Note 40 — Chapter IX · COMPOUNDS OF CARBON WITH OXYGEN AND NITROGEN

Just as the aldehydes (such as C2H4O) are alcohols (like C2H6O) which have lost hydrogen and are also capable of entering into combination with many substances, and of polymerising, forming slightly volatile polymerides, which depolymerise on heating. Although there are also many similar phenomena (for instance, the transformation of yellow into red phosphorus, the transition of cinnamene into metacinnamene, &c.) of polymerisation, in no other case are they so clearly and simply expressed as in cyanic acid. The details relating to this must be sought for in treatises on organic and theoretical chemistry. If we touch on certain sides of this question it is principally with the view of showing the phenomenon of polymerisation by typical examples, for it is of more frequent occurrence than was formerly supposed among compounds of several elements.