Abstract
THE second edition of this work was very fully reviewed in these columns in 1887 (vol. xxxvii. p. 121), and we will therefore content ourselves with noticing briefly the new matter contained in the present edition. We must, however, premise that the stereochemistry of the carbon compounds is based on the assumption that the four monad atoms or groups satisfying the four affinities of a carbon atom are situated at the solid angles of a tetrahedron, the centre of which is occupied by the carbon atom itself, and on the allied conception of the “asymmetric” carbon atom—“asymmetry” arising when the four attached atoms or groups are dissimilar, in which case two enantiomorphic arrangements are possible for any given set of four such atoms or groups (see the notice already referred to). In the first French edition, which bore the title “La Chimie dans l'Espace,” the author discussed the greatly increased possibilities of isomerism to which this new theory led. Since then chemists have used the theory as a guide in the search for cases of isomerism, and numerous new isomeric compounds have been discovered, the existence of which could not have been predicted as long as the old constitutional formulæ written in one plane were employed. The history of this branch of organic chemistry has, during the past seven or eight years, been one continuous triumph for the theory. One of the most striking proofs of the value of these stereochemical views is to be found in Emil Fischer's well-known researches on the sugar group. In the group of the glucoses of the aldehydealcohol type, for example, the presence of four asymmetric carbon atoms has to be assumed, and the theory predicts the existence of no fewer than sixteen isomerides with a normal carbon chain, as compared with the one form admissible under the older view. Several of the predicted forms have been prepared, and the relative distribution of the positive and negative asymmetric carbon atoms within the molecule has been determined by E. Fischer. This and other work confirmatory of the theory, is described and discussed in the present volume.
Stéréochimie.
Nouvelle Edition de “Dix Années dans l'Histoire d'une Théorie.” Par J. -H. van't Hoff. Rédigée par W. Meyerhoffer. (Paris: Georges Carré, 1892.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
J., F. Stéréochimie. Nature 47, 436 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/047436a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/047436a0