August 15, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



151 



later, as director-general of an army of 

 aspiring students, gradually unfolded the 

 mysteries that had enshrined the most 

 complex chemical substances known to man. 

 Like all great contributions, his had added 

 not only to our chemical knowledge but 

 has shed a flood of light on cognate sci- 

 ences, such as botany, zoology and phys- 

 iology. 



Fischer was born in Euskirchen, Ehenish 

 Prussia, on October 9, 1852. His father, 

 Lorenz Fischer, was a successful merchant 

 whose success in business must have made 

 a deep impression upon his son, for Emil, 

 after matriculating the gymnasium in 

 Bonn, joined his father's concern at the 

 age of seventeen. 



This enthusiasm for the commercial 

 world, however, was short lived. Within 

 two years he had abandoned all thoughts 

 of high finance, and had inscribed himself 

 as a student at Bonn University. Kekule, 

 one of Van't Hoff's teachers, was the pro- 

 fessor of chemistry, and Engelbach and 

 Zincke were his active assistants. Fischer 

 came in contact with all three. 



The ill-omened Franco-German war had 

 barely terminated when the German gov- 

 ernment decided to found a university at 

 Strassburg. To this place, in the autumn 

 of 1872, Fischer, true to the German stu- 

 dent's traditions, came to spend part of 

 his Wander jalire. 



By the end of a year Fischer was ready 

 for the next step in the training of a chem- 

 ist — a course in organic chemistry. This 

 brought him in contact with Adolf von 

 Baeyer, the professor of the subject. 



Fischer immediately came under the 

 spell of Baeyer. The professor was rap- 

 idly reaching the height of his intellectual 

 output. His amazing mastery of every 

 phase of the subject, the keen criticism to' 

 which every piece of work was subjected, 

 the fertility of his ideas, combined with 



the fatherly care he took of Ins "chil- 

 dren," the students, made Baeyer very 

 popular Avith his assistants and research 

 workers, not least of all with Fischer. 



In July, 1874, Fischer completed an in- 

 vestigation on the coloring matters fluores- 

 cein and orcin-phthalein, for which he re- 

 ceived his Ph.D. His immediate appoint- 

 ment to an assistantship was evidence 

 that he had already made an impression 

 upon Baeyer, whose faculty for detecting 

 ■promising material was not the least of 

 his gifts. 



In less than a year Fischer, with his dis- 

 covery of phenylhydrazine, forged to the 

 very front rank of organic chemists. 

 Later this substance in his hands proved 

 the most effective tool in synthesizing the 

 sugars, which are the typical members of the 

 carbohydrate family. To-day the osazone 

 test for sugars, a test depending upon the 

 use of this same phenylhydrazine, is 

 among the eonunonest and the most effect- 

 ive methods used by the chemist, the phys- 

 iologist, and the clinician for the isolation 

 and detection of the sugars. 



Little wonder, then, that when Baeyer 

 in this same year was selected to succeed 

 Liebig, in Munich, he was desirous that 

 young Fischer should accompany him. 

 This, of course, was just what Fischer 

 wanted. 



For the next three years Fischer held 

 no official position at the University of 

 Munich. As events proved this was the 

 most fortunate thing that could have 



With phenylhydrazine as the starting 

 point, the various' derivatives of this par- 

 ent substance were investigated, and its 

 relationship to the diazo compounds was 

 clearly established. The ease with which 

 the phenylhydrazine combines with other 

 substances gave rise to an almost endless 

 series of new compounds. To us of par- 



