CONTENTS I. Experimental confirmation of the fundamental conception. A. Character of the isomerism due to the asymmetric carbon PAGE I. Application of the fundamental conception II. Experimental confirmation . A. Number and character of the isomers to be expected II. Rotatory power of electrolytes. Law of Oudemans-Landolt 136 III. Rotation of imperfect electrolytes. Organic acids INTRODUCTION EVERY time I write on stereochemistry a new name has to be added to complete the history of its development. In my Dix Années dans l'Histoire. d'une Théorie' I mentioned Gaudin and his 'Architecture du Monde' (1873); then Meyerhoffer in his • Stereochemie' added Paterno,' who in 1869 proposed to explain isomeric bromethylenes by a tetrahedral grouping round carbon; and Rosenstiehl,2 who in the same year represented benzene by six tetrahedra; and now Eiloart, in his Guide to Stereochemistry,' goes back to Swedenborg's 'Prodromus Principiorum Rerum Naturalium sive Novorum Tentaminum Chymicam et Physicam Experimentalem geometrice explicandi.'3 Certainly, then, we were not over-hasty, Le Bel and I, when we published our ideas (November and September 1874) in the 'Bulletin de la Société Chimique' and in the 'Voorstel tot Uitbreiding der Structuur-Formules in de Ruimte' respectively. That shortly before this 1 Giorn. di Scienze Naturali ed Econ. vol. v., Palermo; Gazz Chim. 1893, 35. 2 Bull. Soc. Chim. 11, 393. 3 Jan Osterwyk, Amsterdam, 1721. B |