Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Iviii, (1914), No. 10. 3 



Accepting the second hypothesis we are immediately 

 confronted by a multitude of complexes, requiring in their 

 turn a clear conception of a carbon molecule. 



What is a carbon molecule ? 



Is it a formless mass of atoms in a state of chaotic 

 disorder, or is it organised similar to the assumed 

 structure of carbon compounds? 



Our assumption will be — organisation. 



Now, if carbon is always tetravalent, what is the con- 

 stitutional, or, as Butlerow calls it, structural formula for 

 a carbon molecule ? Not much work has been done up 

 to the present in this direction. 



Victor Me\'er (Beric/ife, 1871,4, Soi ; Liebig's An.., 

 1875, 180, 195), from results obtained on moist oxidation 

 of carbon, assumes a carbon molecule to be polyatomic. 



Kekulc {Zeti. fiir angeiv. Cheinie, 1899, 950) regards a 

 carbon molecule as consisting of 12 atoms. 



Barlow and Pope {J.C.S., 1906,89, 1742) suggested 

 the possibilities of a tetrahedron and tri-naphthalene con- 

 figuration for a carbon molecule. 



fk. I. 



Dewar {Chevi. News, 1908, 97, 16) proposed the 

 formula 



