The birth of stereoelectronic concepts in organic chemistry

Initially, even the simple 3D description of molecules was a controversial idea. In fact, Van t Hoff s 1874 book La chimie dans Vespace was ridiculed by such eminent chentists as Adolph Kolbe, the editor of the Journal fiir Praktische Chemie, who stated  

van t Hoff of the Veterinary School at Utrecht has no liking, apparently, for exact chemical investigation. 

He has considered it more comfortable to monnt Pegasus (apparently borrowed fiom the Veterinary School) and to proclaim in his La chimie dans I espace how the atoms appear to him to be arranged in space, when he is on the chemical Mt. Parnassus which he has reached by bold flight.  

The evolution of stereoelectronic concepts was further catalyzed by steroid synthesis and rapid development of conformational analysis recognized by the 1969 Nobel Prize to Barton and Hassel. However, it was not until 1983, that an organized treatise dedicated to stereoelectronics was published (the important books by Deslongchamps and Kirby). 

The blue atom moves away from the black atom In the array of seemingly identical structures 

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