The researches of Liebig (1823), Liebig and Gay-Lussac (1824), and of Liebig again in 1838 showed the acid to be isomeric with cyanic acid, and probably (Hcno) 2, since it gave mixed and acid salts.
One of the earliest, if not the earliest, was the investigation, published in 1830, which proved the polymerism of cyanic and cyanuric acid, but the most famous were those on the oil of bitter almonds (benzaldehyde) and the radicle benzoyl (1832), and on uric acid (1837), which are of fundamental importance in the history of organic chemistry.
When Wohler, in 1825, analysed his cyanic acid, and Liebig his quite different fulminic acid in 1824, the composition of both compounds proved to be absolutely the same, containing each in round numbers 28% of carbon, 33% of nitrogen, 37% of oxygen and 2% of hydrogen.
There are polymers which have hardly any inter-relations other than identity in composition; on the other hand, there are others which are related by the possibility of mutual transformation; examples of this kind are cyanic acid (Cnoh) and cyanuric acid (Cnoh) 3, the latter being a solid which readily transforms into the former on heating as an easily condensable vapour; the reverse transformation may also be realized; and the polymers methylene oxide (CH 2 O) and trioxymethylene (CH20)3.
Investigation of the cyanic ethers (1848) yielded a class of substances which opened out a new field in organic chemistry, for, by treating those ethers with caustic potash, he obtained methylamine, the simplest organic derivative of ammonia (1849), and later (1851) the compound ureas.