xl GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



But it is to Organic Chemistry^ as usual, tliat tlie most at- 

 tention has been paid. Tlie greater simplicity of the work, 

 and tlie readier applicability of modern atomistic views, seem 

 to have a great iascination for European chemists. In the 

 direction of synthesis, a number of interesting things liave 

 been achieved. Jungfleisch lias managed to obtain by syn- 

 thesis both modifications of tartaric acid, beginning with the 

 elements for a starting-point. Brodie, by the action of elec- 

 tricity upon a mixture of carbonic oxide and hydrogen, has 

 succeeded in obtaining marsh -gas, while carbonic acid and 

 hydrogen, under similar circumstances, gave him formic acid. 

 When the electricity was allowed to act ujDon pure, dry car- 

 bonic oxide, contraction ensued, and small quantities of some 

 new, solid oxides of carbon were produced. These oxides ap- 

 pear to form regular liomologous series, just as the liydro- 

 carbons do. In addition to these discoveries, Aronheim lias 

 achieved the synthesis of naphthaline and phenyl-butylene ; 

 Graebe, the synthesis of phenanthrene ; and Basarow, that of 

 parabaiiic acid. 



Some of the most interesting work of the year has been 

 done by Gladstone and Tribe, by means of their " copper zinc 

 couple." These chemists, having found that zinc upon which 

 a little copper had been deposited was able to decompose 

 water at ordinary temperatures, carried the observation over 

 into the field of organic chemistry by investigating the ac- 

 tion of the "cou]:)le" upon various organic liquids, such as, 

 for instance, the iodides of methyl, ethyl, propyl, and amyl. 

 A variety of interesting reactions occurred, the hydrides of 

 the radicals being formed, and usually some quantity of the 

 more complex organo-metallic zinc radicals appearing also. 

 Zinc-propyl was one of the more striking of the compounds 

 thus obtained. In the hands of Thorpe, the same " copper 

 zinc couple" has been made of service in analytical chemistrv, 

 in the estimation quantitatively of nitric, chloric, and iodic 

 acids. The "couple" Avas found to transform the nitric acid 

 of nitrates into ammonia, which is easy to determine; while 

 it acted as a reducing agent upon chloric and iodic acids, en- 

 abling the chemist subsequently to estimate chlorine and 

 iodine in the ordinary way. 



In the series of the alcohol radicals much work has been 

 recently done, although most of it is in detail uninteresting to 



