDS, Artificial Production of. Under 0110ANro CHEMISTRY allusion is made to the production of urea, acetic acid, and methyl (three essentially organic compounds), by purely artificial methods, and without any assistance, direct or indirect, from vital action. The recent ingenious researches of M. Berthclot have greatly extended this branch of chemical inquiry, and have in a most important degree increased the number of bodies capable of artificial formation. The production of chloride of methyl, and the members of the olefiant gas family up to amylene furnishes us with the whole series of alcohols and their derivatives, from amylio alcohol downwards. !limylie alcohol and naphthaline, both artificially produced by Ber thelot, yield a host of interesting bodies ; whilst phenylcarbonic acid enables us to step from the plienylie to the salicylic group, since, when treated with hyponitrous acid, it yields salicylic acid. Lastly, 31. Ber thelot has succeeded in artificially forming glycerin, the basis of animal and vegetable oils and fats. Grape sugar has also been added to the list; but, being produced by the contact of glycerin with putrifying animal matter, it cannot be said to be formed altogether without the agency of vitality. although the putrifytng organic matter contributes none of its constituents to the new compound, and does not undergo any appreciable change in weight or appearance during the process. These substances yield such a numerous class of derivatives, that up wards of 700 distinct organic compounds can now be produced from their elements without the agency of vitality.
Amongst the most important organic compounds thus formed, the following may be mentioned The artificial formation of urea, lactic acid, and caproic acid, is interesting in connection with certain functions of the animal economy. Pine-apple oil and apple oil are instances of the artificial production of the delicate flavours of fruit, whilst oil of wintergreen and nitrobenzole are like examples of the formation of esteemed perfumes. But of all the bodies hitherto thus produced, alcohol, glycerin, and sugar are undoubtedly the most deeply interesting, owing to the part they take in the nutrition of animals : they prove to us the possibility of pro ducing, without vegetation or any vital intervention, an important part of the food of man. Should the chemist also succeed in forming arti ficially the nitrogenous constituents of food, without which life cannot be maintained, it would then be possible for a man planted upon a barren rock, and furnished with the necessary apparatus and inorganic materials, to support life without either animal or vegetable food. No one of these nitrogenous constituents has, however, yet been artificially produced, and the absence of all clue to their rational constitution forms at present a formidable barrier to their non-vital production.
Considerations here naturally suggest themselves regarding the possi bility of economically replacing natural processes by artificial ones in the formation of organic compounds. At present the possibility of doing this only attains to probability in the case of rare and exceptional products of animal and vegetable Thus, valerianic acid, which for a long time was extracted from the root of the rakriarta officinalis, could now probably be more cheaply prepared from its elements ; but a still cheaper source of this acid has been in the meantime discovered, namely, the oxidation of amylic alcohol, a waste product formed in the manufacture of spirit of wine, and obtainable at such a moderate cost as to prevent; in an economical point of view, the successful production either of amylic alcohol or valerianic acid by any artificial and exclu sively non-vital processes at present known. It also highly probable
that if we could produce artificially such bodice as qninine and the rare alkaloids, or alizarin, and similar powerful and valuable organic colouring matters, we should be able to compete with organic life in the formation of these bodies ; nevertheless, the discovery of the pro cesses of artificial formation would doubtless bo preceded by a know ledge of methods by which such rare bodies could be produced from more abundant and consequently cheaper forms of vegetable or animal matter ; and it Is therefore exceedingly improbable that any purely non-vital process will be successfully and at the same time economically employed for the manufacture even of such rare and valuable vital products. Such being the economical bearings of the case with regard to the rare and exceptional educts of vitality, when we turn to consider the great staple products of the animal and vegetable kingdoms the hope of rivalling natural processes becomes faint indeed., By no process at present known could we produce sugar, glycerin, or alcohol from their elements at one hundred times their present cost as obtained through the agency of vitality. But, although our present prospects of rivalling vital processes in the economical production of staple organic compounds such as those constituting the food of man are so exceedingly slight, yet it would be rash to pronounce their ultimate realisation impossible. It must be remembered that this branch of chemistry is as yet in its merest infancy, and that it has hitherto attracted the attention of few minds ; and further, that many analogous substitutions of artificial for natural processes have been achieved. Thus, under certain circumstances, wo find it less economical to propel our ships by the force of the wind, and our carriages by animal power, than to employ steam power for these purposes. We do not find it desirable to wait for the bleaching of our calicoes by the sun's rays; and even the grinding of corn is no longer entirely confided to wind and water power.
In such cases, where contemporaneous natural agencies have been superseded, we have almost invariably drawn upon that grand store of force collected by the plants of bygone ages, and conserved in our coal fields. It is the solar heat of a. past epoch that evolves mechanical power from our at:Nam-engines, enabling us to accomplish that which the present forces of nature alone are not capable of performing. One important element in cheap production is time, and it is precisely in regard to this element that we economically supersede in the above instances the contemporary resources of nature. Now time is also an important element in the natural production of food, and although it is true that the amount of labour required for the growth of a given weight of food is not considerable, yet it is nevertheless true that this weight requires a whole year for its production. By the vital process of producing food we can only have one harvest in each year. But if wo were able to manufacture that food from its elements without vital agency, there would be nothing to prevent us from obtaining a harvest every week ; and thus we might, in the production of food, supersede the present vital agencies of nature, as we have already done in other cases, by laying under contribution the accumulated forces of past ages, which would thus enable us to obtain in a small manufactory, and in a few days, effects which can only be otherwise realised from present natural agencies when exerted upon vast areas of land, and through considerable periods of time.