256 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



hydrogen cyanide from its elements, or of 

 urea from ammonium cyanate. I should 

 not consider the discussion of a mere 

 question of terminology of sufficient im- 

 portance to occupy the attention of this 

 Section were it not a matter of principle, 

 and that a principle of very great import- 

 ance, which I believe to be associated with 

 a clear conception of chemical synthesis. 

 The great interest of all work in this 

 field arises from our being able, by labora- 

 tory processes, to obtain compounds which 

 are also manufactured in nature's labora- 

 tory — the living organism. It is in this 

 direction that our science encroaches upon 

 biology through physiology. Now, if we 

 confine the notion of synthesis to the 

 building up of molecules from simpler 

 molecules or from atoms, we exclude one 

 of nature's methods of producing many of 

 these very compounds which we claim to 

 have synthesized. There can be no man- 

 ner of doubt that a large proportion, if 

 not a majority, of the natural products 

 which have been prepared artificially are 

 not synthesized by the animal or plant in 

 the sense ot building up at all. They are 

 the results of the breaking down— of the 

 degradation — of complex molecules into 

 simpler ones. I urge, therefore, that if 

 in the laboratory we can arrive at one of 

 these products by decomposing a more 

 complex molecule by means of suitable 

 reagents, we have a perfect right to call 

 this a synthesis, provided always that 

 the more complex molecule, which gives 

 us our compound, can be in it turn syn- 

 thesized, by no matter how many steps, 

 from its constituent atoms. Thus oxalic 

 acid has been directly synthesized from 

 carbon dioxide by Kolbe and Drechsel by 

 passing this gas over potassium or sodium 

 amalgam heated to 360 . Whether the 

 plant makes oxalic acid directly out of 

 carbon dioxide we cannot at present 

 state; if it does, it certainly does not em- 

 ploy Kolbe and Drechsel' s process. On 



the other hand this acid may, for all that 

 is known, exist in the plant as a product 

 of degradation. Many more complex 

 acids, such as citric and tartaric, break 

 down into oxalic acid when fused with 

 potash. Both citric and tartaric acids can 

 now be completely synthesized; therefore 

 the formation of oxalic acid from these 

 by potash fusion is a true synthesis. 



The illustration given will make clear 

 the point which I am urging. The dis- 

 tinction between a synthesis and a mode 

 of formation vanishes when we can ob- 

 tain a compound by the breaking down 

 of a more complex molecule in all those 

 cases where the latter can be completely 

 built up. If we do not expand the mean- 

 ing of synthesis so as to comprise such 

 cases we are simply shutting the door in 

 nature's face. It must be borne in mind 

 that the actual yield of the compound 

 furnished by the laboratory process does 

 not come into consideration, because it 

 may be generally asserted that in most 

 cases the artificial processes are not the 

 same as those which go in the animal or 

 plant. The information of real value to 

 physiologist which these syntheses give 

 is the suggestion that such or such a 

 compound may possibly result from the 

 degradation of this or that antecedent 

 compound, and not from a process of 

 building up from simpler molecules. — 

 Abstract from the add? ess of the President 

 of the Chemical Section of the British 

 Association at Ipsivich, Prof. Raphael 

 Meldola, F. R. S., F. I. C. 



Quinine Derivatives. — By the action of me- 

 thyl iodide on crystallized quinine in alcoholic 

 solution, the methyl iodide derivative is ob- 

 tained, 



C 20 H 24 N 2 O,CH 3 I-f2H a O. 



By warming for sometime with potash, Hesse 

 has obtained from this body methyl quinicin, 

 C 20 H» :J (CH 3 )N 2 O 2 , which like quinicin, forms 

 a neutral crystalline salt with oxalic acid. — 

 Apotheker Zeitung. 



