Conditions for Differential Reaction of 'Identical' Chemical Groups

ATTENTION was first directed to the principles involved in explaining the differential reaction of two ‘identical’ groups in a single molecule by Ogston 1 , and they have been further discussed and generalized by Wilcox 2 , Schwartz and Carter 3 and most recently by Hirschmann 4 . Since a recent review 5 seems to hold that the views of these authors (in particular those of Ogston and of Schwartz and Carter) are in some ways contradictory, and since Hirschmann's excellent article appears to be too little known, a brief re-statement is attempted. Ogston's and Schwartz and Carter's views are in fact complementary (as Hirschmann shows), each being explicit about an aspect of the matter which the other takes for granted.