nces which enter into its
composition.

This phenomenon of a double base in one acid, which had formerly been
observed only in the nitro-muriatic acid, occurs continually in the
vegetable kingdom, in which a simple acid, or one possessed of a single
acidifiable base, is very rarely found. Almost all the acids procurable
from this kingdom have bases composed of charcoal and hydrogen, or of
charcoal, hydrogen, and phosphorus, combined with more or less oxygen.
All these bases, whether double or triple, are likewise formed into
oxyds, having less oxygen than is necessary to give them the properties
of acids. The acids and oxyds from the animal kingdom are still more
compound, as their bases generally consist of a combination of
charcoal, phosphorus, hydrogen, and azote.

As it is but of late that I have acquired any clear and distinct notions
of these substances, I shall not, in this place, enlarge much upon the
subject, which I mean to treat of very fully in some memoirs I am
preparing to lay before the Academy. Most of my experiments are already
performed; but, to be able to give exact reports of the resulting
quantities, it is necessary that they be carefully repeated, and
increased in number: Wherefore, I shall only give a short enumeration of
the vegetable and animal acids and oxyds, and terminate this article by
a few reflections upon the composition of vegetable and animal bodies.

Sugar, mucus, under which term we include the different kinds of gums,
and starch, are vegetable oxyds, having hydrogen and charcoal combined,
in different proportions, as their radicals or bases, and united with
oxygen, so as to bring them to the state of oxyds. From the state of
oxyds they are capable of being changed into acids by the addition of a
fresh quantity of oxygen; and, according to the degrees of oxygenation,
and the proportion of hydrogen and charcoal in their bases, they form
the several kinds of vegetable acids.

It would be easy to apply the principles of our nomenclature to give
names to these vegetable acids and oxyds, by using the names of the two
substances which compose their bases: They would thus become
hydro-carbonous acids and oxyds: In this method we might indicate which
of their elements existed in excess, without circumlocution, after the
manner used by Mr Rouelle for naming vegetable extracts: He calls these
extracto-resinous when the extractive matter prevails in their
composition, and resino-extractive