246 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. [LECTURE XII. 



Thus, by heating ethylene iodide with silver acetate, Wurtz 

 obtained an acetic ether, which, on decomposition with potash, 

 yielded the desired alcohol : 



C 4 H 4 I a + a C 



In this way Wurtz succeeded in preparing glycol, the first 

 of the diatomic alcohols. 09 He was well rewarded for the 

 difficulties of the investigation, for it is seldom that the dis- 

 covery of a single substance has exercised such an influence 

 upon the development of chemistry, and seldom that a single 

 compound has given rise to such a series of elegant and useful 

 investigations as this glycol did. I may be permitted to justify 

 this assertion by making some observations with respect to the 

 compounds which stand in the closest relation to glycol. 



By the oxidation of glycol, Wurtz obtained glycollic acid 

 and oxalic acid. 70 The former was identical with the sub- 

 stance that Horsford had prepared from glycocoll ten years 

 previously, 71 the nature of which had been announced by 

 Strecker. 712 In exactly the same way lactic acid is produced 



C" "FT O ^ 



from propylene glycol. 73 Wurtz proposed (i ^ 4 - -O 4 as the 



formula of the former, regarding it, and also glycollic acid, as 

 dibasic acids. 74 The discovery of ethylene oxide and of -the 

 polyethylene alcohols was also of great importance. By the 



H \ 

 treatment of glycol-chlorhydrine C 4 H 4 -O 2 ,' (obtained from 



Cl ) 



glycol by the action of hydrochloric acid) with potash solution, 

 Wurtz obtained the ether of the diatomic alcohol, which stands 



69 Comptes Renclus. 43, 199, 1856; compare also 43, 478; 45, 306; 

 46, 244 ; 47, 346. 70 Ibid. 44, 1306. 71 Annalen. 60, I. 72 Ibid. 

 68, 55 ; compare Socoloff and Strecker. 80, 38. 73 Comptes Rendus. 46, 

 1228. 74 Strecker (Annalen. 8l, 247) adopted a formula for lactic acid 

 which was double the above. 73 Comptes Rendus. 48, 101 ; 49, 813 ; 50, 

 H95; 54> 2 77- 



