etters forming a word to be guessed are thrown together pell mell. These letters may represent the elementary atoms. According as they are arranged in sequence they form the word intended, or some other word. My own name, for example, will form Lewes, Sewel, Elwes, Wesel, Weesl, Leews ; in a way analogous to that in which the organogens form isomeric bodies. All depends on the arrangement, sequence, synthesis.
Further, be it remarked that among the proximate principles of organic substances there are many of what may be termed mineral origin, whose part is accessory but indispensable ; and experiment justifies à priori deduction in asserting that in proportion as organic substances contain a large percentage of these principles, the more do they approach those substances which can be artificially formed; and vice versa. Urine, for example, is formed of a larger proportion of water and salts than of other principles, and contains more than other organic products.
" Thus, then, we see that elementary analysis can teach us little or nothing of organic substances formed of proximate principles. The value of the elements varies with their varying positions.
As Mulder says, this synthesis is all important : " if we pass in review the substances present in the organic kingdom, we perceive an endless series of combinations from either two, or three, or four elements only. This is enough to show that there is an indefinite capacity for modification in the primary forces which operate in the elements. The influence of one upon another is thus unlimited also. A slight difference in the state of an element is sufficient to give it the appearance of a new, an entirely peculiar, substance, as compared with the other elements. Let us take, for example, starch, gum, sugar, acetic acid, glucic acid, inuline. All these are composed of the same elements, taken in the same proportions. Thus they consist severally in equivalents of "The carbon of one of these substances is no doubt equal to the carbon of any of the others, in so far as it exhibits the same properties, if separated from its combination. But it is incorrect to suppose that the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in sugar are identical with those in acetic acid, for there is a great difference between sugar and acetic acid ; and we cannot attribute this difference to anything but to the difference of the forces by which the same substance is governed. Thus, the carbon, hydrogen, or oxygen is not in any two cases supplied with the same properties. They assume in each substance a peculiar form. The general idea comprehending carbon, hydrogen, or oxygen in sugar and acetic acid, must therefore be modified, because the forces peculiar to matter must necessarily be modified, as matter is itself unalterable.
"This will appear clearly, if we consider the combinations of carbon with hydrogen. If we supposed the carbon and the hydrogen in C5H4, C10H8, C151-P2, C20H16,, to be always the same, we should be constrained to assume the identity of the substances, and any distinction would be impossible. Among the elements we know a considerable number which, without entering into any combination, present an entirely different appearance, in consequence of but a slight difference in the circumstances under which they are placed. For example, phosphorus becomes black when heated and then suddenly cooled; and by means of a red heat silica is so modified, that the substance, after and before the application of such heat, might be taken for two different substances, if we looked to its properties only. The interesting experiments recently made by Berzelius as to the allotropic character of phosphorus, have opened a new path for scientific investigations. If the simple substances can assume the permanent appearance of unlike bodies, without forming any combination, their compounds can do so much more. And such an assumption of other' characters must take place in all cases, in which no other mode remains of explaining the diversity of the compounds, than in the supposition of a real difference in the comp