Abstract
IF we consider the development of organic chemistry from its early beginnings to the present day, we may come to the conclusion that progress has in some measure taken place in a circle. In the early days the substances offered by Nature and occurring in the metabolism of plants and animals were the objects of investigation, and the isolation, purification and analysis of such substances have added lustre to the names of many chemists. Interest in the chemical elucidation of 'natural products' did not indeed decline during the past century (we need only mention the investigations of Emil Fischer on the purines, carbohydrates and proteins), but relatively this work absorbed less energy and yielded fewer results in comparison with the great problems of structural chemistry and the classification of organic compounds based thereon.
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WIELAND, H. Scientific Worthies XLVIII. Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, O.M., F.R.S. Nature 141, 989–993 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141989a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141989a0