Benzoic Benzotic acid Flowers of benzoin.
Camphoric Camphoric acid Unknown till lately.
Gallic Gallic acid {The astringent principle
{of vegetables.
(B)
Lactic Lactic acid Acid of sour whey.
Saccholactic Saccholactic acid Unknown till lately.
Formic Formic acid Acid of ants.
Bombic Bombic acid Unknown till lately.
Sebacic Sebacic acid Ditto.
Lithic Lithic acid Urinary calculus.
Prussic Prussic acid Colouring matter of Prussian blue.
[Note A: These radicals by a first degree of oxygenation form vegetable
oxyds, as sugar, starch, mucus, &c.--A.]
[Note B: These radicals by a first degree of oxygenation form the animal
oxyds, as lymph, red part of the blood, animal secretions, &c.--A.]
SECT. V.--_Observations upon the Combinations of Oxygen with the
Compound Radicals._
I published a new theory of the nature and formation of acids in the
Memoirs of the Academy for 1776, p. 671. and 1778, p. 535. in which I
concluded, that the number of acids must be greatly larger than was till
then supposed. Since that time, a new field of inquiry has been opened
to chemists; and, instead of five or six acids which were then known,
near thirty new acids have been discovered, by which means the number of
known neutral salts have been increased in the same proportion. The
nature of the acidifiable bases, or radicals of the acids, and the
degrees of oxygenation they are susceptible of, still remain to be
inquired into. I have already shown, that almost all the oxydable and
acidifiable radicals from the mineral kingdom are simple, and that, on
the contrary, there hardly exists any radical in the vegetable, and more
especially in the animal kingdom, but is composed of at least two
substances, hydrogen and charcoal, and that azote and phosphorus are
frequently united to these, by which we have compound radicals of two,
three, and four bases or simple elements united.
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