May 2, 19 1 8] 



NATURE 



167 



glycerol, and predicted the existence of the di- 

 -atomic alcohols, which he established by the dis- 

 covery of glycol, glycoUic acid, and a number of 

 other derivatives. The theoretical deductions to 

 which these researches gave rise led to a memor- 

 able controversy between the French and German 

 schools, which greatly influenced the development 

 of the conception of basicity, and the spread of 

 Gerhardt's teaching of the true principles on which 

 the formulation of organic compounds should be 

 based. 



In 1854 Wurtz isolated butyl alcohol {iso- 

 propyl carbinol) from the fusel oil of potato-spirit, 

 and ten years later he added another term to this 

 series of homologues by the preparation of his 

 methylene hydrate, an isomeride of amyl alcohol 

 discovered by Cahours. The mode of its resolu- 

 tion by heat into water and amylene led Wurtz to 

 the study of abnormal vapour densities, as mani- 

 fested by the thermal decomposition of phosphorus 

 pentachloride, the hydrate and alcoholate of 

 chloral, ammonium sulphydrate and chloride, etc. 

 — an inquiry which brought him into conflict with 

 Berthelot and Sainte-Claire Deville. His study of 

 the action of hydrochloric acid on aldehyde led to 

 the discovery of aldol, its polymerides, and other 

 derivatives, which occupied much of his attention 

 for several years. 



The foregoing is a very incomplete summary of 

 Wurtz's contributions to experimental chemistry 

 •contained within some 150 memoirs. His relation 

 to his epoch has already been set forth in the 

 admirable obituary notice by Friedel — himself an 

 Alsatian — which appears in the Bulletin of the 

 Chemical Society of France — a society of which 

 Wurtz was one of the original founders, and 

 which he consistently supported so long as he 

 lived. A charming sketch of his life, work, and 

 personality by his pupil and life-long friend. Prof. 

 Armand Gautier, appeared in the Revue Scien- 

 tifique of December 22-29, ^9^7 j written on the 

 occasion of the celebration of his centenary. It 

 affords a delightful picture of Wurtz as he ap- 

 peared in his laboratory — the directing and 

 dominant agency, primus inter pares, of a 

 galaxy of collaborators such as Friedel, Caventou, 

 •Crafts, Louguinine, De Clermont, Salet, Naquet, 

 Willm, Oppenheim, Lauth, Girard, Le Bel, 

 Grimaux, Cleve, Chydenius, Tollens, Sell, Silva, 

 Henninger, Maxwell Simpson, Hanriot, Franchi- 

 mont, CEchsner de Coninck, Richet, and van't Hoff, 

 with Gautier himself — all men who, stimulated by 

 the example of their leader and influenced by his 

 teaching, have contributed to fashion the edifice 

 of modern chemistry. 



Wurtz was a fine character — a man with a broad 

 mind* in a large and manly frame. He had all the 

 qualities which attract men and fascinate youth — 

 charm of manner, transparent integrity, generous 

 impulses and a ready sympathy, an enthusiastic 

 and loyal devotion to science, and a quick and 

 whole-hearted appreciation of merit in those who 

 sought to enlarge its boundaries. He was idolised 

 by his students. As a lecturer he had much of 

 the force and fire of his master, Dumas, the same 

 NO. 2531, VOL. lOl] 



' gift of happy and graceful diction, the same clarity 



of thought, the same power of logical and lucid 



exposition. He had also, in no small measure, 



Dumas 's facility of literary expression. No nobler 



j tribute was ever penned than that paid by Wurtz, 



I in the opening pages of his well-known Dictionnaire, 



j to the genius and labours of Gerhardt and Laurent. 



I M. Armand Gautier well applies to him the words 



which he himself used at the graveside of Dumas : 



"Votre grande figure n'est pas de celles qui puis- 



I sent disparaitre dans I'oubli. Votre souvenir se 



I perp^tuera, votre nom passera d'Sge en age. Vous 



i vivrez par vos oeuvres, par I'exemplc que vous 



; avez donn6, par les productions immortelles et 



j les qualilds de votre esprit." 



T. E. Thorpe. 



ICE AND FLOWER EXPLORATION IN 

 HIGH ASIA.-^ 

 (i) ' I ^HE indefatig-able explorers of the glaciers 

 -'- of the Karakoram Himalayas, Dr. and 

 Mrs. Workman, who have done more than any 

 others to visit and map out the details of those 

 vast ice-fields, give in the volume before us still 

 another account of their travels and explorations 

 in a new sector of these regions. As usual, in 

 order to cover as much new ground as possible 

 within the narrow summer limits in which travel 

 was practicable, they formed separate and inde- 

 pendent expeditions, although they combine their 

 results in a single volume. At the present time, 

 when so much is being written about the extension 

 of women's sphere on account of the war, it is 

 interesting to find abundant evidence here of the 

 pre-war exploits of a woman-pioneer in these 

 Indian Alps, in fields usually regarded as the 

 especial preserve of men, and of men of unusual 

 nerve because of the physical perils to be 

 encountered and overcome. 



Mrs. Workman independently instituted and led 

 the pioneer expedition to the hitherto unvisited 

 Rose Glacier of Sia Chen, which is the longest non- 

 polar glacier in the world ; Dr. Workman explored 

 the Sher-pi-Gang and other glaciers and basins ; 

 and between them they achieved the feat during 

 two summers of mapping out nearly two thousand 

 square miles of ice-field details for the first time. 

 Although the journeys were performed in 191 1 and 

 1912, the exigencies of the war have prevented 

 the publication before now ; but as no one else has 

 visited those regions since then, this delay in no 

 way detracts from the interest and solid scientific 

 value of the work accomplished and now given to 

 the public. 



A striking feature of the moraines in those 

 remote regions was the great preponderance in 

 I them of sedimentary rocks at such an extreme alti- 

 1 tude. The "black " moraines on the north, which 

 must have been intensified in the snowy surround- 

 1 ings, were found to consist of hardened black 

 j shale and mixed with slabs of "a pure white 



I (i) "Two Summrrn in the Ic<;-wilds of Eastern Karakornm : The 

 Kxploration of Nineteen Hu-drril Square Miles of Mountain and Olacier." 



I Bv F. B. Workman .-ind W. H. Workman. Pp. 296. (London : T. Fisher 



i Unwin, Ltd., 1917.) Price t/. 5.?. net. 



I (3) "On the Eavrs of the World." By Reginald Farrer. Vol. i., pp. .xii4- 



1 '^it ; Vol. ii., pp. viii + 338. (London :> Edward Arnold 1917. Price, 2 vols. 

 30X. net. 



