In 1858, Kekulé and Couper independently published their versions of a Structural Theory of Organic Chemistry. At this time, the Russian chemist, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov (1828-1886) was on <i>komandirovka</i> (study leave) in the Wurtz' laboratory in Paris, and during that year he interacted with both Couper and Kekulé. At the beginning of 1859, Butlerov was firmly in the camp of Kekulé, and he wrote a criticism of Couper's version of the theory in which he made the point that he could not support this theory because Couper had extrapolated too far from the experimental data. Within a year, Butlerov had made a complete about-face, and was now the new lead protagonist of Couper's views.<br/>Recently, we have obtained copies of the lecture notes taken by a young Markovnikov in the organic chemistry course delivered by Butlerov during the 1859-1860 academic year. At the beginning of this year, Butlerov was a strong protagonist of the more conservative views of Kolbe, and he supported the use of Kolbe's equivalent weights. At its end, he had changed his allegiance, and now strongly supported the new atomic weights of Cannizzarro. This, in turn, was reflected in his version of Structural Theory. In this talk, I will address the progress in the translation of the Markovnikov notes, and the light they shed on Butlerov's change of stance.

1859-1860: Magic years in the development of the structural theory of organic chemistry

256th National Meeting (2018)

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