254 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



THE PROGRESS OF SYNTHETICAL 

 CHEMISTRY. 



The history of chemical synthesis has 

 been so thoroughly dealt with from time 

 to time that I should not have ventured 

 to obtrude any further notice of this sub- 

 ject upon your patience were it not for a 

 certain point which appeared to me of 

 sufficient interest to merit reconsideration. 

 It is generally stated that the formation 

 of urea from ammonium cyanate by 

 Wohler in 1828, was the first synthesis of 

 an organic compound. There can be no 

 doubt that this discovery, which attract- 

 ed much attention at the time, gave a 

 serious blow to the current conceptions of 

 organic chemistry, because urea was so 

 obviously a product of the living animal. 

 It will be found, however, that about the 

 same time Henry Hennell, of Apothe- 

 caries' Hall, had really effected the syn- 

 thesis of alcohol — that is to say, had syn- 

 thesized this compound in the same sense 

 that Wohler had synthesized urea. The 

 history is soon told. In 1826, Hennell 

 (through Brande) communicated a paper 

 to the Royal Society which appears in 

 the Philosophical Tra?isaclions for that 

 year.* In studying the compounds pro- 

 duced by the action of sulphuric acid on 

 alcohol, and known as the "oil ot wine," 

 he obtained sulphovinic acid, which had 

 long been known, and gave fairly good 

 analyses of this acid and of some of its 

 salts, while expressing in the same paper 

 very clear notions as to its chemical na- 

 ture. Having satisfied himself that sul- 

 phovinic acid is a product of the action in 

 question, he then proceeded to examine 

 some sulphuric acid which had absorbed 

 eighty times its volume of defiant gas, 

 and which had been placed at his disposal 

 for this purpose by Michael Faraday. 

 From this he also isolated sulphovinic 



*" On the Mutual Action of Sulphuric Acid and Alcohol, 

 with Observations on the Composition and Properties of 

 the resulting compounds," Phil. Trans., 1826, p. 240. 



acid. In another paper, communicated 

 to the Royal Society in i828,f he proves 

 quantitatively that when sulphovinic acid 

 is distilled with sulphuric acid and water 

 the whole of the alcohol and sulphuric 

 acid which united to form the sulphovi- 

 nic acid are recovered. In the same paper 

 he shows that he had very clear views as 

 to the process of etherification. Hennell's 

 work appears to have been somewhat 

 dimmed by the brilliancy of his contem- 

 poraries who were laboring in the 

 same field; but it is not too much to claim 

 for him, after the lapse of nearly seventy 

 years, the position of one of the pioneers 

 of chemical synthesis. Of course, in his 

 time the synthesis was not complete, be- 

 cause he did not start from inorganic 

 materials. The olefiant gas used by 

 Faraday had been obtained from coal gas 

 or oil gas. Moreover, in 1826-1828 

 alcohol was not generally regarded as a 

 product of vital activity, and this is, no 

 doubt, the reason why the discovery fail- 

 ed to produce the same excitement as the 

 formation of urea. But the synthesis of 

 alcohol from ethylene had, nevertheless, 

 been accomplished, and this hydrocarbon 

 occupied at that time precisely the same 

 position as ammonium cyanate. The 

 latter salt had not then been synthesized 

 from inorganic materials, and the forma- 

 tion of urea, as Schorlemmer points out 

 ("The Rise and Development of Organic 

 Chemistry," p. 195), was also not a com- 

 plete synthesis. The reputation of 

 Wohler, the illustrious friend and col- 

 league of the more illustrious Liebig, 

 will lose not a fraction of its brilliancy 

 by the raising of this historical question. 

 Science recognizes no distinction of 

 nationality, and the future historian of 

 synthetical chemistry will not begrudge 

 the small niche in the temple of fame to 

 which Henn ell is entitled. 



f'On the Mutual Action of Sulphuric Acid and Alcohol, 

 and on the Nature of the Process by which Ether is 

 formed." Phil. Trans.. 1828, p. 365. 



