Upon a Fourth Monobromphenol. 67 



II. — Upon a Fun i-lli Monobromphenol. 



BY F. FITTICA, 



OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARBURG; CORRESPONDING MEMBER N. Y. A. S. 



Translated by Prof. Frederick Stengel, New York. 



Read December 3d, 1883. 



In spite of the circumstance, that besides the previously* pre- 

 pared isomeric nitrobenzoic acids, there have been obtained, in 

 the year 1881, by myself, two new mononitro-phenols,f the very 

 existence of which is altogether inconsistent with the adoption 

 of Kekule's benzol-hypothesis, the adherents of this hypothesis 

 insist upon taking up a position in regard to the new facts of a 

 purely negative or silent character ; and Kekule himself, who 

 had not yet published any investigations of his own in opposi- 

 tion to mine, declares in his Manual]; that I had discovered the 

 new nitrobenzoic acids by peculiar artifices, which consisted 

 essentially in my avoiding with much care all methods of verifi- 

 cation adopted by other chemists. 



However weighty this reproach may be, when it comes from 

 one who is looked upon as the first authority on the subject of 

 the chemistry of aromatic compounds, every man free from pre- 

 judice must, after having actually perused rny treatises, become 

 convinced that in truth this reproach is undeserved. For, as 

 we all know, no conclusion can be correct if the premises are 

 false, and the statement of the use of "peculiar artifices, etc., 

 has as yet never been proved by any one. The progress of sci- 

 ence has always brought along methods that may appear to be 

 artifices. 



Nobody will deny that cyanate of ammonia is different from 

 urea, though the "artifice" of preparing the former consists 



* Journal f. prakt. Chem (2), 17, 184. 

 f The same (2), 24, 1. 

 \ 1881, Vol. 2, 804. 



