September 2, 1938
President James B Conant
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Dear Conant,
I am pleased to learn that you are interested in mentioning resonance in revising
your text book of organic chemistry, and I have also been pleased to see from your
letter that your understanding of the subject seems to be the same as mine. I would
agree completely with the discussion which you gave in your letter of imidazole, urea,
and the amides. You are right in saying that a molecule resonating among several
valence bond structures retains one equilibrium configuration of the nuclei. Resonance
is not identical with tautomerian; I would not say that two or three tautomeric forms
of urea differing in the distribution of the hydrogen atoms, were to be combined together
in a resonating structure.
Probably one reason for the confusion of resonance and tautomerism in the minds of
some chemists results from the fact that often the valence bond structures among which
a molecule resonates are similar to the valence bond structure usually written for
the individual tautomers. In the case of urea the tautomeric form with no hydrogen
on oxygen is usually assigned a valence bond structure with a carbon-oxygen double
bond, and the forms in which a hydrogen atom has been transferred from nitrogen to
oxygen are assigned structures with a carbon-nitrogen double bond. From the point
of view of resonance each of these tautomeric forms is considered to be a normal state
to which all of these structures contribute, the greatest contribution in each case
being made by the structure which is conventionally assigned to the tautomer.
The same resonance occurs when hydrogen is replaced by methyl groups as you mentioned
in your letter in
President James B. Conant 2 September 2, 1938
connection with imidazole; the methyl groups probably tend to stabilize the conventional
valence bond structure somewhat, however, so that the conventional structure becomes
somewhat more important for methylated compounds than for those containing hydrogen.
In the case of the carboxyl group, for example, I would estimate about 50-50 percent
for the chances of the double bond in the two positions for the ion, about 60-40 for
the acid, and about 70-30 for the ester.
My wife and I have been busy this summer with an architect preparing plans for a house
which we hope to have built during the fall. We have purchased a tract of 2.1 acres
at the foot of Mount Wilson, between Altadena and Sierra Madre. The tract Is located
above an arroyo, and has a fine view of the arroyo, the mountains and the valley to
the south. It has on it several live oak and eucalyptus trees so that our planting
is partially taken care of. It will be a change for me to have to drive to the Institute
after having lived across the street for eight years, but the five miles on good roads
can be covered in ten or twelve minutes, so that I do not expect to lose much time
With kindest regards to Mrs. Conant,
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
LP/bes
