Volume 27, Number 1

Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 27, Number 1  (2002)

29

of technology, a position that was also vacant.  The cu-

rator thus arranged for Zinin to remain abroad for an

additional year in order to study technology and to visit

sites of industrial importance (15).  Zinin did not object

to this change in plans.  Indeed, he submitted a detailed

description of his intended activities–mainly concern-

ing technology–if granted an extension by the Ministry

of Education, perhaps because it would afford him ex-

tra time abroad and thus would enable him to spend more

time in Giessen with Liebig (16).

Technology had been taught at Russian universi-

ties from the creation of the university system in the

early nineteenth century.  The original educational stat-

ute in 1804, which provided a blueprint for many edu-

cational developments up to 1917, included the teach-

ing of technology at all educational levels and was

greatly influenced by Marquis de Condorcet’s essay on

public instruction (17).  For the universities, a kafedra

(chair) of “Technology with Application to Trade and

Industry” was to be included in the physics-mathemat-

ics faculty (18).  This utilitarian impulse received greater

emphasis during the reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855),

particularly during the years when Count Sergei

Semenovich Uvarov was the Minister of Education

(1833-1848).  Uvarov hoped to stimulate the develop-

ment of agriculture and industry throughout Russia by

means of instruction and public lectures, and he greatly

increased the number of teaching positions and resources

for technology (19).  Thus Curator Musin-Pushkin was

responding to this increased emphasis on technology

when he decided that Zinin should occupy the kafedra

of technology at Kazan’ University instead of that of

chemistry.

Ending his first stay in Giessen in January 1839,

Zinin returned to Berlin to continue his studies there.

However, he soon fell in with a group of Russian stu-

dents, who were in Berlin studying medicine.  Zinin was

so influenced by these fellow Russians that he began

studying medical subjects and almost decided to become

a physician himself (20).  This incident has drawn fleet-

ing attention from Zinin’s biographers, but they do not

note its implications.  It is possible that Zinin was not

happy with the idea of concentrating on teaching “tech-

nology and analytical chemistry” as he was beginning

to center his chemical interests on organic chemistry

under Liebig’s influence.  Becoming a physician may

have been a way for Zinin to avoid the concentration on

technology.  It is also possible that Zinin’s attachment

to any one particular field of study was not yet settled.

Remember, at this time it was less than a scant four years

since Zinin had switched from astronomy and mathemat-

ics into chemistry, a move that also was not of his own

choosing.  Contacts with enthusiastic disciples of an-

other field of science might have swayed Zinin’s ideas

about his future.

Whatever the case, Zinin did not continue with the

study of medicine and instead returned to Giessen in

the summer of 1839, at which time he was finally able

to work in Liebig’s laboratory.  He focused on experi-

ments concerning the benzoyl radical, which was one

of the primary topics of interest in Liebig’s laboratory

at the time (21).  Liebig gave Zinin the problem of ob-

taining benzoin, benzil, and their products, using oil of

bitter almonds, which contained benzaldehyde, as the

starting material.  This research formed the basis for two

articles published by Zinin in Liebig’s Annalen in 1839

and 1840 (22).  The first article briefly describes a new

method of preparing benzoin from oil of bitter almonds

with potassium cyanide as a catalyst.  Zinin treated

amygdalin, a glucoside of bitter almonds, with emulsin

in the presence of potassium cyanide to produce a mix-

ture of products, including benzaldehyde and benzoin.

The second article gave a detailed description of this

new method as well as methods for producing benzil

from benzoin with nitric acid, benzilic acid from benzil,

and several other products.  Zinin demonstrated that one

of these compounds was identical with “Benzamid” pro-

duced by Laurent.  The two articles are straightforward

descriptions of Zinin’s methods and contain no discus-

sion of any possible theoretical significance of the reac-

tions.

In September 1839, Zinin left Giessen and went to

Paris, where he attended lectures of Joseph Louis Gay-

Lussac and Jean Baptiste André Dumas on organic chem-

istry and of Theophile Jules Pelouze on analytical chem-

istry.  He was able to work in the laboratory of Pelouze,

continuing his investigations of the benzoyl radical.  In

addition, he visited mines, factories, and other sites of

interest for chemical technology.  Finally, in June 1840,

Zinin went to England for three weeks and then returned

to Russia.

Zinin arrived in St. Petersburg in September 1840.

However, instead of returning immediately to Kazan’,

as would be expected, he sent a letter to the Ministry of

Education requesting permission “to undertake the ex-

aminations for the doctoral degree at St. Petersburg

University” (23).  In this petition Zinin stated that he

was an adjunct of chemistry, had been sent abroad for

advanced training in chemistry, had spent three years

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