Molecular structural formulae, a few of the many appearing for the first time in Loschmidt's 1861 booklet,¹ Chemische Studien I. Among its innovations are the depictions of double and triple carbon bonds for ethylene and acetylene; the structure of acetic acid; a correct prediction for cyclopropane 21 years before it was made; and the structures of benzoic acid and aniline, two aromatic molecules with benzene-like rings. Loschmidt's role in the later discovery that benzene itself is a monocyclic six-carbon structure is still being debated by historians.

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© 2001 American Institute of Physics