ORGANIC CHEMISTRY — TODD 375 



been greatly to tlie advantage of both and may help to explain their 

 extraordinarily rapid growth. No industry stands closer to its parent 

 science than does the organic chemical industry and in no industry is 

 the gap between scientific discovery and industrial development 

 smaller. 



SYNTHESIS AND THEORY 



Synthetic organic chemistry, which was well established by the be- 

 ginning of this century, was and remains the backbone of the organic 

 chemical industry and it still continues as one of the main streams of 

 research in the science. Natural-product chemistry has been, how- 

 ever, dominant in the academic field for close on 50 years ; essentially 

 concerned with stnictural elucidation, it has also had a considerable 

 influence on synthetic chemistry, since total synthesis of a natural 

 product is commonly regarded as the final proof of structure. Many 

 natural products are of such complexity that novel synthetic pro- 

 cedures have had to be devised for them, enriching the general arsenal 

 of synthetic methods at the chemist's command. Natural-product 

 chemistiy has, of course, also influenced the course of industry by 

 giving it new leads to the production of materials with desirable 

 properties in one direction or another; this has been particularly 

 marked in the pharmaceutical industry in the fields of hormones, 

 hormone substitutes, and synthetic drugs. But it is also noticeable 

 in other branches — the connection between natural coloring matters 

 and the dyestuffs industry has already been mentioned, and the plastic 

 and polymer field owes much to work such as that of the German 

 chemist Harries on natural rubber; many other examples could be 

 given. 



There is, however, a third important line of advance in organic 

 chemistry which has come into special prominence during the past 20 

 years or so. This concerns theoretical aspects of the subject. It is 

 true to say that organic chemistry at the beginning of this century was 

 in danger of stagnation since its theoretical basis, although essentially 

 sound, was relatively undeveloped, and the science, with its enor- 

 mous factual content, was distinctly topheavy. Fortunately, ideas 

 stemming from the new atomic physics were soon brought to its aid 

 through the young science of physical chemistry, and these have led 

 over the years to a much deeper and more precise understanding of 

 organic structures and of the mechanism of organic chemical reac- 

 tions. These theoretical advances have greatly influenced recent 

 developments in all branches of the subject, although they have pre- 

 sented a number of knotty problems to the universities since they 

 have entailed a lot of re-thinking of teaching methods ; it is doubtful 



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