Excerpt from The American Journal of Pharmacy, 1863, Vol. 35: Published by Authority of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy Gentlemen: I propose to set forth in a summary manner in this lecture the history of organic radicals, the study of which, though dating back scarcely thirty years, has produced fruitful results, and contributed largely to the development of organic chemistry. We give the name of radicals to particular compounds, whose complex nature may be rendered evident by the aid of physical forces, or by the intervention of reagents; but which, though formed of many elements, present the characters of simple bodies and exercise functions precisely similar. They are, in a word, compounds which possess the property of forming with' simple bodies, combinations entirely analogous to those which the latter produce by their mutual union. Among the radicals some are known in the isolated state; these may be handled and made to combine and to separate under influences which enable us to make and unmake chemical compounds of most varied character, such as cyanogen, cacodyl, stibethyl, but the greatest number, it must be admitted, have only a purely hypothetical existence. Among the latter are methyl, ethyl, acetyl, benzo'ile, ammonium, 850. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.