August 17, 1906.J 



SCIENCE. 



213 



The ' architectural ' method is in fact the 

 only method by which we can reasonably hope 

 to make progress in the synthesis of the vari- 

 ous complex products found in nature; experi- 

 ence has shown that when the architecture of 

 a definite chemical compound, no matter how 

 complex, has once been thoroughly worked out, 

 it is then often a comparatively simple matter 

 to accomplish its synthesis — whereas the pre- 

 liminary work may require decades of time. 



The plant, which is the great synthetic agent 

 in nature, manufactures at ordinary tempera- 

 tures under comparatively simple conditions 

 from the carbon dioxide of the air and from 

 the material found in the soil — water, phos- 

 phates, nitrates, potassium and ammonium 

 salts, etc. — a vast variety of complex carbon 

 compounds which subsequently undergo vari- 

 ous chemical changes in the animal world. 

 There is abundant justification for the conclu- 

 sion that when the conditions under which 

 these various chemical processes take place are 

 better understood we may reasonably hope to 

 accomplish all these transformations in the 

 laboratory. Much of the faithful and labori- 

 ous work carried on by investigators in the 

 field of carbon chemistry during the past 

 seventy or more years must in fact be con- 

 sidered preliminary to the accomplishment of 

 this great end. 



Baeyer has always shown an unusually great 

 interest in this direction; his indigo work, all 

 his condensation work with aldehydes, alco- 

 hols, phthalic anhydride and various benzene 

 derivatives, as well as his synthetic work in 

 the pyrrol, indol, pyridine and quinoline series 

 — all were undertaken with this end in view. 

 He has emphasized the important role which 

 formaldehyde must play in the conversion of 

 the carbon dioxide of the air by plants into 

 sugar and starch and has also in this connec- 

 tion discussed theoretically, in 1870, the cheni- 

 istry of fermentation. 



His very important work on the constitu- 

 tion of benzene from 1866-73 and from 1885- 

 94, although fruitless in the main point at 

 issue, led to a thorough and systematical de- 

 velopment of the chemistry of di-, tetra- and 

 hexahydro-benzene compounds; this work nat- 



urally led him into the field of terpentine 

 chemistry, on which he has spent eight years, 

 from 1893-1901, working out the ' architec- 

 ture ' of many of these important vegetable 

 products as well as synthesizing some of the 

 simplest representatives of the series. 



His most recent work has dealt with per- 

 oxides, with dibenzalacetone and triphenyl- 

 methane and with the basic properties of 

 oxygen. The fact that all carbon compounds 

 containing oxygen, except the peroxides, are 

 capable of forming oxonium salts, contain- 

 ing quadrivalent oxygen, was established by 

 Baeyer on the basis of Collie and Tickle's 

 work on dimethylpyrone ; this discovery has 

 excited very general interest. 



J. U. Nef. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 THE IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



The twentieth annual meeting of the Iowa 

 Academy of Science was held on April 20-21, 

 1906, in the botanical rooms of the Iowa State 

 College, Ames, la. The magnificent new 

 Central Hall was placed at the disposal of the 

 academy. The meetings were all held in the 

 botanical rooms with the exception of the Fri- 

 day afternoon meeting, which was held in the 

 physics lecture room of Engineering Hall. 



Friday afternoon Dr. Hermann von Schrenk, 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, gave 

 an address on the work of the ' Division of 

 Pathology.' On Friday evening Professor 

 Charles R. Barnes, of the University of Chi- 

 cago, gave an illustrated lecture on ' How 

 Plants breathe.' On Saturday forenoon Pro- 

 fessor Charles E. Bessey, of the University of 

 Nebraska, formerly of Iowa State College, 

 gave an address on ' The Forest Trees of East- 

 ern Nebraska.' The meeting of 1906 was 

 probably the most enjoyable in the history of 

 the academy. 



The officers for the coming year are: 



President — Professor C. 0. Bates, of Coe Col- 

 lege, Cedar Rapids. 



First Vice-president — Professor G. E. Finch, 

 Marion. 



Second Y ice-president — Professor A. A. Bennett, 

 Iowa State College, Ames. 



