PAUL C. FREER, CHEMIST. 



By H. D. GiBBS, 



Chief of the Division of Organic Chemistt-y, Bureau of Science, and Associate 



Professor of Chemistry , University of the Philippines. 



In 1887 Paul C. Freer received the degree of doctor of philos- 

 ophy in Munich. It is astonishing to note the number of great 

 chemists who have received their first inspiration in chemical 

 research in Professor Adolf von Baeyer's laboratory in Munich, 

 and who have absorbed and later radiated the teachings of 

 this great master. This period in v. Baeyer's work was largely 

 devoted to the study of the structure of ring compounds and 

 very soon afterward he published his classic series of articles 

 on the structure of the benzene ring and the reduction of 

 terephthalic acid.^ 



For some years before Doctor Freer received his degree, W. H. 

 Perkin, jr., son of the Perkin who founded the industry of the 

 manufacture of coal tar dyes, had been working in v. Baeyer's 

 laboratory on the synthesis of ring compounds. In 1885 the 

 first part of the article "On the Synthetical Formation of Closed 

 Carbon-Chains" '^ was published. The continuation of this ar- 

 ticle ^ was published by the joint authorship of Freer and Perkin 

 and was a further study of the construction of the ring com- 

 pounds from open chains. Parts II and III were published by 

 Perkin alone and in Parts IV and V Freer * again appears as 



'Ann. d. Chem. (Liebig) (1888), 245, 103; (1889), 251, 257; (1890), 

 256, 1. 



^ Journ. Chem. Soc. London (1885) 47, 801, Part I. On some derivatives 

 of trimethylene. 



° The synthetical fonnation of closed carbon-chains, part I (continued). 

 The action of ethylene bromide on the sodium-derivatives of ethylic aceto- 

 acetate, benzoyl-acetate and acetone-dicarboxylate, by P. C. Freer, Ph. D. 

 and W. H. Perkin, jr.. Ph. D., ibid. (1887), 51, 820. 



■* The synthetical formation of closed carbon-chains, part IV. Some 

 derivatives of hexamethylene, by Paul C. Freer, Ph. D. and W. H. Perkin, 

 jr.. Ph. D., ibid. (1888), 53, 202; Part V. Experiments on the synthesis 

 of heptamethylene derivatives, by Paul C. Freer, Ph. D. and W. H. Perkin, 

 jr.. Ph. D., ibid., 215. xxxv 



