SKETCH OF AUGUST KEKULE. 407 



Kekule's views on the linking of atoms and on the valency of such 

 chains of atoms, the foundation on which our modern system of con- 

 stitutional chemistry rests. In 1865 Kekule put forward his well- 

 known benzene theory — pronounced by Professor Japp the crown- 

 ing achievement, in his hands, of the doctrine of the linking of atoms, 

 and the most brilliant piece of scientific prediction to be found in 

 the whole range of organic chemistry. The conception of closed 

 chains, or cycloids, which he thus introduced, has shown itself to be 

 capable of boundless expansion. 



Kekule's students all speak admiringly of his qualities as a 

 teacher. The memorialist of the German Chemical Society said: 

 " All of us who have attended his lectures or heard him in other 

 places will ever remember what a teacher Kekule was. With in- 

 comparable lucidity and sometimes with the happiest humor, he 

 could go playfully through the theme he was considering, master- 

 fully presenting it in new and often surprising aspects. The charm 

 of his personality affected all who came in contact with him; it was 

 the geniality which shone out of his whole being, and involuntarily 

 commanded admiration. Numerous pupils flocked to him, and many 

 of those who to-day fill chairs of chemistry in Germany and other 

 countries have made his name highly honored." 



Professor Thorpe, of London, who spent a little time in Kekule's 

 laboratory, describes him as having been one of the very best ex- 

 positors, with the single possible exception of Kirchhoff, to whom it 

 had been his lot to listen. As a laboratory teacher he was excellent. 

 He was a most severe judge of work, striving to exact the same high 

 manipulative finish, the same neatness and order, which he invaria- 

 bly bestowed on everything he did, and he was absolutely intolerant 

 of anything slovenly or " sloppy." " But it was as a lecturer that he 

 was seen at his best. He was singularly luminous as a thinker, a 

 close and accurate reasoner, with a remarkable power of concentrated 

 expression. . . . His language was apt and well chosen, and his 

 delivery easy and natural " ; and his whole address showed that every 

 detail had been carefully considered. 



At a distance of thirty years, Professor Dewar said, at the Lon- 

 don memorial meeting, that to look back and call to mind the pres- 

 ence and personality of the great chemist as he knew him was indeed 

 a pleasure. He was a man of noble mien, handsome, dignified, and 

 yet of a homely and kindly disposition. He was a severe critic, 

 having a haughty contempt for the accidental and bizarre in scien- 

 tific work. His originality and suggestiveness seemed endless, so that 

 he had no need to commit trespass or to follow just in the wake of 

 other people's ideas. " Everything that passed through the Kekule 

 alembic was indeed transmuted into pure gold. His precision of 



