— IOO — 



aqueous mercuric acetate solutions on olefinic compounds, 

 published by him jointly with Paolini, Tonazzi, Cirelli, and others. 

 As we have already reported on the most important parts of the 

 various works 1 ), we content ourselves in this place with a reference 

 to the detailed comprehensive treatment of the "memoria"; we only 

 wish to add, that the glycols R-CHOH-CHOH-CHg formed by 

 the action of mercuric acetate on phenol ethers with propenyl side 

 chain (anethol, isosafrol, methyl isoeugenol), on splitting off water by 

 means of zinc chloride, yield aldehydes. There are not formed (as was 

 at first supposed) the substituted hydratropic aldehydes R • CH(CH 3 ) • 

 CHO of Bougault 2 ), as the derivatives (oximes, semicarbazones, 

 acids) show different melting points, but hydrocinnamic aldehydes 

 of the formula R . CH 2 . CH 2 . CHO. 



Bibliographical notes. 



O. Aschan has published a large work under the title "Chemistry 

 of the alicyclic compounds" 3 ). In this class of bodies, the 

 terpenes and their derivatives, as is well known, occupy the largest 

 space; the book, however, does not confine itself to these, but deals 

 with all hydrated cyclic bodies which have become known up to the 

 present, from trim ethylene up to completely hydrated picene. In 

 the general part of this work, the theoretic relations of the alicyclic 

 bodies towards each other have been reproduced in historical order, 

 the fundamental work of v. Baeyer on the hydrobenzene derivatives, 

 his theory of tension, and next in detail the more recent researches 

 on terpenes and camphors commencing with W a 1 1 a c h ' s work. 

 Separate chapters have been devoted to the influence of the ring- 

 formation on the chemical and physical characteristics of the alicyclic 

 compounds, and also to the stereo-chemistry of these bodies, a field 

 in which not much work has been done up to the present. The special 

 part shows first of all the general manner of formation of the indiv- 

 idual hydroaromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, 

 and their derivatives, next these bodies themselves, in the order of 

 the number of carbon rings and of the carbon atoms forming them, 

 whereby naturally the terpenes and camphors receive the most detailed 

 treatment. 



In this monograph, in which the extremely rich and widely dispersed 

 material is arranged most conveniently and easy of survey, the author 

 has, in his own particular working sphere, created a work which obtains 



*) Report April 1903, 83; April 1904, 100. 



2 ) Thesis, Paris, 1902. Report April 1903, 1 1. Comp. the present Report 

 page 132. 



8 ) Chemie der alicyklischenVerbindungen. Brunswick 1905. Fr. Vieweg & Sohn. 



