H 



NATURE 



[March i6, 191 i 



li;;lil, lull :ill |iii i^lii-d wliMi il w.i-. u ii IhIim v\ ii. ■i'lii- 

 (I.Aiiui lU.uki.K.I llhiil.ii.- (.illr(.| upon 111(11, ui.iii. n, 

 antl iliikinn, :iii(l ( \f i \ l liiiij^ lli:il li.ul Itr.-.illi lu uoi'- 

 •-liip lln ,ill-;^lMrii.u,, .ill-pi lU n I ul Min-i_:i'<l ulii> \\\\> 

 Ihr lir.iM 11 with hi ij^litntss .iikI ill'- -.iilii uitli lilf 

 and lif.iiiU. 'I'hf -un-daiur u.is llic'n iMial aiimial 

 relij^iuus festival, tlu'ir hi)ly sariaiinnl . ili< ■>iij>i'iin- 

 oxpn-xsi'in of rlu'ir rcli>*i()n. It imist al\\a\> lia\( ii^ 

 l.c ■ ' ' woiiian's \n\\, iiiadi' h> lln- --iiii-j.i« 'd lor 



tli. ihr sick. I Ik- ai ( oimi i^ism u\ ilic 



suii-daiicc Is (>1 iiiliiisi, lull jar lnu sliml lof the 



student. 



X'arioUK legends and sN.rirs an laMii, and ill'- ucca- 

 si.iiis (in uhicli lhc\ uctc Idid arc L;i\cii, so ihc talo 

 I'll naiiiiallv inio llic |ii(luri-s id' Indian life ilial Mr. 

 Mc('rnit(i(U |>i(scnts. Tliis is a hook liial should he 

 read hv all who arc JTiliTCSilfd in the \\a\s and 

 lhoUi;lils ol alien folk, and ils value is increased In' 

 the \er\- numerous and I'xcclleiit jdiolograplis taken 

 hv llic aiilhoi. A. C. HaDDON. 



VROl . J. II. VAN 'T HOFF. 



IT is with the dcciicsi rcLjret that we record the 

 death ol Prof. J. II. \.iii "l lloll, which occurred 

 oil .\kirch 1, ai .Si, -lit/, mar Herlin. It was 

 known that his hcakli has not been good for the 

 ktst two or three years, hul the unexpected news of 

 his death .-It the coniiiar,itiv( ly i-arly A^e of fifty-eight 

 \iars will come as a very heavy bk)W to the world of 

 scienc . i'or ;i L;(-neraiion the name of van 't HofT 

 )i,-is he(-ii f.imiliar lo students of science in every part 

 ol tli(- ci\Ilised world. It would be difticult indeed 

 to nieiitiun any branch of modern scientific inquiry 

 which has not been advanced by his fundamental 

 discoveries. Certainly physiology, biology, and geo- 

 logy, as well as every branch of chemistry, owe a 

 deep and undying debt of gratitude to the genius of 

 van 't HofT. The memory of his name and the 

 influence of his work will outlive the centuries, an 

 integral part of the incorruptible heritage of science. 



J.'icobus Henricus van 't Hoff was born in Rotter- 

 d.im on August 30, 1852, his father being a physician 

 of that city. In 1869 he proceeded to the Poly- 

 techiiikum at Delft, passing throut^li the usual three 

 ye.irs' technological course in two yt.irs. He was 

 then admitted to the University of Leyden, where he 

 studied until 1872. He continued his studies in Bonn 

 under Kekul^, and in Paris under Wurtz. In 1874, 

 as a pupil of Mulder, he obtained the doctor's degree 

 of the l^niversity of Utrecht, W'ith a thesis on cyan- 

 acetii and malonic acids. 



Xau 't HofT began his teaching career in 1876 as 

 a docent in physics at the Veterinary School at 

 I'trecht. In 1877 he went to Amsterdam, and in the 

 following year was appointed professor of chemistry 

 at the University of Amsterdam. Here he remained 

 for eighteen years.. In i8q6 he was called to Berlin 

 as a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences 

 and as a professor of the University of Berlin. He 

 sj; ive lectures on physical chemistry at the university, 

 but a research laboratory was provided for him by 

 the Academy of Sci.ences. In this position van 't 

 HofT continued to work until his death. 



Such is a very brief account of the various positions 

 he held during his lifetime. Needless to say, univer- 

 sities, scientific societies, and academies throughout 

 the world vied with each other in honouring him. 

 In 18S8 he was elected a foreign member of the 

 Chemical Society of 'London. He became a foreign 

 member of the' Royal Society in 1897, whilst the 

 Physical Society of' London elected him a foreign 

 member this year. Amongst others, the universities 

 of Cambridge, Chicago, Heidelberg, Manchester, 



NO. 2159, VOL. 86] 



U|.. Ill II 



disiiiu t i 



the \o 



l.ik. 

 lite 

 1 

 the 



if--,'.;,'' ' ■ ••'■(\ honorary de^'' 



II hi: ■ d on hv!! the .'. 



Tour le ,M 

 ,!,. warded t(; I.; 



night be lucnliuued, but , 

 how the high esteem in 1 

 I ijoi! w.,^ Ik id throughout the wj r!* 

 11 f^ie.it nii-n of s( ienic, the true stor)' of i 

 li(i\\e\(r, to h(; found ill his researches. 

 ■r the iiillueiice of Kekuk'-, Wurtz, and Miilc 

 ilii-st udriv oi \;ui 't llolf relat<-s tu org;u,.i 

 (h(-inisir\. lUil lier(- his i.^cuii-i'-' soon enabled him to 

 strike .1 noi(- of (-xtraordinary (jriginality. While still 

 engai^cd wiih Mulder in s\iith(;tic organic work, he 

 |)uhlished in 1S7.} ;i short jcnni.lilei in Dutch, in which 

 lie unfolded his new idc'i- 'ng the extension 



of org.iiiic siruciur.il foriir 1 three-dimensional 



space, and the n-Iation hi-tween optical activity and 

 tlie presence of .111 "asymmetric" carbon atom. In 

 1S75 this appe.in d in an enlarged form under the 

 title "'La Chiniie dans I'espace," a - German edition, 

 \\'\\h a ])reface by J. W'islicenus, appearing in 1^ 

 (Die I.agerung der .\tonie iiii Raume "). Thus ■ 

 iMtrn \.in 't HofT's famous theory of the "tetrahedr. 

 c.ii hon atom and the science of stereochemistry, 

 all the world now knows, van 't Hoff's new ideas 

 found iiiany o|)poii(-nis. In particular Kolbe, who 

 was ,111 opponent of structur.il chemical formulae in 

 g( IK ral, .itiacked the new ideas and their author with 

 great virulence. But tlie ■■lame Pegasus" which the 

 \-ouni4 lecturer .'it the I'tri-cht Veterinary School had 

 bestridden was not so lame as Kolbe imagined, and 

 van 't HofT's ideas gradually triumphed. The warm 

 support of Johann Wislicenus and the work of him- 

 self and his school greatly contributed towards the 

 recognition and development of van 't HofT's ideas. 



Not long .ifter the ;ii)pc-arance of the " Chimie dans 

 Tespace, ■ v.m 't TIofY published a very remarkable 

 and little-known book, entitled " Ansichten iiber die 

 organische Chemie." In it he sought to give the 

 whole of oTLiini;- chemistry a strict and logical ar- 

 rangement, wluK in both old and new facts should 

 find their proper place. At the same time he em- 

 phasised the necessity for a quantitative study of the 

 course of chemical reactions, and developed the funda- 

 mental equations of chemical kinetics and equilibrium 

 on the basis of the law of man-action. Although in 

 some respects van 't Hoff was preceded here by 

 Guldberg and Waage, as well as by Harcourt and 

 Esson, we perceive here the beginning of that long 

 and masterly series of experimental and theoretical 

 researches, whereby van 't HofT raised the whole sub- 

 ject of chemical dynamics to the level of an exact 

 and well-ordered branch of science. In the celebrated 

 and now classical " Etudes de Dynamique chimique " 

 (1884), van 't Hoff gave a. collected account of these 

 researches. Here is to be found a systematic study 

 of the velocity of r( actions, as dependent on the 

 number of rcacii)ig ))i(^]ccuJcs, a method for deter- 

 mining the number of reacting molecules from the 

 experimental data, an exhaustive study of the "dis- 

 turbing " actions, and an investigation of the influence 

 of teinperature on velocity of reaction. Masterly as 

 was the treatment of chemical kinetics here set forth 

 bv van 't Hoff, one would err grievously in imaeining 

 the "Etudes" to contain nothing else. Nearly 

 one-half of the monograph was devoted to chemical 

 equilibrium and affinity. In this portion van 't Hoff 

 abandoned the purely molecular-kinetic standpoint, 

 treating the subject from the point of view of thermo- 

 dynamics. One finds here the classical treatment of 

 the equilibrium of "condensed" phases, and of the 

 influence of temperature and pressure thereon. Here 

 is also to be found the enunciation of van 't HofT's 



