THE GENEALOGY OF A CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT RONALD P. GRAHAM McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
SOME TIME ago the writer discovered with much delight the e s d y on "Scientific Genealogy" presented as a Public Lecture in 1935 by the late Professor R. A. Gortner when he was holder of the George Fisher Baker Nan-Resident Lectureship in Chemistry a t Cornell University (2). The fascinating hobby described in this most interesting lecture led to the tracing of the scientific "ancestors" of the members of the staff of the Department of Chemistry a t McMaster University. Every scientist has been directly influenced by a number of teachers, and each of these has been influenced by several teachers, and so on back. Thus it is an almost endless and impossible task to elaborate all one's "forebears," instructive and interesting though this would be. In the main, the procedure followed in this work has been to trace the "direct line of descent"; the immediate scientific ancestor of an individual is given as the person under whom the doctorate' was obtained, or, in the absence of a doctorate, the person who is believed to have exerted the greatest scientific influence on the individual
in question. The accompanying chart shows that all the members of the Department are "interrelated" if the scientificancestry of those sponsoring the Master's degrees of the staff members is also b k e n into consideration. It is not correct to assume that in all cases the professor under whom an individual took his most advanced degree is necessarily the one who exerted the greatest influence on his scientific work or outlook. For example, Professor Harold C. Urey is not shown as a scientific ancestor of Dr. H. G. Thode, but it was while Dr. Thode was studyingwith Urey a t Columbia University asa postdoctoralstudent that hebecamesoattracted to the fields of mass spectrometry and isotope study that his research and main interests have ever since remained in these fields. Professor Urey took his Ph.D. under G. N. Lewis a t California, and carried out postdoctoral study with Nils Bohr a t Copenhagen. Again, T. W. Richards is shown on the chart as a student of J. P. Cooke, but Richards' postdoctoral work in Europe must have had a very significant influence on his subsequent career because he studied with
A. F. de Fourcroy (1755-?809)
T. 0.Bergman
L. N. ~ i u q u e l i n
J. ~feeiius
C. L. Berthollet (1748;1822)
(1735;1784)
(1763-1829)
I
(1753-1837)
I
J. L. Gay-Lussac (1778-1850)
I
L. J. Thenard (1777-1857)
I..
J. J. Berzelius (1779-1848)
J. F. von L~ebig
J. B. A. bumas
(1803-1873)
(1800-1884)
J. P. Cdoke (1827-1894)
'
1 K. Schmidt
I
T. W. Richards (1868-1928)
(1875-1946)
S. Frrd
G. B, Frost
(18841936) Saskatchewan)
(Ph.D.at Chicago)
H. G. Thode
(1822-1894)
F. W. A. von Baeyor (1835-1917)
W. Ostwald (1853-1932)
W. A. Noyes
J. B. Tingle
F. B. Kenrick
c. F, H, Allen (1857-1941)
(1867-1918)
C. F. Chandler (1836-1925)
G. P. Baxter
I G. L. Wendt I A. C. Grubh
F. A. Kekulh (1829-1896)
(M!. at Queen's)
H. C. Sherman
I. Remsen (1846-1927)
E. P. (1868-1938)
I
A. W. Thomm (Ph.D. at
R. P. Graham
R. V. V. Nicholls
I
(Ph.D. at
A. N. Bourns
(Ph.D. at Illinois)
\
(M.B. a t
C. E. Burke
(M.9. & Ph.D. at Toronto)
L. H. Cra~!:
633
NOVEMBER, 1948
Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932), Walther Hempel (18511916), and Victor Meyer (1848-97). Hempel, a noted analytical chemist, had, in turn, studied under another analytical chemist, Clemens Winkler (183S1904); Winkler had learned much chemistry from his father who had been a student of the great Swedish master, Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848). If one traces Richards' ancestry through .Victor Meyer, one comes upon several more illustrious chemists. Meyer had studied with A. W. Hofmann (1818-92) (who had been a student of Justus l!,iebig), with Emil Erlenmeyer (1825-1909), and particularly with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-99) whose contributions to phyeical and chemical science are almost unrivalled, e. g., the burner and battery and filter pump associated with his name, the grease-spot photometer, the ice and vapor calorimeters, the thermoregulator, the constant-level waterhath, and particularly his work in collaboration with Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-87) in inventing the spectroscope, founding the science of spectroscopic analysis, and discovering the elements cesium and rubidium. In addition, Bunsen was an outstanding teacher. It is very interesting to note that a t one time (in 1856) the following men who were to become great chemists were in his laboratory as students: J. Volhard (remembered for his analytical procedures), Lothar Meyer (of the periodic law), F. K. Beilstein (of the monumental Hadbuch), Adolf von Baeyer (of the indigo synthesis), H. H. Landolt (of the great Tabellen) and H. E. Roscoe (of the famous textbook). It is fair to assume that Bunsen's interest in analytical chemistry was inspired, or a t least developed, by his teacher Friedrich Stromeyer (177C1835). Stromeyer was particularly interested in the analysis of minerals; this is understandable hecauee he had himself been a student in Paris of the great analytical and mineralogical chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (17631829), the discoverer of chromium and beryllium. One can thus trace Richards' scientific ancestry indirectly to Vauquelin through Victor Meyer, Bunsen, and Stromeyer as well as directly, as shown in the chart, through Cooke, Dumas, and Thenard. With these names, together with those of Hempel, Winkler, and Berzelius, associated with his chemical genealogy, . Richards could hardly have avoided an interest. in the procedures of analytical chemistry. There are many other interesting relationships that are not shown in the chart: Cooke studied under H. V. Regnault (181&78) ; Chandler studied under Friedrich Wohler, and Wohler under Leopold Gmelin (178% 1853); Remsen was a student of Jakob Volhard (18341910), who studied with both Liehig and Bunsen, and Liebig studied under J. B. Biot (1774-l862), L. J. Thenard, and P. L. Dulong (1745-1838); Tingle studied under Ludwig Claisen (1851-1930) (a student of Kekul6) and Sir Henry E. Roscoe (1833-1915); Kekul6 t.ook lectures from J. B. A. Dumas and when Dumas
was in Paris he was associated not only with Thenard, but also with Berthollet, Gay-Lussac, and Vauquelin; Gay-Lussac was influenced by Fourcroy as well as by Berthollet. Scientific environment has played a very significant role in the history of chemistry. Sometimes the part of a teacher has been to aid in the full development of the latent possibilities of a student already interested in the subject; in other cases the influence of a teacher has caused a student to undertake the study of chemistry in preference to another discipline. One may mention in this connection the case of Eilhard Mitscherlich (1794-1863) whose fame in chemistry was established by his fundamental studies on isomorphism. Gortner has pointed out (2) that Mitscherlich entered the University of Heidelberg in 1811 to study oriental languages, and in 1817, when his thesis comprising a study in old Persian philology was almost complete, he went to Gottingen to prepare himself further for research in the Orient. Here he took a course in chemistry from Friedrich Stromeyer, who in this same year (1817) discovered cadmium, and it was the influence of this professor that caused Mitscherlich to ahondon oriental studies and to become a chemist. (Stromeyer must have been an inspiring teacher; a few years after Mitscherlich had studied -4th him, Ferdinand Reich (179%-1882),who was to he one of the discoverers of indium, came under his tutelage and was soon followed in Stromeyer's laboratory by a young man named Bunsen who was to become known to all succeeding generations of chemists.) A. W. Hofmann, who became a great organic chemist and the founder of the aniline dye industry, entered the University of Giessen to study law but after coming under the influence of Justus Liebig he deserted jurisprudence for chemistry. Kekul6 matriculated in the University of Giessen as a student of architecture hut changed his field of study to chemistry after attending Liebig's lectures. The early training of Kekul6 made it natu~al for him to be interested in the architecture of molecules. It is hoped that this little study may induce others to become interested in their "scientific ancestry." I t may not be as important, but it is almost surely to be as interesting, as one's biological ancestry. The writer has secured his information largely from the historical works of Moore (5) and Weeks (4), from the paper by Barton, ( I ) , from biographical sketches in the chemical literature, and, in the case of ~everalcontemporaries, by means of correspondence. REFERENCES ,
,~
GORTNER, R. A,, elected TO&; in' colioid Chemistrj-;' Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1937. (3) MOORE, F. J., AND W. T. HALL,"A History of Chemistrv," McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1931. (4) WEEKS,M. E.. "The Discovery of the Elements,'' 5th ed.. ~ a c k ' p r i n t i nCo., ~ Esston,Pa., 1945
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