The deaths of Beilstein (1906), Mendeleev (1907) and Menshutkin (1907), following the deaths of Markovnikov (1904) and Vagner (Wagner, 1903) signaled the end of an era in organic chemistry in the Russian Empire. Each of these chemists in one way or another is well known to modern organic chemists: Mendeleev through his Periodic Table, and the others through eponymous reactions, rules and tests. One of the less appreciated members of this group, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Menshutkin (the first Editor of the <i>Journal of the Russian Chemical Society</i>), is the subject of this paper.<br/>In an era when organic chemistry was basically a qualitative science, Menshutkin was among the first to obtain quantitative data for the influence of structure on the rates of chemical reactions. In one study, he studied the rates of quaternization of tertiary amines with alkyl bromides and iodides, a reaction that has come down to us as the Menshutkin reaction. However, this was not the only reaction he studied. He also studied the effects of structure on the rate of the Williamson ether synthesis, and the effects of alcohol structure on the rates of esterification. Menshutkin's life and chemistry will be explored.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Menshutkin (1834-1907): Physical organic chemistry four decades before Hughes and Ingold

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