382 PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



willing to spend $5,000,000 in an effort to solve such a problem 

 as the synthesis production of a dye is likely to continue in 

 the future as in the past to maintain a monopoly in the produc- 

 tion of synthetic dyes. 



Caoutchouc identical with the natural product has also been 

 made in the laboratory and in such amounts that it has been 

 possible to test its properties even to the extent of equipping a 

 motor car with tires of the synthetic product. The outlook for 

 the production of this at a price which will enable it to com- 

 pete with the natural product is far from encouraging. Whether 

 or not this achievement will ever be realized — who can say. 



Asymuictrical Syntheses. Another important problem con- 

 nected with the study of the compounds associated with the liv- 

 ing organism is one that has to do with the subject of stereo- 

 isomeric compounds ; that is. compounds in which the isomerism 

 is due not to different chemical groups but to the different ar- 

 rangement in space of the same groups. The work of Pasteur 

 (1848) upon tartaric acid and later that of Wislicenus (1873) 

 upon the lactic acids showed that in each of these cases two 

 acids were known having the same chemical formula but 

 differing from each other in their action on polarized lights. 

 As a result of the study of these investigations Van Hoff 

 and LeBel working independently advanced theories prac- 

 tically identical in their assumptions which satisfactorily 

 account for the existence of these acids. They observed 

 that in tartaric acid as well as in lactic acid the mole- 

 cule contains at least one carbon atom joined to four radicals 

 or elements all different from each other. Such a carbon atom 

 is known as an asymmetric carbon atom. Now it is very easy 

 to show that in all compounds containing an asymmetric atom 

 it is possible to have two different arrangements of the molecule 

 containing the same groups of atoms but related to each other 

 as object and image or as the right hand is to the left. These 

 two isomers are known as stereo- or space isomers because their 

 isomerism is due not to different groups but to the different space 

 arrangements of the same groups. Since such compounds are 

 so closely related in' constitution it is natural to expect that their 



