Chemistry. — “The Condition of Motion of the Molecules in 
Space.” By Prof. J. Béssexen. (In. collaboration with Messrs. 
Cur. vaN Loon, Derx, and Hermans). 
(Communicated at the meeting of October 29, 1921). 
In a paper on the configuration of the tartaric acids (BORSEKEN 
and Coops) ') the conclusion was drawn from the behaviour of these 
acids and their esters towards boric acid, that the carboxy! groups, 
both when substituted and when not substituted, were as far apart 
as possible. | 
The amides and ethyl-amides, however, presented deviations, so 
‘that this simple assumption did not suffice. The great influence 
which these substances have on the conductivity of boric acid, points 
to a favourable situation of the hydroxyl groups with regard to 
each other, which can only satisfactorily be accounted for, when 
‘there are attractive actions between these groups and the substituted 
or non-substituted amide groups. 
Further for a comparatively large number of a-glycols no influ- 
ence on the conductivity of the boric acid was found; these OH- 
groups must, therefore, lie far apart, which could again be explained 
by mutual repulsion. At any rate it appeared from these investiga- 
tions that atoms that are not directly bound to each other, also 
exert an action on each other, and we may expect that the state 
of equilibrium of a molecule will be the result’of all the forces 
in that molecule, both the attractive and the repulsive ones. 
Ihave already pointed ont’) that every change in the position of 
the atoms, however slight, must give rise to re-arrangements, through 
which the position of all the Ba of the molecule will not remain 
“exactly the same. 
In the molecule-halves of active and inactive tartaric acid e.g. 
the comparable groups will no longer be perfectly identical; hence 
the principle of the optical superposition cannot be valid. 
In consequence of the action of these forces, molecules which up 
to now have been considered as symmetrical, as the anti-tartaric 
1) Versl. Kon. Ak. Wet. 29, 368 (1920). Has not yet appeared in English, 
2) ” ” ” ” 29, 562 (1920). ” ” ” ” ” 
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