XIV PROCEEDINGS. 



peculiarities of a class of substances known as the aromatic 

 compounds, which until then had presented a hopeless jumble of 

 unintelligible reactions. This explanation constitutes what is 

 called the benzene theory. Its effect in stimulating activity in 

 organic chemistry, and more especially in organic synthesis was 

 immediate and unexampled. The aniline colur industry, which 

 it found small and helpless, forthwith became great and powerful. 

 Even now, although forty-five years have passed since the benzene 

 theory was published, its fertility remains undiminished. To 

 quote from Professor Japp : "Kekule's work stands pre-eminent 

 '^as an example of the power of ideas. A formula, consisting of 

 "a few chemical symbols jotted down on paper and joined together 

 '%j lines, has . . . supplied work and inspiration for scien- 

 "tific organic chemists during an entire generation, and affords- 

 "guidance to the most complex industry the world has yet seen." 



It remains to cite a few examples of the achievements of 

 organic synthesis. I shall have to pass by the almost innumerable 

 essences, perfumes, colurs, anaesthetics, antispetics, and substances 

 of therapeutic value, which we owe to this branch of Chemistry: 

 and I can only linger long enough to merely mention the synthesis 

 of camphor, and of the natural alkaloids, nicotine, atropine, conine, 

 and cocaine, to mention some of the better known. But I shall 

 venture to dwell a few moments on what has been accomplished 

 in the synthesis of three important groups of substances produced 

 in living organisms: (1) the sugars, (2) the proteins and (3) the 

 vegetahle dyes. As I have undertaken to avoid technicalities, the 

 merest glance at these different fields miLst suffice. 



The sugars, as is well known, form a very important natural 

 group of substances closely related to starch, cellulose and the gums. 

 The best knoT^oi sugars belong to either one of two groups. Cane, 

 malt and milk sugar, all having the composition expressed by the 

 formula Cj^HsaOji are called disaccharoses. Glucose or grape 

 sugar and fructose or fruit sugar, having the formula C6H1..O,-, 

 are monosaccharoses. Until a little over twenty years ago, in 

 spite of the importance of the sugars, little was known of their 

 chemistry. This was not because they had not been studied but 

 because of the hopeless character of the problem they presented. 



