The New International Encyclopædia/Fittig, Rudolf

FITTIG, fĭt'ĭK, Rudolf (1835—). A German chemist, born at Hamburg. He studied chemistry at Göttingen, and became assistant to Wöhler, the celebrated organic chemist, in 1858. From 1860 to 1870 he taught at Göttingen, in the latter year was appointed full professor of chemistry at Tübingen, and in 1876 was made professor at Strassburg. His literary activity consisted mainly in his reëditing Wöhler's work on organic chemistry. On the other hand, his name is connected with a number of original contributions, which have formed an integral part of the science of organic chemistry. He discovered the interesting class of substances termed lactones (anhydrides formed from compounds which are at once acids and alcohols, just as esters are formed by the action of acids on alcohols). Furthermore he effected the synthesis of a number of interesting ompounds of carbon and hydrogen, and discovered phenanthrene and other important substances in coal-tar.