Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/503

Rh nose of the visitor, and in the laboratories spectral shapes flit backward and forward behind clouds of vapor, occasionally lit up by lurid flames. These are the students; but in their private laboratories the professors pursue their own researches. Professor Cooke has been dealing with that unprincipled element, antimony, which has obdurately persisted in claiming two atomic weights, until he has successfully limited it to one. In connection with his laboratory-work, Professor Cooke is preparing a new edition of his "Chemical Philosophy." The results of his inorganic work have appeared from time to time in the publications of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Since the "Organic Laboratory" was established, in 1875, Professors Hill and Jackson have published twenty-five papers giving the results of their work, and have discovered one hundred new compounds. The discovery of new compounds, however, possesses as a rule no special importance, and is rather incidental to, than the result of, the main work. Two examples will indicate somewhat the character and object of organic investigations. The composition of uric acid has been long known to be C5H4N4O3, but its constitution—the exact arrangement of the atoms—has been uncertain. Chemists all over the world had endeavored to settle the question, but their failures resulted in eleven different formulæ for this one substance. Professor Hill, taking this uric acid, C5H4N4O3, marked one part by replacing H by CH3 (methyl); then treating the acid so as to split it up, he determined to which part the methyl was attached, and, by continuing his treatment, was enabled to reduce the possible formulæ from eleven to three, with strong probabilities in favor of one. This possesses a practical value, inasmuch as it will lead to a knowledge of the method of formation of uric acid in the animal body. Professor Hill's work on "Fur-ferrol," found in the products of the distillation of wood, is interesting, as chlorophyll can probably be obtained from it.

An example of the curious subtilties of science is afforded by Professor Jackson's investigations of anthracene, which is obtained from coal-tar, and yields alizarine (madder-dye), used in dyeing pink and purple calicoes, Turkey reds, etc. Anthracene was known to consist of two hexagons of carbon with hydrogen-atoms attached, united by two other carbon-atoms. Professor Jackson proved, by making anthracene artificially, that these two carbon-atoms are united to adjacent corners in each hexagon, thus:

These are but stray examples of the researches that are constantly being made by Professors Hill, Jackson, and their assistants. Brombenzylbromides, parachlorbenzyls, and benzaldehyds, however,