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THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



process. They were of no commercial 

 value, and had not been investigated. He 

 submitted these oils to Schorlemmer, 

 knowing their investigation was a hard 

 nut to crack, but knowing also that 

 Schorlemmer was the man to crack it. 

 The examination of these oils was the 

 beginning of Schorlemmer' s scientific 

 fortune. Schorlemmer' s scientific work 

 was written in every manual of organic 

 chemistry throughout the world, and had 

 been described fully in his own "History 

 of the Rise and Development of Organic 

 Chemistry," recently edited by his pupil, 

 Prof. Smithells, whilst his investigations 

 on the constitution of the hydrocarbons, 

 marked an era in modern organic chemis- 

 try. Whilst his work in itself had a purely 

 scientific value, it, like much other work 

 «f a similar character, enabled other men 

 to build up an industrial structure, the 

 value of which was measured by millions 

 of pounds sterling, and gave now employ- 

 ment to thousands of men. For it was 

 not too much to say that without Schor- 

 lemmer' s discoveries, the knowledge of 

 the constitution of the carbon compounds 

 which we now possess, as typified by 

 Kekule's theory, could not have been 

 arrived at. Schorlemmer' s power of 

 work was simply prodigious, and his 

 knowledge of chemical literature deep as 

 well as broad. He much valued and made 

 use of their admirable medical library. 

 He, of course, lived and died a poor man, 

 though had he chosen, he might have 

 amassed a large fortune. His distinction 

 was, however, none the less on that ac- 

 count, but, as some woald think, all the 

 more. 



Dr. Ludwig Mond said the opening of 

 the first laboratory solely devoted to the 

 study of organic chemistry, at the only 

 University in England, which could boast 

 of a professor of that subject, marked a 

 distinct step forward in the development 

 of science in this country. In dedicating 



that laboratory to the memory of Schor- 

 lemmer to whom science and that uni- 

 versity owed so much, they must all 

 regret that it was not vouchsafed to him 

 to have the use of such a special labora- 

 tory at his disposal. Nevertheless, the 

 spirit which he infused into his work, 

 his pupils, and his books would be the 

 most valuable endowment which the new 

 building inherited, and would manifest 

 itself in the work of all those who had 

 the good fortune to work there, if they 

 approached their task with the same 

 single -mindedness and love of truth that 

 marked the late Professor Schorlemmer. 

 His work had been singularly fruitful in 

 clearing up and putting on a sound basis 

 the modern theory of organic chemistry, 

 called by him so appropriately ' ' the 

 chemistry of the carbon compounds." 

 For it was Schorlemmer who provided 

 the fundamental proof of the equal value 

 of the four valencies of carbon, the very 

 corner-stone of the great edifice by which 

 we had obtained an insight into the sim- 

 ple laws upon which the immense variety 

 of organic compounds was built up. And 

 the value of the work not only extended 

 to the chemistry of carbon, for the more 

 they succeeded in penetrating into the 

 constitution of the more complex com- 

 pounds of other elements, the more they 

 were forced to apply the same laws 

 which they owed to the study of organic 

 chemistry, to explain their constitution. 

 — Pharm. Journal. 



Resorcin as a Reagent for Albumen.— -M. 

 Carrez proposes to use resorcin as a reagent for 

 albumen in the urine. To make the test, he 

 takes one gramme of resorcin and dissolves it 

 in two grammes of cold water ; 2 cc. of Urine 

 are then poured carefully on to the resorcin 

 solution. If the urine contains albumen, a 

 white ring is formed between the two layers of 

 liquid; alkaloids, urates, and urea are not pre- 

 cipitated by resorcin ; peptones gives a precip- 

 itate, which disappears on warming, so that 

 the test tube should be placed in warm water 

 for a few minutes, when the precipitate is ob- 

 tained. If it disappears, it is due to peptones. 

 The test is very sensitive. 



