xvii MOLECULAR ARCHITECTURE 415 



Such was the graphic description of one of the most 

 surprising discoveries ever made in organic chemistry as set 

 out in a letter to Liebig (" On Substitution and the Theory 

 of Types," Liebig's Ann. Chem. Pharm., 1840, 88,308-310) 

 signed by S. C. H. Windier. The " s(ch)windler " who, 

 wrote this skit on Dumas's theories was Wohler. Liebig was 

 perhaps responsible for a footnote, appended to the state- 

 ment, that " in the decolorising action of chlorine there is a 

 replacement of hydrogen by chlorine, and that the fabrics 

 which are now bleached in England according to the laws of 

 substitutions preserve their types." The footnote runs : 



" I have just learnt that there are already in the shops in 

 London fabrics of spun chlorine, much sought after in the 

 hospitals and preferred to all others for night-caps, calec.ons, 

 etc." (loc, cit. p. 310). 



Laurent (1837) on nuclei. Laurent, working in Dumas's 

 laboratory on lines suggested by Dumas, assimilated most 

 of Dumas's ideas ; but, with the enterprise of youth, he 

 developed them more quickly than Dumas, and was able 

 therefore to claim priority on certain important points. 

 These claims were, however, put forward in language which 

 did not err on the side of moderation. "I could scarcely 

 restrain my indignation on seeing certain chemists tax my 

 theory at first with being absurd, then later, when they 

 saw that the facts agreed better with my theory than with 

 all the others, pretend that I had taken possession of 

 the ideas of Dumas" (Ann. Chim. Phys., 1837, 66, 326). 

 If so, Dumas borrowed from Liebig, Liebig from the chemist 

 who first showed that oxide of potassium could exchange its 

 oxygen for an equivalent of chlorine, this latter from Richter 

 and Wenzel, and so to Hermes and Tubal Cain. His 

 dominant idea of simplicity in the combination of atoms 

 would probably be attributed to Berzelius, and consequently 

 to Moses ! (ibid. p. 330). 



