JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
JOHN READ RALPH E. OESPER University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
'LTm full value of science as an educative and cultural influence cannot be exercised by presenting it baldly as a regimented system of facts, laws, and theories. All chemists have a richly humanistic birthright of history, literature, and art: is this heritage to be entirely neglected, or, at the best, dismissed as something less in value than a mess of pottage? It is not too much to claim that the study of chemistry, if approached befittingly, may reasonably take rank beside the so-called humanities as a broadly educative, cultural and humanising influence; and that the specialised outlook which is becoming increasingly bound up with the trend of scientific research may be alleviated by the cultivation of an interest in the broad humanistic aspects of science." In these sentences John Read has stated his educational credo. By his lie, writings, and recreational activities he has demonstrated that there is no nmtually exclusive antagonism between the arts and sciences; rather they complement each other, and any rational system of modern education must be a blend of each. This eminent British chemist, teacher, historian, and
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writer was born on February 17, 1884 in the English West Country, where for centuries his ancestors were yeoman farmers. His chemical education was begun at Sexey's School, Bruton, Somerset, and continued at Finsbury Technical College, London; his principal teachers a t this college were F. W. Streatfield and Raphael Meldola. After completing the college course and serving a term as chemist in the Thames Conservancy Laboratory, he enrolled (1905) at the University of Ziirich. He worked under Alfred Werner1 and gained the Ph.D. degree with a dissertation on an orgmic-stereochemical topic ("Untersuchungen in der Cumar- und Cumarinsaurereihe") that had no bearing on the epoch-makmg coordination theory. Returning to England, Dr. Read began a t ManChester (1907) his close association with another great stereochemist, W. J. Pope, who in 1908 was elected to the chair of chemistry at Cambridge. He took Read with h i as research assistant. For eight years they carried out joint researches at Cambridge,-and among other succe&es arcomplished the first oGical resolution
' PFEIFFER, P., THIS J ~ ~ I . R S I 5, I . ,30110 (1928,.
MARCH, 1949
of a centroasymmetric compound (l-methyl-cyclohexylidene-4acetic acid) and the synthesis of the simplest molecularly asymmetric compound known (chloroiodomethane sulfonic acid). These chemical triumphs brought Read his promotion to a chair. In 1916 he went to Australia as Professor of Organic Chemistry, Pure and Applied, in the University of Sydney, where he succeeded Robert (later Sir Robert) Robinson, the first occupant of this chair. Here, largely owing to the influence of that great pioneering worker, H. G . Smith, he developed an intense interest in the chemistry of the Australian flora. He returned to Britain in 1923 to his present position: Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemistry Research Laboratory in the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. With various collaborators he has published considerably more than a hundred papers in the fields of organic and stereoohemistry. Among his principal research topics are: terpenes and camphors; essential oils of eucalypts and other plants; petroleum; Australian "marine fiber" and other natural products; halogenohydrins; methods of optical resolution; simple asymmetric substances, etc. His investigation in the terpene series led to the establishment of the relative molecular configuration of the menthones, menthols, and menthylamines, a major achievement in this field of organic chemistry. During the war of 1914-18, he conducted research for the British government on explosives, and during World War 11, he wrote for the "Pelican" series, a popular exposition of "Explosives" (London 1942), which achieved a world-wide circulation and has been translated into Spanish. His "Textbook of Organic Chemistry" (1926) and "Introduction to Organic Chemistry" (1931) have together gone through more than twenty issues. "A Direct Entry to Organic Chemistry" (1948), written for the well-known Methuen's "Home Study Series," provides a fresh approach to this important branch of chemistry. He has also written articles on chemistry and alchemy for the "Encyclopedia Britannica" and Chambers' "Encyclopedia." Dr. Read's interest in alchemy and historical chemistry seems to have developed from his association with The University of St. Andrews (founded 1411), the third oldest university in the British Commonwealth. In addition to numerous contributions to Ambix, Endewour, Scientia, Chymia, and other periodicals devoted to the history of science, he has composed a trilogy of authoritative yet easily readable books in this field. These are not formal histories of chemistry, nor accounts in exhaustive detail of the origin and development of the science. They contain liberal amounts of the human touch, without which history usually remains hopelessly dull. His remarkable "Prelude to Chemistry" (London, 1936, 1939; New York, 1937) has been appraised by reviewers in terms such as: "Unlike most works on alchemy, it is sympathetic and sensitive"; "It may he appropriately classed among the belles leltres of chemistrv." His "Humour and Humanism in Chemistry" (London, 1947) gives, in a humorous,
attractive, and original way, the continuation of the story of chemistry down to modern times. "It shows . Read's erudition and genial humour at their best. The idiosyncrasies of the great chemists of the last century are revealed to us in episodes of sheer delight." "The Alchemist in Lie, Literature and Art" (London and Edinburgh, 1947), like the others, is copiously illustrated, largely from original material in the valuable collection he has assembled at St. Andrews. "A most remarkable confluence of interests in a lively mind receives happy expression in these volumes." Professor Read's interests extend into literature, art, phiiosophy, music, and, general history. His "Historic St. Andrews and Its University" (1939) has gone through several editions. In the west of England, where he became a frequent visitor to Thomas Hardy a t Dorchester, he is known as a writer and dramatist in the quaint Somerset dittlect. As early as 1910 he founded a group of mstic players (farmhands, shepherds, waggonen, etc.), to perform his plays in the villages of Wessex. His prose writings of this region "tell of simple but shrewd country men as fond of gossip as of fun and cider; they mingle old customs, strange heliefs, local habits, quaint folk songs, and stories of all kinds, in rich profusion." He is never happier than when conversing in this ancient speech with his farmer friends over a mug of "zidur." Travel is also one of his recreations. He has taken Canadian students around Europe, and conducted a party of St. Andrews students on a visit to Canada. Last summer (1948) about one hundred American students attended St. Andrews, and Professor Read gave them some illustrated lectures on the transition from medieval to modern science. In 1935 he took a section of the St. Andrews University Choir, in their traditional scarlet gowns, to the Royal Institution in London, where they sang some of Count Michael Maier's alchemical fuguesa resuscitated for the occasion after a lapse of more than three centuries. It is significant that the dedication of his "Humour and Humanism in Chemistry" runs, "To My Pupils," and in October, 1948, he was accorded the rare distinction of a Silver Jubilee Dinner from his students to celebrate his twenty-five years in the St. Andrews chair. The catholicity of Professor Read's active interests shows that he practices what he preaches. He is the only chemist whose scientific hooks have evoked fullpage special articles in the world-famous humorous periodical Punch. His chemical achievements have been duly recognized and he has been a Sc.D. (Cambridge) since 1934 and a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1935. His "Specialization and Culture," delivered September, 1948, as his Presidential address before the Chemical Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science deserves to be read by every teacher and practicing chemist who is anxious to avoid becoming what Sarton has so aptly described as "a poor sort of man, a man whose mind is as sharp and as narrow as a knife-edge."
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See R ~ m ' a"Prelude to Chemistry," Appendix.
