Which with baryta gave chloroform and maleic acid.
Consequently, of each pair of isomers we may establish beforehand which is the more stable; either in particular circumstances, a direct change taking place, as, for instance, with maleic acid, which when exposed to sunlight in presence of a trace of bromine, yields the isomeric fumaric acid almost at once, or, indirectly, one may conclude that the isomer which forms under greater heat-development is the more stable, at least at lower temperatures.
Another form of isomerism is occasioned by spatial arrangements, many of the reduced terephthalic acids existing in two stereo-isomeric forms. Baeyer explains this by analogy with fumaric and maleic acids: he assumes the reduced benzene ring to lie in a plane; when both carboxyl groups are on the same side of this plane, the acids, in general, resemble maleic acids, these forms he denotes by rcis-cis, or shortly cis-; when the carboxyl groups are on opposite sides, the acids correspond to fumaric acid, these forms are denoted by rcis-trans, or shortly trans-.
Hydriodic acid and phosphorus reduce it to maleic acid and finally to succinic acid.
Many derivatives are known, some of which exist in two structural forms, exhibiting geometrical isomerism after the mode of fumaric and maleic acids.