PAUL C. FREER, CHEMIST. XXXVli 



of aceto-acetic ether, when he found that acetone, a substance 

 containing no methylene group, was capable of forming a sodium 

 derivative, the reactions of which were similar in nearly every 

 respect to those of sodium aceto-acetic ether. This reaction 

 proved to be a general one shown by other ketones .as well 

 as acetic aldehyde. 



In 1898 he completed a most interesting piece of work on the 

 constitution of phenylhydrazones. Some of the compounds pre- 

 pared were very difficult to handle and were made in Michigan 

 during the winter when the thermometer was about 20° below 

 zero. The oxidation of acetone p-bromphenylhydrazone to 

 p-brombenzene azo-isopropylene was especially troublesome, re- 

 quiring careful handling even at this low temperature, and on 

 several different occasions when our laboratories in the Bureau 

 of Science were unusually warm. Doctor Freer brought up this 

 subject with me and took delight in discussing the difficulties we 

 would experience in trying to produce this reaction in Manila. 



During this period, before his arrival in Manila, in addition 

 to the 14 articles on ketones and aldehydes referred to, Doctor 

 Freer also published papers on "The Saponification of Substi- 

 tuted Acetic Ester, Tetrinic Acid, The Constitution of Some 

 Derivatives of Formic Acid, Distillation in Vacuum, Formamide, 

 Jamaica Dogwood, Organic Peroxides, the Action of Acids on 

 Metals, and Halogen Substitution Products of Aliphatic Acids," 

 and two textbooks, one The Elements of Chemistry and the 

 other Descriptive Inorganic General Chemistry. These books 

 are very highly regarded both from a chemical and literary 

 standpoint. 



From 1901 to 1912, a period of a little over ten years spent 

 in the Philippines, Doctor Freer found that, on account of his 

 administrative duties in connection with the Bureau of Science 

 and the Medical School, and his editorial work on the Philippine 

 Journal of Science, his personal application to research was 

 impossible, a fact which he regretted deeply. Nevertheless he 

 found time to write a number of articles descriptive of the 

 work of these institutions, and his address given at the com- 

 mencement exercises of the Philippine Medical School, Feb- 



