PRELOG VLADIMIR: (1906-1998) Croatian-Swiss Organic Chemist, Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, 1975. Autograph ...

PRELOG VLADIMIR: (1906-1998) Croatian-Swiss Organic Chemist, Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, 1975. Autograph Manuscript Signed, V. Prelog, two pages (feint squared graph paper), Copenhagen, 15th March 1972. Evidently originally part of a larger working scientific manuscript (with various corrections), perhaps for an essay or lecture, the text states, in part, 'Enantiomers differ only by the sign of their optical activity, whereas diastereoisomers, which can be optically active or inactive, differ also in other scalar properties…..All practically encountered cases of stereoisomerism could be interpreted by stereomodels, but the world of stereomodels itself has never been analyzed adequately. One of the reasons for that was the terrifying multiplicity of isomers and stereoisomers. Several times in the history of chemistry attempts have been made to find general algorithms…..The most famous contributions to mathematics are: the development of the theory of graphs called trees by Cayley, general enumeration theory by Polya, and recently the application of a neglected concept of group theory…..' Signed and dated by Prelog at the head of the first page. VG