REMSEN, IRA (1846-1927), American chemist, was born in New York city on Feb. Io, 5846, and educated at the College of the City of New York (B.A., 1865), College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia—M.D., 1867) and at the Universities of Munich and Gottingen (Ph.D., 1870). He spent the two years 187o-72 at the University of Tiibingen as assistant to Fittig and here began the investigations into pure chemistry upon which his later fame was chiefly based. He was professor of chemistry at Williams college in 1872-76 and in 1876 was one of the original faculty of the new Johns Hopkins university. Here he was pro fessor of chemistry 1876-1913, director of the chemical laboratory 1876-1908, secretary of the Academic Council 1881-1901 and president of the university 1901-1913. He was president emeritus and professor emeritus 1913-1927, during which time he travelled widely and worked on government pure food commissions. He brought to Johns Hopkins many of the German laboratory methods and as a teacher he soon became famous. A long series of students trained in intimate association with him became widely scattered and influential. He founded the American Chemical Journal in
1879 and continued to edit it almost to the time of his death. In it most of his scientific papers were published. In the first volume he described the preparation and properties of a new compound, subsequently to become widely known as saccharine, which he and a pupil discovered. Another long series of studies led to the discovery and enunciation of Remsen's law. He also became widely known for his series of text-books, Principles of Theoreti cal Chemistry (1876) passing through five editions and being translated into German, Russian and Italian. Others of like pop ularity were An Introduction to the Study of the Compounds of Carbon (1885; 5th rev., 1922) ; Elements of Chemistry (1888); Inorganic Chemistry (1889) ; A College Text-book of Chemistry (1908). Remsen died at Carmel, Cal., on Mar. 5, 1927.
See B. Harrow, Eminent Chemists of Our Time (192o) ; "Impressions of Ira Remsen," in Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine, vol. xvi. pp. 215 226 (1928) ; "Ira Remsen" in Science, N.S. vol. lxvi. (1927), pp. 246.