288 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 



single compound often involves an incredible amount of work. Baeyer 

 worked with indigo for fifteen years before his labors were crowned 

 with a successful synthesis, and twenty years more and the work of 

 very many chemists were needed before the scientific achievement 

 could become a commercial success. 



It was nearly twenty-five years after the first structural formula 

 was proposed for camphor before Bredt was fortunate enough to 

 suggest the true arrangement of its atoms, and it was ten years longer, 

 and required in all the work of more than fifty chemists, before Bredt 's 

 suggestion was confirmed by Komppa's beautiful synthesis. 



More than thirty formulae were proposed for camphor, and those 

 who think little of organic chemistry have some reason if they say 

 that we jump at conclusions too hastily and propose too many formulae 

 that are mere guesses. Some might even say that the last formula 

 is not worth much, but those who have followed the matter know 

 that step by step we have arrived at an almost positive certainty 

 even in this complex problem. 



The final solution of a problem with regard to the structure of a 

 compound of natural origin is not usually considered to have been 

 satisfactorily attained until its synthesis has been effected. Those who 

 have attempted work of this character know that months or even 

 years of work are frequently spent to obtain the synthesis of a single 

 compound. In spite of the wealth of methods at our command, a 

 wealth so great that it is often very difficult to select between several 

 which are equally unpromising, it is evident that these methods of 

 synthesis need improvement at many points. Not only do we need 

 new and better methods, but many old methods require further study 

 to disclose why they succeed in some cases and fail in others, and to 

 secure a fuller knowledge of secondary reactions which often occur. 

 As recent remarkable achievements in this field of synthetic methods 

 may be mentioned the brilliant results obtained by Grignard with 

 magnesium compounds, Bouveault's elegant new solution of the old 

 problem of transforming an acid into the corresponding alcohol, and 

 Scheuble's reduction of the amides of bibasic acids to the corre- 

 sponding glycols. 



Work along the lines suggested needs to be done in order to fill out 

 and complete our knowledge in a systematic way, and occasionally 

 work along such lines is rewarded by results of epoch-making signifi- 

 cance, as when Gomberg discovered triphenylmethyl in his endeavor 

 to prepare hexaphenylethane. Such work is not likely, however, to 

 greatly advance our insight into the real nature of carbon compounds, 

 and we all feel that there are far more fundamental problems which 

 demand attention. 



As outlined above, the theories of valence and of structure now 

 universally accepted imply a certain amount of knowledge of the 



