WORK OF VAN't HOFF — BEUNI. 771 



The speculations of van't Hoff and Le Bel were received at first 

 in silence and with general indifference. In 1875, when he found 

 himself again face to face with difficulties in finding a position, the 

 young Dutchman published a French translation of his first paper, 

 under the title " La chimie dans I'espace." 



The new theory had to undergo its first test at a meeting of the 

 Chemical Society of Paris in 1875, when van't Hoff had presented an 

 abridged account of his ideas. Berthelot, still a young man, but 

 one whose eminent works in the various domains of chemistry had 

 already made him a gi-eat authority, rose for the attack. He de- 

 clared that, without wishing to refuse a priore the space formulas 

 proposed by van't Hoff and Le Bel, which had a certain advantage 

 over the usual structural formulas in one plane, we could expect no 

 result from the new theories, until we should learn how to recognize 

 the vibrations of the atoms in the interior of the molecule. Later 

 he raised other objections of a rnore positive character, for example, 

 the existence of substances optically active without asymmetric car- 

 bon atoms. Van't Hoff', Le Bel, and other experimenters replied to 

 these objections by demonstrating that the supposed contradictions 

 came simply from errors of observation. 



Meanwhile an important step was taken with a view of making 

 the new theories public. A German scientist, well known by his 

 works on organic chemistry, Wislicenus, professor at "VVurzburg, who 

 some years before had recognized the insufficiency of structural for- 

 mulas to explain certain cases of isomerism, became acquainted with 

 tJie fundamental note of van't Hoff. Being struck by it and com- 

 prehending its great importance, he had his assistant, Hermann, 

 make a German translation of it. This, supplied with a i^reface by 

 himself, was published in 1877, under the title "Die Lagerung der 

 Atome in Raume." This publication, which gave the widest notorietv 

 to the theories of van't Hoff, had as an immediate effect the arousing 

 of new and violent controversy. Hermann Kolbe, already an old man 

 and famous, one of the scientists who had contributed most to the 

 experimental development of organic chemistry and one of the most 

 influential chemists of his time, well known as a bitter critic and 

 violent polemist, who saw in the stiTictural theory an unjustified 

 and dangerous misuse of hypotheses, published a paper entitled 

 " Zeichen der Zeit," from which it is interesting to quote a few 

 passages : 



I have already shown that the cause of the present decadence of chemical 

 research in Germany lies in the lack of a solid general culture. I see one 

 consequence of it in the reapi>earance of the weed of a natural philosophy, 

 clever and brilliant in appearance, but in reality trivial and without meaning. 

 It was driven out 50 years ago by exact research, but it has just been dis- 

 covered again by a pseudoscientist, and like a courtesan, disguised Ti la mode and 

 painted fresh, tries to introduce itself underhandedly into good society, to 

 which it does not belong. 



