Ever since Wöhler synthesized urea in 1828, organic chemists have been interested in the structure and the synthesis of natural products. W. H. Perkin, Sr., was trying to synthesize quinine when he discovered the method of making mauve, thus laying the foundation of the synthetic dye industry. Quinine itself has not yet been synthesized but other alkaloids have, and indigo, camphor, the coloring matters of flowers, hormones, vitamins, and a host of other substances have bowed before the ingenuity and indefatigable labor of the organic chemist and have been placed on the astoundingly long list of completed syntheses of natural products. The physicist and the engineer have joined hands with him and have put a great many of these substances, and others which never before existed, into production and world-wide use.