544 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 302. 



planation in new forms of plane structural 

 formulas, or which simply ignored the facts, 

 much as the inorganic chemist long ignored 

 the existence of double salts, which did not 

 conform to his notions of what valency 

 should do. The theory, however, at once 

 found a warm advocate in Johannes Wis- 

 licenus, whose mind had been prepared by 

 his investigation on the lactic acids, but in 

 other quarters it met with open opposition. 

 Among its opponents was the illustrious 

 but pugnacious Kolbe, whose words * I can- 

 not refrain from quoting, both because they 

 are extremely characteristic of his style of 

 criticism, and because they were directed 

 towards a man who has since won the high- 

 est renown as a chemist, and towards a 

 theory which has now earned an accepted 

 place in science. 



" In a recently published article under 

 the above title,t I have denoted, as one of 

 the causes of the present retrogression of 

 chemical investigation in Germany, the lack 

 of general, and at the same time funda- 

 mental chemical training, under which not 

 a small number of our chemical professors 

 labor, to the great disadvantage of science. 

 The result is the prevalence of a vegeta- 

 tion of apparently learned and intellec- 

 tual, but in reality trivial and soulless, nat- 

 ural philosophy, which, set aside fifty years 

 ago by the exact investigation of nature, is 

 again being hauled forth by pseudo-scien- 

 tists from that rubbish room which contains 

 the wanderiugs of the human mind, and 

 which, like a wench dressed in the height 

 of fashion and freshly painted, it is being 

 attempted to smuggle into good society in 

 which it does not belong. 



" Let him to whom this fear seems over- 

 drawn, read, if read he can, the recently 

 published brochure, bristling with the play 

 of fancy, of Messrs. van't Hoff and Herr- 



* Zeichen der Zeit. Journ. prakt. Chem. N. F. 15. 

 473. 



t Journ. prakt. Chem. N. F. 14. 268. 



mann, on the ' Position of the Atoms in 

 Space.' I should ignore this, as I have 

 many others, had not a reputable chemist* 

 taken it under his protection and warmly 

 recommended it as a valuable production. 



" A certain Dr. J. H. van't Hoff, at the 

 Veterinary School in Utrecht, has, as it ap- 

 pears, no taste for exact chemical research. 

 He has considered it more convenient to 

 mount his Pegasus (evidently borrowed 

 from the Veterinary School), and to an- 

 nounce, in his ' Chimie dans I'espace,' how, 

 from the chemical Parnassus, reached in 

 his bold flight, the atoms of the universe 

 are seen to be arranged. * * * 



" To criticise this brochure even half-way 

 is impossible, because the fancies contained 

 in it are wholly without foundation in fact, 

 and absolutely incomprehensible to the 

 sober investigator. But to get an idea of 

 what floated before the minds of the au- 

 thors, it will sufBce to read the two follow- 

 ing sentences. The brochure begins with 

 the words : ' Modern chemical theory has 

 two weak points ; it speaks neither of the 

 relative positions of the atoms in the mole- 

 cule, nor of the nature of their motions.' 

 The second sentence reads : ' In the asym- 

 metric carbon atom we have a medium 

 which is characterized by the screw-like 

 ari'angement of its smallest parts, the 

 atoms!' * * * 



" It is characteristic of the present un- 

 criticising and criticism hating age that 

 two practically unknown chemists, the one 

 in a veterinarj' school, the other in an 

 agricultural institute, confidently pass judg- 

 ment upon the highest problems of chem- 

 istry, which in all probability will never be 

 solved, especially the spatial relations of 

 the atoms, and undertake their solution 

 with an assurance which sets the true in- 

 vestigator in positive amazement. * * * 



" Wislicenus herewith announces that he 

 has abandoned the ranks of exact investiga- 



* Wislicenus. 



