"s, alkalis, and many other inorganic reagents were available... in the early nineteenth century... [T]heir use often added to... descriptive organic chemistry... without clarifying structural relationships. ...[V]igorous pyrolysis of organic compounds, involving no addition of further groups, remained a common technique until about the end of the nineteenth century. ...[M]any high-temperature reactions are fragmentations which produce simple products ...[D]irect of ...carboxylic acids and ...similar decomposition of carboxylic salts by heating with lime or are... examples."