Hugo Schiff

N substituted imines are sometimes called Schiff s bases after Hugo Schiff a German chemist who de scribed their formation in 1864... 

Claus first postulate was vigorously attacked by Karl Weltzien (1813—1870),40 while Hugo Schiff (1834—1915)43 attacked not only Claus first postulate but also his second. All of Claus three postulates reappeared modified almost four decades later in Werner s coordination theory. Claus third postulate closely adumbrates Werner s concepts of the coordination number and of the transition series between metal ammines and metal salt hydrates. 

Fig. 44 Professor Hugo Schiff (1834-1915) giving one of his last lectures in the Amphitheatre of Chemistry of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Florence, Italy, on 26 April 1915...

Schiff s base /shiffs/ A type of compound formed by reacting an aldehyde or ketone (e.g. RCOR) with an aryl amine (e.g. ArNH2). The product, an N-arylimide, which is usually crystalline, has the formula R2C NAr. The compound is named for the German chemist Hugo Schiff (1834-1915). 

RNHa + R CHO RN CHR + HjO The compounds are often crystalline and ate used in organic chemistry for characterizing aromatic amines (by preparing the Schiff base and measuring Ae melting point). They are named after the German chemist Hugo Schiff (1834-1915). 

Flavinskii F (1876) Bemerkung zur der Abhandlung des Herrn Hugo Schiff — "Zur Statistik chemischer Verbindungen". Ber Dtsch Chem Ges 9 267... 

Imines are compounds that possess a C=N double bond and are common in biological pathways. Imines are also called Schiff bases, named after Hugo Schiff, a German chemist who first described their formation. A six-step mechanism for imine formation is shown in Mechanism 20.6. It is best to divide the mechanism conceptually into two parts (just as we did to conceptualize the mechanism of acetal formation) (1) The first three steps produce an intermediate called a carbinolamine and (2) the last three steps convert the carbinolamine into an imine ... 

Hemiaminals were formerly known by the now obsolete term carbinolamine. Imines are sometimes called Schiff s bases, after the nineteenth-century German chemist Hugo Schiff. 

Luigi Guerri had a son, Stefano (1862-1920), who followed in his father s footsteps as a scientist even though he was fond of music and poetry. He completed his first degree in Chemistry at the University of Pisa and later obtained another degree in pharmacy. In 1890, he moved to Florence to work with Hugo Schiff (1834-1915) as a chemist. His rapid return to Florence can be attributed to his widowed father s poor health he had been struck by apoplexy and required considerable care. In the course of 1891, suddenly but perhaps inexplicably, Stefano Guerri decided to abandon the harsh side of university life and Schiff, passed the examination to work in the Office of Public Health in Florence, and remained there until his death. 

Hugo Schiff (Fig. 4.2) was a restless and tormented genius with a passionate and irascible temperament. If on the one hand he was an excellent research chemist, on the other he was despised by his colleagues and feared by his students [2]. There are numerous stories that have been told about his eccentricities and even about some of his nasty tricks [3]. 

Fig. 4.2 Hugo Schiff in his prime. Courtesy Department of Chemistry Hugo Schiff, University of Florence...

Hugo Schiff had always had liberal and revolutionary ideas for which he paid dearly since they led to his 1856 expulsion from Germany. He had contacts with Karl Marx (1818-1883) on the occasion of the organization, in London, of the First International Workers in Italy he continued to profess revolutionary ideas. In 1894 he was among the founders of the socialist newspaper, Avanti ... 

Fig. 4.3 Hugo Schiff (left) preparing a chlorine demonstration with his student, Guido Cusmano, ca. 1910-12. Note the fume hood on the right the piepaiation room is accessed by lifting the movable blackboard. Courtesy of Chemical Heritage, University of Florence...

After a long and painful struggle with uremia, Hugo Schiff died at age 81 on 8 September 1915. 

To found a school, to leave a scientific nursery, to watch it grow and prosper is not an undertaking of small consequence. Florence was home of two great chemists, the German Hugo Schiff and Angelo Angeli (1864—1931) from Tarcento, near the... 

Ostrogovich completed his higher studies in natural sciences, chemistry and physics in Florence, and with Hugo Schiff as his mentor, between 1886 and 1890, he obtained his bachelor s degree in chemistry when he was only 20 years old as he, himself, reported with deserved, yet undisguised, pride. He completed his doctorate, also directed by Schiff, three years later. 

However, the chemist from Lecce maintained close, friendly contracts with Italy and with the Florence school. In fact, thanks to his influence, Hugo Schiff was elected an honorary member of the Romanian Society of Sciences in 1904 and, on the occasion of Schiff s 75th birthday, the Academy conferred on him a scroll of recognition for outstanding achievements in science. 

The most well-known members of the Schiff family are certainly Moritz (1823-1896) and Hugo, respectively, the second and eighth children of Joseph Moses Schiff (1784-1852) and Henriette Trier (1798-1888). Both became famous for then-disco veries in the fields of physiology and chemistry, to say nothing of their passion for politics. And for both of them, their extremely liberal bent was the reason that drove them to leave their mother country. 

In 1887, he obtained a second degree in Pharmacy and, after a short period of two years as Hugo Schiff s assistant, on 1 November 1889 PeUizzari was appointed professor of Chemistry at (he Royal University of Catania. His stay in Sicily was... 

In 1916, bowing to pressure from his family, Pellizzari returned to Florence and accepted the chair of Pharmacy at the Royal Institute of Higher Practical Studies and Specialization which, in 1924, would become the University of Florence. He retired in 1933 at age 75 and was soon appointed Emeritus Professor [79]. At his retirement party, he used the occasion to arrange for a bust of Hugo Schiff, along with a plaque that recorded his successors, to be placed outside the lecture haU that Schiff made so famous. For unknown reasons, not to mention the outbreak of WWI, that tribute to Schiff was completed eighteen years after his death. 

The major events in Pellizzari s life seem to have been curiously displaced beyond the age when these events are normally realized. Just as his mentor Hugo Schiff, Pellizzari became married when he was relatively old they both married rich widows. Officially retired at age 75, they were scientifically active until they died in their eighties. Both Schiff and Pellizzari found it impossible to have any relationship with women. Both men lived for their science and perhaps they insisted on treating their soon-to-be spouses as mere housekeepers. Pellizzari s approach toward women was not as rigid as one can imagine, but at least it was unusual despite the fact that his wife was a well-known socialite, he confided to a friend that he wished she would be able to administer his laboratory and get to know the uses and names of all his equipment to such a degree that he could without hesitation make her distill hydrochloric acid. What we do not know is whether she knew her husband s secret desire and whether she would be pleased or not regarding her projected role in the laboratory. 

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