Abstract
THIS lecture, delivered before the Swedish Academy at Stockholm on December 12 of last year, contains an account of Prof. Emil Fischer's work in organic synthesis, and of the motives that have guided him in attacking successively the problems of the uric acid, sugar, and more recently the albuminoid, groups of organic compounds. The synthetical methods by which the constitution of so many naturally occurring substances have been determined are described in outline only, and in a way that will appeal especially to the non-chemical reader. To the chemist the chief charm of the lecture lies in the frankness with which the lecturer describes the purpose and the ultimate-goal of the work to which he has devoted himself. Incidentally (he commercial aspects of the purin syntheses are referred to. The sale of caffein and theobromine for medicinal purposes amounts to a million marks annually; at present this is all extracted from tea and cacao, but theophyllin prepared from uric acid is already on the market, and before long it may be possible to manufacture theobromine and caffein at a price that will render it possible to compete with the natural products.
Synthesen in der Purin- und Zuckergruppe.
By Emil Fischer. Pp. 29. (Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1903.)
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L., T. Synthesen in der Purin- und Zuckergruppe . Nature 68, 466–467 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/068466a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/068466a0
