VOL.6, Nos. 7 AND 8
Tas ALEMBICCLW
1225
THE ALEMBIC CLUB AND THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY LEONMW DOBBIN, SECRETARY OP THE ALEMBIC CLUB, BLACKSRIELS, MIDLOTRUN, SCOTLAND Forty years ago regular lectures upon the history of chemistry were included in but few, if in any, of the courses of instruction in chemistry in the universities of the English-speaking nations, and textbooks on the subject in the English language were a!most non-existent. Historical sketches, tracing for the most part in a general manner, and with little attempt a t details, the progress of chemistry, were included in some encyclopedias and also in a numher of the older textbooks, notably in the English version of Boerhaave's "Elements," dating from about 1732, and in the various editions of Brande's "Manual of Chemistry," thefirst of which was published in London in 1819 and was followed by numerous other editions, several of them American and published in New York.' The "History of Chemistry," in two volumes, by Dr. Thomas Thomson, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow, which was published in 1830, was, a t the period referred to above, the only existing English work which made any pretensions to giving a detailed account of the suhject, and, while i t was interesting and eminently readable, it was then more than half a century old, and, moreover, had been long out of print. The condition of deficiency which thus existed was materially ameliorated by the publication in 1891 of an English translation of Professor Ernst von Meyer's "Geschichte der Chemie" (first German edition, 1889) and since that date quite a variety of larger and smaller historical compilations have appeared in diierent editions, both in the United States and Great Britain, so as to supply all ordinary educational requirements. In the same year that von Meyer's "Geschichte" appeared in Germany, that is to say, on October 29, 1889, in the capital of Scotland a small circle of chemists, consisting of the five non-professorial members of the teaching staff in the Chemistry Department of the University of Edinburgh, formed themselves, under the title of "The Alembic Club," into an unassuming body which was destined later to play a useful part in bringing important historical material connected with chemistry within the reach of interested readers. The idea of forming the Club originated with the senior assistant on the departmental staff and was taken up with enthusiasm by the other members. In order of seniority the original members of the Club were:
'
Neither the Maeneven nor the Webster American editions of the Brande text, it may be mentioned, preserved the "very concise but excellent historical sketch" contained in the original (see Edgar F. Smith. "Old Chemistries," McGraw-Hill Book Co.,1927, p. 84).
(1) JOHN GIBSON,a native of Edinburgh. He was a student with Bunsen a t Heidelberg and was elected Professor of Chemistry in the Heriot-Watt College, - Edinburgh, . in 1892. It is of interest to note that he was a grandson of a former John Gibson who had been the law adviser and intimate personal friend of Sir Walter Scott during the later years of the famous author's life, at the time when he was harassed by financial trouble. He was the co-originator, with Crum-Brown, of the famous Crum-Brown-Gibson rule for determining the position of radicals entering a substituted benzene nucleus, and after holding the Chair of Chemistry a t the HeriotWatt College, Edinburgh, for many years, died in 1914. His only son is a professor of JOHN GIBSON* chemistry in the University of California. (2) LEONARD DOBBIN, born in Belfast, Ireland. He studied chemistry with Andrews in Belfast, with E. Frankland at South Kensington, London, and with Wislicenus at Wiirzburg, Bavaria. He was appointed lecturer in chemistry in Edinburgh University in 1904 and reader in 1920, retiring in 1924. Since the inception of the Club Dr. Dobbin has functioned as its secretary. (3) HUGHMARSHALL, born in Edinburgh. He studied chemistry with CrumBrown in Edinburgh University and also attended classes in Munich and Ghent. His discovery of the persulfates resulted in his election as a fellow of the Roval Society in 1904. After holding the position of lecturer in crystallography in the University of Edinburgh, he was appointed to the Chair of Chemistry in University College, Dundee, in 1908, and died in 1913. (4) JAMES WALKER, a native of Dundee. He studied chemistrv with Crum-Brown in Edinburgh University and with Ostwald I,EONARD DORBIN in Leipzig. He succeeded P. F. Frankland in the Chair of Chemistry in University College, Dundee, in 1894, and Crum-Brown in Edinburgh University in 1908. His "Introduction to Physical Chemistry" has been the standard book in the field since 1899, and has passed through many editions. His researches on solutions were * The original photograph for this cut was kindly loaned us by Dr. Gibson's sister-in-law,Frau Prof. Wytzes, M. Gladbach. Gartenstr. 14, Germany.
recognized by the award of the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1926. He retired in 192R2 (5) ALEXANDER SMITH,a native of Edinburgh. After studying chemistry with Crum-Brown in Edinburgh University and with von Baeyer at Munich, he held the position of professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana. for some time. but was soon called to assist in the development of the University of Chicago, where he remained for seventeen years. In 1911 he succeeded Professor Chandler a t
,
H ~ v . t r~ I A R W A L L
JAMES \VALKEK
Columbia University, and served as head of its department of chemistry until serious illness compelled his retirement in 1!119. His research work on the allotropic forms of sulfur and his series of textbooks on inorganic and general chemistry will be familiar to all readers. He died in 1922.3 One member was elected subsequently (in 1891):4 (6) RALPHSTOCKMAN, born in Leith (the port of Edinburgh). He studied medicine a t Edinburgh University, Vienna, and Strassburg, and was elected in 1897 professor of materia medica a t Glasgow University, a position which he still holds.
A description of the New Chemistry Laboratories of the University of Edinburgh 4, 5 7 0 4 (May, 1927). from the pen of Sir James Walker appeared in THISJOURNAL, An obituary notice of Alexander Smith will be found in the 3. Am. Chew. Soc. for December, 1922. See also an editorial in THISJOURNAL, May, 1927. 4P~ofessorJames Kendall, now occupying in Edinburgh University the Chair of Chemistry vacated in 1928 by Sir James Walker, was admitted t o membership to the Club on May 17th of this year.
The members arranged to hold periodical meetings with a view to promoting, by discussion and otherwise, the three main objects of the Club, viz., (1) to secure the better recognition of the University of Edinburgh as a school of chemistry and center of chemical research; (2) to encourage the study of the history and literature of chemistry; and (3) to further the professional advancement of its members. Under its constitution the Club was to consist of ordinary and corresponding members. The number of the former was limited to seven and of the latter to thirteen. Ordinary members had to be resident in or near Edinburgh and were to become corresponding members automatically when they ceased to reside in its neighborhood. Certain rules for the regulation of the Club's activities were agreed to a t its inaugural meeting, some of which may be briefly indicated here. Ordinary meetings were to be held monthly, in the evening during session time, a t the residences of the members in rotation, and members who did not attend were subject to fine. New admission to the Club was only to be given by the unanimous vote of the members* ~ l which e came into operation only once, on the admission of the sixth member in 1891. With the intention of showing disregard for the superstition attaching to the number thirteen, a special rule appointed as the date on which annual subscriptions become due, the fifteenth day of December, this, the 340th day of the ordinary year (leap year excluded) being the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month of a year supposed to begin a t New Year's day as a t present, and made up of thirteen months, each consistingof twenty-eight days and with one day over (two in leap year). The Club's rule thus pointed to a reformed type of calendar which has been seriously proposed in quite recent times, although it is to be noted that the question of the disposal of the odd day (two in leap year), as not coming within the purview of the members, was left ~ L P STOCKMAN H
to others for decision. An unwritten rule required each member on appointment to a university chair to entertain his fellow-members a t the festive board, and this was duly observed on five auspicious occasions. The monthly meetings of the Club were started immediately after its inauguration and the members busied themselves preparing reports upon current chemical papers of an outstanding description and in reviewing and discussing the more important investigations of earlier date. It was a t a very early stage in the existence of the Club that the resolve was taken at one of these meetings to publish some of the less easily accessible chemical classics in convenient form as simple reprints or as translations, and in a few years a useful series was rendered available to teachers and students of chemistry, as well as to general readers, under the title of Alembic Club Kepints. I t was fitting that the first of these reprints should present Black's world-renowned "Experiments on Magnesia Alba, etc.," in view of the author's occupation for many years of the Chair of Chemistry in Edinburgh University. This reprint appeared in 1893 and was followed in succeeding years by reproductions of papers and extracts of fundamental importance from the writings of Avogadro, Berthollet, Cannizzaro, Cavendish, Dalton, Davy, Faraday, Gay-Lussac, Graham, Guyton de Morveau, Hooke, Kolbe, Mayow, Pasteur, Priestley, Rey, Scheele, Thenard, Thomson, Williamson, and Wollaston, all of whose names are famous in the history of chemistry. The most extensive volume of the reprint series was Mayow's "Opera Omnia," which supplied a complete English translation of the five separate treatises written originally in Latin in the 17th Century by the noted Oxford philosopher. The most recent addition to the reprint series presents translations of the highly published in the first important papers by van't Hoff and Arrheniu~,~ volume of Ostwald's Zeitschrift jfiir ghysikaliscke Chemie, which form the foundations of the theory of dilute solutions. A further contribution toward stimulating the study of chemical history was made by the publication by the Club of a translation of Ladenburg's interesting and popular "Lectures on the History of the Development of Chemistry since the Time of Lavoisier." This passed through two editions during the lifetime of its author, but it is now out of print. Tributes to the usefulness of the Club's publications have been received from numerous teachers and references to them are to he met with in many standard textbooks, while as material for class study various volumes of the reprint series have from time to time been adopted in different American and British universities. 6
A review by Tenney I,. Davis of this reprint will appear in the October issue of
THISJOURNAL.
