The Era of Emil Fischer

Because the Fischer proof of the structures of the monosaccharides clearly comes into the classical part of organic chemical history, having been described time and again in organic and bio-chemical texts (e.g.. Ref. 9) and in detail on the centenary of the proof [1], the full argument is not repeated here. Instead, emphasis has been placed on the limited nature of the chemical reactions available for use and the problems with their application at that time in chemical history. In this way, attention is drawn to the immense difficulty of the structural assignment problem and the brilliance of the Fischer solution. 

It became evident soon after the beginning of the project in 1884 that the van t Hoff-Le Bel theory predicting the tetrahedral nature of the saturated carbon atom was critical to the solution of the problem, and that acceptable conventions for the description and representation of acyclic 

FIGURE 1.2 Emil Fischer. (Reproduced with the kind permission of the Edgar Fahs Smith Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Library.) 

FIGURE 1.4 D-Glucose phenylosazone (4), L-arabinose (5), L-gluconic acid (6). 

SCHEME 1.1 Kiliani ascent from an aldose to a higher aldonic acid. 

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