FRIEDRICH KONRAD BEILSTEIN (1838-1906) THE cmtennial anniver-ary of his bmh will rhls month br ohsrrvrd by organic chcrni*!.; throughout thc world hr:ousc of hii csrahlichnwnt of the n ~ o o u m m t dn f c r r n c e d~rcctorvto the literature of organic compounds, which still bears h k name. the fourth e d h n , ' w i t h iis superb systemaiic classification de: vised by Paul Jacobsen, is completing, in fifty-four magnificent volumes, its treatment of the knowledge of organic compounds of definite structure. Beilstein was born of German parents in St. Petersburg. Beginning his chemical education a t the age of fifteen under Bunsen a t Heidelberg, he subsequently worked in the laboratories of Liebig (Munich), Wbhler (Gtittingen), Wurtz (Paris), and Loewig (Breslau). He became an intimate friend of Kekulk, Fittig, and Hiibner and with them shared in the editing of the Zeitschrift fur Chemie. I n 1866 he was called to succeed MendelCeff a t the Imperial Technological Institute of St. Petersburg, and except for travel never again left the land of his birth. Although
a t first continuing in Russia the-experimental investigations which had made him well known, he ultimately forsook all research for the development of the beloved "Handhuch" which he had first started a t Gbttingen. The first edition (two volumes of 2201 pages) appeared in 188iF1882, the second (three volumes of 4080 pages) between 18861890, and the third (four volumes of 6844 Dazes) between 1892-1899. With the assistance of the ~ e r m a 2hemical n Society this was extended by a supplement (five volumes of 4604 pages) between 1899-1906!so that Beilstein himself lived to see the completion of the third edition. The Dresent fourth edition whose Dublication was commenced by 'the German Chemical Society in 1918 already comprises fifty-four volumes of some 30,000 pages and some additional material (dealing with natural products of undetermined structure) still remains to be printed.
(Dr. Ernest H . Huntress of Massachuretts Institute of Tahnology contributed the biographical sketch presented here. Dr. E. Bed oj' Carnegie Institute q,f Technology lent the photograph here reproduced.)
