Page 7 - A TEXTBOOK OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

INTRODUCTION

Organic Chemistry is the chemistry of the Carbon Com-
pounds. Formerly those compounds which occur in the
animal and vegetable worlds were classed under Organic, and
those which occur in the mineral world under Inorganic
Chemistry, the first to adopt this arrangement having been
L~mdry, in his Cours de Chimie (1675), After the recognition
of the fact that all organic substances contain carbon, it was
thought that the difference between organic and inorganic
compounds could be explained by saying that the latter were
capable of preparation in the laboratory, but the former only
in the organism, under the influence of a particular force, the
life force--vis vitalis (Berzelius). But this assumption was
rendered untenable when Wohler in 1828 synthetically pre-
pared urea, CON,H, a typical secretion of the animal
organism, from cyanic acid and ammonia, two compounds
which were at that time held to be inorganic; and when,
shortly afterwards, the synthesis of acetic acid, by the use of
carbon, sulphur, chlorine, water, and zinc, was effected.
Since then so many syntheses of this kind have been achieved
as to prove beyond doubt that the same chemical forces act
both in the organic and inorganic worlds.
The separation of the two branches, Organic and Inorganic
Chemistry, from each other is, however, still retained for con-
venience sake. In consequence of the great capacity of com-
bining with one another which carbon atoms possess, the
number of organic compounds is extraordinarily large, and in
order to be in a position to study them, it is necessary to have
a knowledge of the other elements, including the metals. The
carbon compounds, many of the most important of which
contain only carbon and hydrogen, or carbon, hydrogen, and
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