Abstract
IN view of the many interesting results which have recently been obtained by the application of electrolytic methods to organic chemistry, the publication of this little work in the English language is distinctly opportune. As a guide to the literature relating to the electrolysis of organic compounds it will be of especial service to the investigator, containing, as it does, a practically complete list of references to the original memoirs (including patent specifications). The account of the contents of these is, however, generally very brief, in some cases so brief that it amounts to little more than a subject-index. The electrolysis of each compound, or group of chemically similar compounds, is considered separately, and a list of the products obtained under various conditions given. The conditions are not, however, specified in most cases with sufficient exactitude to permit of the repetition of the experiment, even when these conditions are given in the original memoir, and are of primary importance. Greater attention to this point would have considerably enhanced the value of the book, although, of course, it would have added to its bulk. The general impression left by the perusal of this interesting little work is that the whole subject is yet in its infancy, and that the careful study of the influence of E.M.F., temperature, nature of the solvent, and of the electrodes and of other factors on the electrolysis of organic compounds will yield, as in a few cases it has already yielded, most interesting results.
Electrolysis and Electrosynthesis of Organic Compounds.
By Dr. Walther Löb. Translated by H. W. F. Lorenz, A.M., Ph.D. Pp. xiii + 103. (New York: John Wiley and Sons. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1898.)
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E., T. Electrolysis and Electrosynthesis of Organic Compounds. Nature 59, 581 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/059581b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/059581b0