Abstract
IN NATURE of Dec. 13, 1930, p. 916, is a communication by Prof. Willy Lange, of Berlin, referring to a letter by me 1 on this subject. The misunderstanding can be easily cleared up. Dr. P. B. Sarkar has been working in this laboratory for a long time on the chemical homology and isomorphism of complex ions, and his first paper on the subject, on the homology of fluoberyllates and sulphates, was published in 1929.2 In continuation of this work, and proceeding on the basis of Goldschmidt's principles of isomorphism, he was investigating the possible cases of isomorphism among the inorganic complex radicles or ions. It was a pure accident that he should have been working on the isomorphism of monofluophosphates and sulphates when Prof. Lange's paper appeared in the Berichte of the German Chemical Society. As in this paper only the simple monofluophosphates and sulphates were described, and crystallographic investigation only of the same was promised, it was not considered necessary to give up that part of Dr. Sarkar's work which dealt with the isomorphism of double monofluophosphates and double sulphates, and even then a year was allowed to pass by in awaiting further communication on the subject by Prof. Lange. As nothing appeared in the interval giving any indication on Prof. Lange's part that he would extend his work in this direction as well, I did not consider it justifiable to withhold the publication of this part of Dr. Sarkar's work any longer. Prof. Lange's petition to the Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft on April 29, 1929, regarding the formation of alums by the fluophosphates did not appear in any scientific journal or abstracts, and hence could not attract our notice.
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References
NATURE, Aug. 30, p. 310.
Jour. Indian Chem. Society, vol. 6, No. 6; 1929: and NATURE, Sept. 28, 1929, 124, p. 480.
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RÂY, P. Isomorphism and Chemical Homology. Nature 127, 631 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127631a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127631a0
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