Development of Butlerov's Structural Theory, 1859-1862

Abstract

In 1859, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov (1828-1886) had just returned to Kazan after spending akomandirivka (official study leave) in the laboratory of Charles Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) in Paris, where he became a member of the fledgling Société chimique de Paris. At this time, the young Scotsman, Archibald Scott Couper (1831-1892) had just developed his theory of chemical structure, so Butlerov was exposed to this new way of thinking at its inception. in 1859, he wrote a paper in which he declared that Couper had gone too far and exceeded what the experimental facts would allow. The purpose of this study is to transcribe and translate various documents and notes.