Apeil 26, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



673 



and alcohols tried (dextrose, saccharose, lac- 

 tose, maltose, maimit and glycerin). It is 

 white on standard nutrient agar and potato 

 and in peptonized bouillon. In tubes of 

 bouillon it grows best at the top, producing 

 a stringy ragged rim easily separable on' 

 shaking. It does not cloud bouillon heavily. 

 The surface colonies on agar, 25° C, are 

 small, round, smooth and rather dense. In 

 agar streak cultures the organism is inclined 

 to pile up along the track of the needle rather 

 than to spread widely. It is inclined to be 

 viscid on agar, after three days. It gradually 

 blues litmus milk, throwing down the casein 

 by means of a lab ferment, or at least not by 

 the production of any acid, finally the litmus 

 is reduced. It does not liquefy standard 

 nutrient gelatin (fifteen days) and does not 

 grow in the thermostat at blood heat (agar, 

 bouillon). In young agar streak cultures it is 

 a medium-sized, short rod, with rounded ends, 

 often in pairs with a plain constriction, the 

 elements usually being 1/x or less in diameter 

 and two to three times as long as broad. The 

 one to three flagella are polar. It is not yel- 

 low on any medium, or green fluorescent, nor 

 does it brown the agar. It is rather short- 

 lived on agar. It does not grow in Cohn's 

 solution and does not infect olive shoots. It 

 occurs principally at the bottom of the tumor 

 rather than uniformly distributed in its 

 tissues. It is best isolated from that part of 

 the stem where the tumor joins the healthy 

 tissues. There are slight indications of me- 

 tastasis. Non-pathogenic yellow organisms 

 are frequently obtained on plates made from 

 older portions of the galls. 



Ekwin F. Smith, 

 c. o. townsend 

 Bureau of Piant Industry, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 April 4, 1907 



^WTES ON ORGANIC CEEMI8TRY 



CATALYTIC ACTION OF ETHER AND OF TERTIARY 



BASES ON THE CLAISEN CONDENSATION AND 



ON THE FORMATION OF GEIGNARd'S 



REAGENT 



Since its discovery the Claisen condensation 

 has excited a considerable amount of interest. 



not only on account of the compounds which 

 can be obtained by its means, but also because 

 of the rather complex changes which attend 

 its progress and which are far from being 

 understood. In its simplest form, the reac- 

 tion consists of the elimination of one mole- 

 cule of alcohol from equal molecules of an 

 ester and an aldehyde or ketone, and it pro- 

 ceeds under the influence of sodium or sodium 

 ethylate. Thus, for example, acetone, CH,- 

 C0CH3,and ethyl oxalate, 0,H,OCOCOOC,H„ 

 under the conditions mentioned, readily form 

 ethyl acetoneoxalate, CH3C0CH,C00O00,H., 

 and alcohol, 0,H,OH. 



In the course of some work on which we 

 have been engaged for a number of months, 

 we have found that the Claisen reaction is 

 very greatly accelerated by the addition of 

 small quantities of ether or of a tertiary base, 

 such as pyridine or quinoline, the reacting 

 materials being dissolved in low boiling 

 ligroin. We have shown that this accelerating 

 action is not due to the fact that any of the 

 intermediate sodium compounds have a solu- 

 bility in such a mixture, materially different, 

 from their solubility in pure ligroin. In 

 short, the ether and the bases act as typical 

 catalytic agents. We believe that these ob- 

 servations put the Claisen reaction in an en- 

 tirely new light. 



About eighteen months ago it was found 

 by Tschelinzeff,* that the formation of 

 Grignard's reagent, 



Mg<f, 



(X = halogen; R = C,H„ C,H„ etc.) is also 

 influenced in the same manner by the presence 

 of ether or of a tertiary base. We have eon- 

 firmed this result and have made some new 

 observations of our own. There is thus, ex- 

 perimentally, a very striking parallel estab- 

 lished between the Claisen condensation and 

 the formation of the Grignard reagent. The 

 object of this note is to call attention to our 

 results, which we think have some general 

 interest. A fuller account of the subject, 

 together with a description of the experiments 



■"Ber. d. Ohem. Ges., 37, 2081, 4534; 38, 3664 

 (1905). 



