edlted by
MIRIAM NAGEL Avo" High School Amn, CT 06001
Ira Remsen (1846-1927) Roger R. Festal Brien McMahon High School Norwalk, CT 06854 Intrieue in science is reallv not verv different from intrieue in other human endenwri. Did y\. his assisrnnr, right from under his nose'! This is merely one of the many-interesting adventures of Ira Remsen. Remsen was horn in New York City on February 10,1846. His father was a merchant in Manhattan, but because of his mother's failiue health. the familv moved to Nvack when Ira was eight years old. Ira's mother died soon thereafter, and he was sent to live with his maternal ereat-erandfather. a Dutch Reformed pastor in the ~ u d s o nfalleyy When Ira was older his father hroueht him hack to Manhattan where heattcndrd thr New ~ o r k ~ ipuhlicschools. ty I3v the time he was 1.1, Ira aualified to enndl in the New York ~ r e Academy e (now City college). It was there that his love for chemistry was nurtured by the lectures of Professors Oliver Wolcott Gibbs and Robert Ogden Doremus. However, Ira's father had other ideas. He withdrew him from the Free Academv before he aaduated. and annrenticed him under a homeopathic physician who was on the faculty of the New York Homeooathic Medical School. Interestinelv. Ira found himself teaching the chemistry courses to TLi fledeine . . ohvsicians. . . ' l i e inadequacy of propriet;try medicine led Ira todrop out ofthe ho~nwonlhivschwland enroll in Columbia l'nivrr.it\.'s College of physicians and Surgeons. He received his in i in 1867, and practiced medicine in New York for one year. In 1868, however, he left medicine and New York and sailed for Germany to study under the great chemist and educator, Justus von Liebig a t the University of Munich. Liehig was entering semi-retirement a t the time Remsen arrived in Munich. and he found that the master no longer personally operated a teaching lab. But as luck will have it, 6 e famous analytical chemist, Jacob Volhard, took him into his lab and later convinced him that he should transfer to the University of Gottingen. There, explained Volhard, Professor Friedrich Wohler ran a very active chemistry department where Remsen could obtain the lahoratow-oriented education he was seeking. Remsen found the enthusiastic Wohler to he particularly interested in his progress, and he was able to carry out his research under the direction of Rudolph Fittig. Remsen's project was the elucidation of the structure of piperonylic acid. This he completed in two years, and in 1870 he received his Ph.D. in oreanic chemistrv. " The following summer, Professor Fittig accepted a position a t the University of Tuhingen, and Remsen went with him as a research associate. Although his teaching responsibilities were minimal, Remsen began his research into the structure
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The author wishes to thank Dr. Bern Dihner and Mr. Joseph H. Chillington of the Burndy History of Science Library in Narwalk, Connecticut, for their hospitality and excellent assistance.
edlted by ROGER FESTA Brien McMahan High Schwl
Norwalk, CT 06854
of aromatic sulfonic acids. This was the beginning of the project which would culminate in the discovery of saccharin nine vears later. 1n-1872, Remsen returned to the United States and acceoted a ~ositiona s orofessor of chemistw a t Williams Colleee i u ~ ~ a s s ~ c h u s e tAlthough ts. he remained a t the ~ e r k s h G e campus for four years, he found the philosophy and attitudes of the small New England college to he creatively stifling. Remsen met opposition to his request for lahoratory and research facilities. The thought of a lah-oriented chemistry curriculum appalled the college president who accused Remsen of trying to turn the prestigious Williams into a technical school. Although personal laboratory facilities were eventually granted, it was made clear to Remsen that Williams College was not interested in training chemists. In 1876, the Johns Hopkins University was established in Baltimore. Hopkins specificallv directed in his will that the new univwsiry was to be a center oi resenrrh and educational refurm-a true univtrriry in the European (and especially (;~mnanJtradition. The u n i v e r d \ lost no time in ot'ft,rine I r~a - - ~ ~ - --Remsen an appointment as professor of chemistry. Remsen jumped to the task of estahlishing a research lahoratory in which his aromatic organic chemical research could he used as a teachine tool for students seekine master and doctoral dpgreec. Ry &c turn of the century, ~&n.;en'anew3eaching l;~lxorators"was ~roducinrmore I'h.l).'s in chemistrv than anv other university in ~ m e i i c a Remsen . had succeebed in establishing 1ahorator~-centeredchemical education in the United States. In 1879, Remsen designed a series of experiments in which orthotoluene sulfamide could he oxidized using potassium permanganate. His assistant, Constantine Fahlherg, performed the experiments which resulted in the production of orthobenzoyl sulfamide. Fahlherg noticed that this new comoound had an incredihlv sweet taste and. anticinatine"~ a p o s d ~ l ecommerrial \.slue, he pnttmted the process for manufacturing the svnthetic sweetener. In this prucess, Pahlberg also tried tndiscred~tRemsm'srlaim to thediicovery of what later was marketed under the trade name of "saccharin." Fahlherg's hc,hn\ic~rwas heinous to the highly ethiral Remsen. For an educator of Remsen's disposition, who actually diswura&!ed his students from entering the industrial sector, the pirnting of an intellectual achievement from his academic laboratory for nrmmercial gain was most reprehensihle. liemsen was not immune from other controversy. One of his most dramatic battles was suhtlv waeed aaninrt m~ ~ ~ m the .--. ~ ~ American Chemical Society. The ACS established in 1876, was oriainallv. a erouo - .of chemists from the New York Citv area. ~ G e i desire r to expand the learned society nationally w& thwarted hy difficulties encountered in establishing a workable network of communication and organization. Although Remsen joined the ACS in 1878, he gave little support to its struggling growth. This may he explained by Remsen's selfimage as the premier reformer of American chemical education. Remsen had changed the character of American chemistry through his innovative lah-centered curriculum, and since he was preparing most of America's professional chemists a t the time, he seems to have envisioned himself as an American chemical institution. The resulting tension was further exacerhated by the fact that Remsen was publishing the American Chemical Journal ~
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Volume 57, Number 12 December 1980 1 893
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out of Baltimore, and he wished to retain his editorial control over American chemical scholarship. Although the Journal of the American Chemical Society offered competition, Amer. Chem. J . published mainly organic chemistry manuscripts while JACS contained papers from many fields of chemical science. Finallv. in the 1890's. a shake-un in the ACS allowed the society tbtruly approach the national status which it sought. Remsen, who had let his membership expire, now rejoined and was elected president in 1902. I t is significant that, at this time, many of the chemists who were members of the society had been students of Remsen. His presidency of the ACS was largely in honor of his contributions to research and his reform of ihemical education. Old wounds were healed and in 1913, the Amer. Chem. J . merged with the JACS.
894 1 Journal of Chemical Education
In 1901, Hemien htcarne the second president of the Johns H o ~ k i n sI!niversitv. Hr served in that r a.~ a c i-r vuntil 1913. remained-with the university in his retirement, teaching a history of chemistry course each year. He died on March 4,1927, and his ashes were interred in Ira Remsen Hall at Johns Hopkins University.
ems sen
General References Clsrk,Fricnd E.,LCHEM. EOUC.6, 1282 (19291. Dains, F. 8 , J. CHEM. EOUC., 9,745 (1932). Farber, Ed. (Editor). "Great Chemists," Interscience, New York, 1361. Getman. FrederickH. 3. CHEM. EDUC., 16.353 (1939). Gillispie, C. C. (Editor),"Dictionary of Scientific Biography," Chedes Scribner'a Sons. New Ynrk. 197S.XI.
I l d ~ . l l ~ . ~; ~#' ~~I F ~ unK l l U C 9.-29,111d Hannau8s.U m o l 21.
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I h k .a I ' T h e Dnelopnmsnf I I \ l o d m Chmnrrs." H a r p r and Rou. Nru York. 1961
