2.6: George Eliot (1819-1880)
Mary Ann Evans’s (who used the pseudonym George Eliot) father was an estate agent for the Newdigate family in Warwickshire. She was brought up in the evangelical tradition and educated at a local school then a boarding school in Coventry. After her mother’s death, George Eliot became her father’s care-giver, ending her formal education. She continued her studies independently, focusing particularly on rationalist works.
Like many Victorians, George Eliot began to doubt the validity of Christian faith. Her reading and her intellectual discussions with friends such as Charles and Cara Bray and Sara Hennell drew her increasingly towards Christian humanism. Starting in 1844, she translated David Friedrich Strauss’s (1808-1874) Das Leben Jesukritisch bearbeitet (The Life of Christ, Critically Examined), a work that read New Testament miracles—though not Christ—in mythical terms.
After her father died in 1849, George Eliot began to work with John Chapman, editor of the Westminster Review , one of the most prestigious intellectual and philosophical journals of its time. George Eliot functioned as the journal’s assistant editor, without having that official position due to her gender. She took a prominent place amongst Victorian intellectuals, including John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), social theorist Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), and George Henry Lewes (1817-1878). Philosopher, biologist, literary critic, and playwright, Lewes’ personal life was compromised by his having acknowledged and accepted his wife’s adultery and effectively adopting the children from her affairs. His having done so closed off any possibility of their divorcing, as he had sanctioned the adultery that would have been grounds for their divorce.
George Eliot and George Henry Lewes consequently became common-law husband and wife, a radical public act—particularly for George Eliot—in a society that preferred its “vices” to occur behind closed doors. They remained together for the rest of his life, during which time George Eliot began writing novels in addition to reviews and translations. Her first published book, Scenes from Clerical Life (1858), collected three already-published stories. She wrote first-hand of rural life and in Adam Bede promoted a realist agenda in the novel as genre—realism actuated by affection and sympathy. Writing of the homely dignity of coarse peasants—with warts—of the “beloved dirt” of the countryside, the novelist would open reader’s eyes and hearts to great truths of human nature, truths insufficiently reflected in facts.
George Eliot elevated the intellectual and moral purpose of the novel genre as well as honed its artistry. Her novels consider infanticide, familial betrayal, prejudice, and self-sacrifice with depth of psychological insight combined with moral purpose, a desire to motivate social change. Middlemarch (1871-1872) exemplifies the greatness to which she brought the novel form. Its intersecting stories and range of characters hoist the conventional marriage plot to the level of lived life, particularly of women whose husbands determine (use and sometimes abuse) their intellectual and physical activities. Its subtle and multivalent diction and imagery—of river, movement, light—almost perfectly unite theme, character, and action with the larger philosophical and moral meaning of interdependency (a source of happiness that George Eliot thought truer than religion). George Eliot’s writing prepared the way for the leaner experimental novels of the twentieth century.
In 1878, Georgie Henry Lewes died, after which George Eliot devoted her writing activities to readying his Life and Mind for publication. In 1880, she married a long-term friend, John Cross, a marriage that ended that same year, when she died in December.
2.8.1: From Adam Bede
Chapter XVII: In Which the Story Pauses a Little
“THIS Rector of Broxton is little better than a pagan!” I hear one of my readers exclaim. “How much more edifying it would have been if you had made him give Arthur some truly spiritual advice! You might have put into his mouth the most beautiful things—quite as good as reading a sermon.”
Certainly I could, if I held it the highest vocation of the novelist to represent things as they never have been and never will be. Then, of course, I might refashion life and character entirely after my own liking; I might select the most unexceptionable type of clergyman and put my own admirable opinions into his mouth on all occasions. But it happens, on the contrary, that my strongest effort is to avoid any such arbitrary picture, and to give a faithful account of men and things as they have mirrored themselves in my mind. The mirror is doubtless defective, the outlines will sometimes be disturbed, the reflection faint or confused; but I feel as much bound to tell you as precisely as I can what that reflection is, as if I were in the witness-box, narrating my experience on oath.
Sixty years ago—it is a long time, so no wonder things have changed—all clergymen were not zealous; indeed, there is reason to believe that the number of zealous clergymen was small, and it is probable that if one among the small minority had owned the livings of Broxton and Hayslope in the year 1799, you would have liked him no better than you like Mr. Irwine. Ten to one, you would have thought him a tasteless, indiscreet, methodistical man. It is so very rarely that facts hit that nice medium required by our own enlightened opinions and refined taste! Perhaps you will say, “Do improve the facts a little, then; make them more accordant with those correct views which it is our privilege to possess. The world is not just what we like; do touch it up with a tasteful pencil, and make believe it is not quite such a mixed entangled affair. Let all people who hold unexceptionable opinions act unexceptionably. Let your most faulty characters always be on the wrong side, and your virtuous ones on the right. Then we shall see at a glance whom we are to condemn and whom we are to approve. Then we shall be able to admire, without the slightest disturbance of our prepossessions: we shall hate and despise with that true ruminant relish which belongs to undoubting confidence.”
But, my good friend, what will you do then with your fellow-parishioner who opposes your husband in the vestry? With your newly appointed vicar, whose style of preaching you find painfully below that of his regretted predecessor? With the honest servant who worries your soul with her one failing?  Nay, with your excellent husband himself, who has other irritating habits besides that of not wiping his shoes?  And I would not, even if I had the choice, be the clever novelist who could create a world so much better than this, in which we get up in the morning to do our daily work, that you would be likely to turn a harder, colder eye on the dusty streets and the common green fields—on the real breathing men and women, who can be chilled by your indifference or injured by your prejudice; who can be cheered and helped onward by your fellow-feeling, your forbearance, your outspoken, brave justice.
So I am content to tell my simple story, without trying to make things seem better than they were; dreading nothing, indeed, but falsity, which, in spite of one’s best efforts, there is reason to dread. Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. The pencil is conscious of a delightful facility in drawing a griffin—the longer the claws, and the larger the wings, the better; but that marvellous facility which we mistook for genius is apt to forsake us when we want to draw a real unexaggerated lion. Examine your words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings— much harder than to say something fine about them which is NOT the exact truth.
It is for this rare, precious quality of truthfulness that I delight in many Dutch paintings, which lofty-minded people despise. I find a source of delicious sympathy in these faithful pictures of a monotonous homely existence, which has been the fate of so many more among my fellow-mortals than a life of pomp or of absolute indigence, of tragic suffering or of world-stirring actions. I turn, without shrinking, from cloud-borne angels, from prophets, sibyls, and heroic warriors, to an old woman bending over her flower-pot, or eating her solitary dinner, while the noonday light, softened perhaps by a screen of leaves, falls on her mob-cap, and just touches the rim of her spinning-wheel, and her stone jug, and all those cheap common things which are the precious necessaries of life to her—or I turn to that village wedding, kept between four brown walls, where an awkward bridegroom opens the dance with a high-shouldered, broad-faced bride, while elderly and middle-aged friends look on, with very irregular noses and lips, and probably with quart-pots in their hands, but with an expression of unmistakable contentment and goodwill. “Foh!” says my idealistic friend, “what vulgar details! What good is there in taking all these pains to give an exact likeness of old women and clowns? What a low phase of life!
But bless us, things may be lovable that are not altogether handsome, I hope? I am not at all sure that the majority of the human race have not been ugly, and even among those “lords of their kind,” the British, squat figures, ill-shapen nostrils, and dingy complexions are not startling exceptions. Yet there is a great deal of family love amongst us. I have a friend or two whose class of features is such that the Apollo curl on the summit of their brows would be decidedly trying; yet to my certain knowledge tender hearts have beaten for them, and their miniatures— flattering, but still not lovely—are kissed in secret by motherly lips. I have seen many an excellent matron, who could have never in her best days have been handsome, and yet she had a packet of yellow love-letters in a private drawer, and sweet children showered kisses on her sallow cheeks. And I believe there have been plenty of young heroes, of middle stature and feeble beards, who have felt quite sure they could never love anything more insignificant than a Diana, and yet have found themselves in middle life happily settled with a wife who waddles. Yes! Thank God; human feeling is like the mighty rivers that bless the earth: it does not wait for beauty—it flows with resistless force and brings beauty with it.
All honour and reverence to the divine beauty of form! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women, and children—in our gardens and in our houses. But let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret of proportion, but in the secret of deep human sympathy.  In this world there are so many of these common coarse people, who have no picturesque sentimental wretchedness! It is so needful we should remember their existence, else we may happen to leave them quite out of our religion and philosophy and frame lofty theories which only fit a world of extremes. Therefore, let Art always remind us of them; therefore let us always have men ready to give the loving pains of a life to the faithful representing of commonplace things—men who see beauty in these commonplace things, and delight in showing how kindly the light of heaven falls on them. There are few prophets in the world; few sublimely beautiful women; few heroes. I can’t afford to give all my love and reverence to such rarities: I want a great deal of those feelings for my every-day fellow-men, especially for the few in the foreground of the great multitude, whose faces I know, whose hands I touch, for whom I have to make way with kindly courtesy.  It is more needful that I should have a fibre of sympathy connecting me with that vulgar citizen who weighs out my sugar in a vilely assorted cravat and waistcoat, than with the handsomest rascal in red scarf and green feathers—more needful that my heart should swell with loving admiration at some trait of gentle goodness in the faulty people who sit at the same hearth with me, or in the clergyman of my own parish, who is perhaps rather too corpulent and in other respects is not an Oberlin or a Tillotson, than at the deeds of heroes whom I shall never know except by hearsay, or at the sublimest abstract of all clerical graces that was ever conceived by an able novelist.
And so I come back to Mr. Irwine, with whom I desire you to be in perfect charity, far as he may be from satisfying your demands on the clerical character. Perhaps you think he was not—as he ought to have been—a living demonstration of the benefits attached to a national church? But I am not sure of that; at least I know that the people in Broxton and Hayslope would have been very sorry to part with their clergyman, and that most faces brightened at his approach; and until it can be proved that hatred is a better thing for the soul than love, I must believe that Mr. Irwine’s influence in his parish was a more wholesome one than that of the zealous Mr. Ryde, who came there twenty years afterwards, when Mr. Irwine had been gathered to his fathers. It is true, Mr. Ryde insisted strongly on the doctrines of the Reformation, visited his flock a great deal in their own homes, and was severe in rebuking the aberrations of the flesh—put a stop, indeed, to the Christmas rounds of the church singers, as promoting drunkenness and too light a handling of sacred things. But I gathered from Adam Bede, to whom I talked of these matters in his old age, that few clergymen could be less successful in winning the hearts of their parishioners than Mr. Ryde. They learned a great many notions about doctrine from him, so that almost every church-goer under fifty began to distinguish as well between the genuine gospel and what did not come precisely up to that standard, as if he had been born and bred a Dissenter; and for some time after his arrival there seemed to be quite a religious movement in that quiet rural district. “But,” said Adam, “I’ve seen pretty clear, ever since I was a young un, as religion’s something else besides notions. It isn’t notions sets people doing the right thing— it’s feelings. It’s the same with the notions in religion as it is with math’matics—a man may be able to work problems straight off in’s head as he sits by the fire and smokes his pipe, but if he has to make a machine or a building, he must have a will and a resolution and love something else better than his own ease. Somehow, the congregation began to fall off, and people began to speak light o’ Mr. Ryde. I believe he meant right at bottom; but, you see, he was sourish-tempered, and was for beating down prices with the people as worked for him; and his preaching wouldn’t go down well with that sauce. And he wanted to be like my lord judge i’ the parish, punishing folks for doing wrong; and he scolded ‘em from the pulpit as if he’d been a Ranter, and yet he couldn’t abide the Dissenters, and was a deal more set against ‘em than Mr. Irwine was. And then he didn’t keep within his income, for he seemed to think at first go-off that six hundred a-year was to make him as big a man as Mr. Donnithorne. That’s a sore mischief I’ve often seen with the poor curates jumping into a bit of a living all of a sudden. Mr. Ryde was a deal thought on at a distance, I believe, and he wrote books, but as for math’matics and the natur o’ things, he was as ignorant as a woman. He was very knowing about doctrines, and used to call ‘em the bulwarks of the Reformation; but I’ve always mistrusted that sort o’ learning as leaves folks foolish and unreasonable about business. Now Mester Irwine was as different as could be: as quick!—he understood what you meant in a minute, and he knew all about building, and could see when you’d made a good job. And he behaved as much like a gentleman to the farmers, and th’ old women, and the labourers, as he did to the gentry. You never saw HIM interfering and scolding, and trying to play th’ emperor. Ah, he was a fine man as ever you set eyes on; and so kind to’s mother and sisters. That poor sickly Miss Anne—he seemed to think more of her than of anybody else in the world. There wasn’t a soul in the parish had a word to say against him; and his servants stayed with him till they were so old and pottering, he had to hire other folks to do their work.”
“Well,” I said, “that was an excellent way of preaching in the weekdays; but I daresay, if your old friend Mr. Irwine were to come to life again, and get into the pulpit next Sunday, you would be rather ashamed that he didn’t preach better after all your praise of him.”
“Nay, nay,” said Adam, broadening his chest and throwing himself back in his chair, as if he were ready to meet all inferences, “nobody has ever heard me say Mr. Irwine was much of a preacher. He didn’t go into deep speritial experience; and I know there s a deal in a man’s inward life as you can’t measure by the square, and say, ‘Do this and that ‘ll follow,’ and, ‘Do that and this ‘ll follow.’  Those are things as you can’t bottle up in a ‘do this’ and ‘do that’; and I’ll go so far with the strongest Methodist ever you’ll find. That shows me there’s deep speritial things in religion. You can’t make much out wi’ talking about it, but you feel it. Mr. Irwine didn’t go into those things—he preached short moral sermons, and that was all. But then he acted pretty much up to what he said; he didn’t set up for being so different from other folks one day, and then be as like ‘em as two peas the next. And he made folks love him and respect him, and that was better nor stirring up their gall wi’ being overbusy. Mrs. Poyser used to say—you know she would have her word about everything—she said, Mr. Irwine was like a good meal o’ victual, you were the better for him without thinking on it, and Mr. Ryde was like a dose o’ physic, he gripped you and worreted you, and after all he left you much the same.”
“But didn’t Mr. Ryde preach a great deal more about that spiritual part of religion that you talk of, Adam? Couldn’t you get more out of his sermons than out of Mr. Irwine’s?”
“Eh, I knowna. He preached a deal about doctrines. But I’ve seen pretty clear, ever since I was a young un, as religion’s something else besides doctrines and notions. I look at it as if the doctrines was like finding names for your feelings, so as you can talk of ‘em when you’ve never known ‘em, just as a man may talk o’ tools when he knows their names, though he’s never so much as seen ‘em, still less handled ‘em. I’ve heard a deal o’ doctrine i’ my time, for I used to go after the Dissenting preachers along wi’ Seth, when I was a lad o’ seventeen, and got puzzling myself a deal about th’ Arminians and the Calvinists. The Wesleyans, you know, are strong Arminians; and Seth, who could never abide anything harsh and was always for hoping the best, held fast by the Wesleyans from the very first; but I thought I could pick a hole or two in their notions, and I got disputing wi’ one o’ the class leaders down at Treddles’on, and harassed him so, first o’ this side and then o’ that, till at last he said, ‘Young man, it’s the devil making use o’ your pride and conceit as a weapon to war against the simplicity o’ the truth.’ I couldn’t help laughing then, but as I was going home, I thought the man wasn’t far wrong. I began to see as all this weighing and sifting what this text means and that text means, and whether folks are saved all by God’s grace, or whether there goes an ounce o’ their own will to’t, was no part o’ real religion at all. You may talk o’ these things for hours on end, and you’ll only be all the more coxy and conceited for’t. So I took to going nowhere but to church, and hearing nobody but Mr. Irwine, for he said nothing but what was good and what you’d be the wiser for remembering. And I found it better for my soul to be humble before the mysteries o’ God’s dealings, and not be making a clatter about what I could never understand. And they’re poor foolish questions after all; for what have we got either inside or outside of us but what comes from God? If we’ve got a resolution to do right, He gave it us, I reckon, first or last; but I see plain enough we shall never do it without a resolution, and that’s enough for me.”
Adam, you perceive, was a warm admirer, perhaps a partial judge, of Mr. Irwine, as, happily, some of us still are of the people we have known familiarly. Doubtless it will be despised as a weakness by that lofty order of minds who pant after the ideal, and are oppressed by a general sense that their emotions are of too exquisite a character to find fit objects among their everyday fellowmen. I have often been favoured with the confidence of these select natures, and find them to concur in the experience that great men are overestimated and small men are insupportable; that if you would love a woman without ever looking back on your love as a folly, she must die while you are courting her; and if you would maintain the slightest belief in human heroism, you must never make a pilgrimage to see the hero. I confess I have often meanly shrunk from confessing to these accomplished and acute gentlemen what my own experience has been. I am afraid I have often smiled with hypocritical assent, and gratified them with an epigram on the fleeting nature of our illusions, which any one moderately acquainted with French literature can command at a moment’s notice. Human converse, I think some wise man has remarked, is not rigidly sincere. But I herewith discharge my conscience, and declare that I have had quite enthusiastic movements of admiration towards old gentlemen who spoke the worst English, who were occasionally fretful in their temper, and who had never moved in a higher sphere of influence than that of parish overseer; and that the way in which I have come to the conclusion that human nature is lovable—the way I have learnt something of its deep pathos, its sublime mysteries—has been by living a great deal among people more or less commonplace and vulgar, of whom you would perhaps hear nothing very surprising if you were to inquire about them in the neighbourhoods where they dwelt. Ten to one most of the small shopkeepers in their vicinity saw nothing at all in them. For I have observed this remarkable coincidence, that the select natures who pant after the ideal, and find nothing in pantaloons or petticoats great enough to command their reverence and love, are curiously in unison with the narrowest and pettiest. For example, I have often heard Mr. Gedge, the landlord of the Royal Oak, who used to turn a bloodshot eye on his neighbours in the village of Shepperton, sum up his opinion of the people in his own parish—and they were all the people he knew—in these emphatic words: “Aye, sir, I’ve said it often, and I’ll say it again, they’re a poor lot i’ this parish—a poor lot, sir, big and little.” I think he had a dim idea that if he could migrate to a distant parish, he might find neighbours worthy of him; and indeed he did subsequently transfer himself to the Saracen’s Head, which was doing a thriving business in the back street of a neighbouring market-town. But, oddly enough, he has found the people up that back street of precisely the same stamp as the inhabitants of Shepperton—“a poor lot, sir, big and little, and them as comes for a go o’ gin are no better than them as comes for a pint o’ twopenny—a poor lot.”


12.3.6: Procedure- Assisting with Changing a Clean (Non-Sterile) Dressing
Home Health Aides are able to provide assistance with or perform changing of clean dressings. They may not change sterile dressings. Sterile dressings are used over new, open, or draining wounds in which sterile technique must be maintained. This is to prevent introducing bacteria and other pathogens into the wound and causing infection. Clean (non-sterile) dressings are those applied to dry, closed wounds that have less risk of getting an infection. Personal Care Aides may not provide assistance with changing any dressings, whether they are clean or sterile.
- Explain the procedure to the patient.
- Wash your hands.
- Assemble all necessary equipment.
- Provide for privacy and adequate lighting.
- Raise the bed to waist height. Lower the side rail nearest you where you will be working.
- Place a garbage can near the area where you will be working.
- Remove any clothing necessary that is over the old dressing.
- Wash your hands and don gloves.
- Clean a table to use in which to place your dressings and supplies by using a disinfectant.
- Remove wrappings from new dressing. Take care not to contaminate gloves by touching any surfaces. Lay new, clean dressings on a clean surface.
- Cut tape with clean scissors. Hang tape within reach on the edge of a clean table.
- Remove and discard old dressing. Peel off tape by pulling toward the center of the dressing.
- Carefully lift dressing off the wound. To prevent skin tearing or injury to the patient, hold the skin underneath the tape taut while pulling the tape off.
- Prevent the soiled dressing from touching the wound or other body parts of the patient or nearby surfaces or objects.
- Observe the wound for odor, drainage, color, and healing/not healing characteristics. Report these to a supervisor. Document findings.
- Remove and discard gloves. Wash your hands.
- Put on new gloves.
- Cleanse skin around wound, according to directions in the Care Plan and as directed by a supervisor.
- Apply a new dressing to the wound.
- Tape the new dressing in place. Ensure the new dressing is firmly secured.
- Discard all waste items.
- Remove and dispose of gloves. Wash your hands.
- Store unused supplies and clean working area.
- Document the procedure and any observations or changes in condition. Record and report any changes or observations of the wound.


9.4: The Air Passages
When air is breathed in it passes from the nose to the alveoli of the lungs down a series of tubes (see diagram 9.3). After entering the nose the air passes through the nasal cavity , which is lined with a moist membrane that adds warmth and moisture to the air as it passes. The air then flows through the pharynx or throat, a passage that carries both food and air, to the larynx where the voice-box is located. Here the passages for food and air separate again. Food must pass into the oesophagus and the air into the windpipe or trachea . To prevent food entering this, a small flap of tissue called the epiglottis closes the opening during swallowing (see chapter 11). A reflex that inhibits breathing during swallowing also (usually) prevents choking on food.
The trachea is the tube that ducts the air down the throat. Incomplete rings of cartilage in its walls help keep it open even when the neck is bent and head turned. The fact that acrobats and people that tie themselves in knots doing yoga still keep breathing during the most contorted manoeuvres shows how effective this arrangement is. The air passage now divides into the two bronchi that take the air to the right and left lungs before dividing into smaller and smaller bronchioles that spread throughout the lungs to carry air to the alveoli. Smooth muscles in the walls of the bronchi and bronchioles adjust the diameter of the air passages.
The tissue lining the respiratory passages produces mucus and is covered with miniature hairs or cilia. Any dust that is breathed into the respiratory system immediately gets entangled in the mucous and the cilia move it towards the mouth or nose where it can be coughed up or blown out.


4.14: Phenotypes May Not Be As Expected from the Genotype
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- Ying Liu
- City College of San Francisco
Environmental Factors
The phenotypes described thus far have a nearly perfect correlation with their associated genotypes; in other words an individual with a particular genotype always has the expected phenotype. However, many phenotypes are not determined entirely by genotype alone. They are instead determined by an interaction between genotype and non-genetic, environmental factors and can be conceptualized in the following relationship:
\[\mathrm{Genotype + Environment ⇒ Phenotype \hspace{30px} (G + E ⇒ P)}\]
Or:
\[\mathrm{Genotype + Environment + \overset{Genetics\: and\: Environment}{Interaction_{GE}} ⇒ Phenotype \hspace{30px} (G + E + I_{GE} ⇒ P)}\]
This interaction is especially relevant in the study of economically important phenotypes, such as human diseases or agricultural productivity. For example, a particular genotype may pre-dispose an individual to cancer, but cancer may only develop if the individual is exposed to certain DNA-damaging chemicals. Therefore, not all individuals with the particular genotype will develop the cancer phenotype.
Penetrance and Expressivity
The terms penetrance and expressivity are also useful to describe the relationship between certain genotypes and their phenotypes.
- Penetrance is the proportion of individuals (usually expressed as a percentage) with a particular genotype that display a corresponding phenotype (Figure \(\PageIndex{16}\)). Because all pea plants that are homozygous for the allele for white flowers (e.g. aa in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)) actually have white flowers, this genotype is completely penetrant. In contrast, many human genetic diseases are incompletely penetrant, since not all individuals with the disease genotype actually develop symptoms associated with the disease.
- Expressivity describes the variability in mutant phenotypes observed in individuals with a particular phenotype (Figure \(\PageIndex{16}\)). Many human genetic diseases provide examples of broad expressivity, since individuals with the same genotypes may vary greatly in the severity of their symptoms. Incomplete penetrance and broad expressivity are due to random chance, non-genetic (environmental), and genetic factors (mutations in other genes).


6.7: Describing a Reaction - Equilibria, Rates, and Energy Changes
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Objectives
After completing this section, you should be able to
- write the equilibrium constant expression for a given reaction.
- assess, qualitatively, how far a reaction will proceed in a given direction, given the value of K eq .
- explain the difference between rate and equilibrium.
- state the relationship between ΔG° and K eq , and use this relationship to determine the value of either of the two variables, given the other.
- state the relationship between Gibbs free-energy, enthalpy and entropy, and use the relationship to calculate any one of ΔG° , ΔH° and ΔS° , given the other two.
- make a qualitative assessment of whether ΔS° for a given process is expected to be positive or negative.
Key Terms
Make certain that you can define, and use in context, the key terms below.
- exergonic
- endergonic
- exothermic
- endothermic
- enthalpy change (heat of reaction), ΔH°
- entropy change, ΔS°
- reaction mechanism
- standard Gibbs free-energy change, ΔG°
Study Notes
Throughout this course you will be paying a great deal of attention to the mechanisms of the reactions that you study. Some students see this as a laborious task of little practical use. However, you will find that a knowledge of reaction mechanisms can help reduce the number of reactions to memorize, provide a connecting link between apparently unrelated reactions, and enable someone with a basic knowledge of organic chemistry to deduce how a previously unseen reaction might proceed. The investigation of reaction mechanisms is a popular research area for organic chemists.
Equilibrium Constant
For the hypothetical chemical reaction:
\[aA + bB \rightleftharpoons cC + dD \nonumber \]
the equilibrium constant is defined as:
\[K_C = \dfrac{[C]^c[D]^d}{[A]^a[B]^b} \nonumber \]
The notation [A] signifies the molar concentration of species A. An alternative expression for the equilibrium constant involves partial pressures:
\[K_P = \dfrac{P_C^c P_D^d}{P_A^aP_B^b} \nonumber \]
Note that the expression for the equilibrium constant includes only solutes and gases; pure solids and liquids do not appear in the expression. For example, the equilibrium expression for the reaction
\[\ce{CaH_2 (s) + 2H_2O (g) \rightleftharpoons Ca(OH)_2 (s) + 2H_2 (g)} \nonumber \]
is the following:
\[K_C = \dfrac{[H_2]^2}{[H_2O]^2} \nonumber \]
Observe that the gas-phase species \(\ce{H2O}\) and \(\ce{H2}\) appear in the expression but the solids \(\ce{CaH2}\) and \(\ce{Ca(OH)2}\) do not appear.
The equilibrium constant is most readily determined by allowing a reaction to reach equilibrium, measuring the concentrations of the various solution-phase or gas-phase reactants and products, and substituting these values into the Law of Mass Action.
Free Energy
The interaction between enthalpy and entropy changes in chemical reactions is best observed by studying their influence on the equilibrium constants of reversible reactions. To this end a new thermodynamic function called Free Energy (or Gibbs Free Energy), symbol \(ΔG\), is defined as shown in the first equation below. Two things should be apparent from this equation. First, in cases where the entropy change is small, \(ΔG ≅ ΔH\). Second, the importance of \(ΔS\) in determining \(ΔG\) increases with increasing temperature.
\[ΔGº = ΔHº – TΔSº \nonumber \]
where the temperature is measured in absolute temperature (K).
The free energy function provides improved insight into the thermodynamic driving forces that influence reactions. A negative \(ΔGº\) is characteristic of an exergonic reaction , one which is thermodynamically favorable and often spontaneous, as is the melting of ice at 1 ºC. Likewise a positive \(ΔGº\) is characteristic of an endergonic reaction , one which requires an input of energy from the surroundings.
For an example of the relationship of free energy to enthalpy consider the decomposition of cyclobutane to ethene, shown in the following equation. The standard state for all the compounds is gaseous.
This reaction is endothermic, but the increase in number of molecules from one (reactants) to two (products) results in a large positive ΔSº.
At 25 ºC (298 K):
ΔGº = 19 kcal/mol – 298(43.6) cal/mole = 19 – 13 kcal/mole = +6 kcal/mole.
Thus, the entropy change opposes the enthalpy change, but is not sufficient to change the sign of the resulting free energy change, which is endergonic. Indeed, cyclobutane is perfectly stable when kept at room temperature.
Because the entropy contribution increases with temperature, this energetically unfavorable transformation can be made favorable by raising the temperature. At 200 ºC (473 K),
\[\begin{align} ΔGº &= 19\, kcal/mol – 473(43.6)\, cal/mole \\[4pt] &= 19 – 20.6\, kcal/mole \\[4pt] &= –1.6 kcal/mole.\end{align} \nonumber \]
This is now an exergonic reaction , and the thermal cracking of cyclobutane to ethene is known to occur at higher temperatures.
\[ΔGº = –RT \ln K = –2.303 RT \log_{10} K \label{eq2} \]
where R = 1.987 cal/ K mole T = temperature in K and K = equilibrium constant
Note
Equation \ref{eq2} is important because it demonstrates the fundamental relationship of \(ΔGº\) to the equilibrium constant, \(K\). Because of the negative logarithmic relationship between these variables, a negative ΔGº generates a K>1, whereas a positive ΔGº generates a K<1. When ΔGº = 0, K = 1. Furthermore, small changes in ΔGº produce large changes in K. A change of 1.4 kcal/mole in ΔGº changes K by approximately a factor of 10. This interrelationship may be explored with the calculator on the right. Entering free energies outside the range -8 to 8 kcal/mole or equilibrium constants outside the range 10 -6 to 900,000 will trigger an alert, indicating the large imbalance such numbers imply.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)
At 155°C, the equilibrium constant, K eq , for the reaction
\[\ce{\sf{CH3CO2H + CH3CH2OH <=> CH3CO2CH2CH3 + H2O}} \nonumber \]
has a value of 4.0. Calculate ΔG° for this reaction at 155°C.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\)
Acetylene (C 2 H 2 ) can be converted into benzene (C 6 H 6 ) according to the equation:
\[\ce{\sf{3H-C#C-H (g) <=> C6H6 (l)}} \nonumber \]
At 25°C, ΔG° for this reaction is −503 kJ and ΔH° is −631 kJ. Determine ΔS° and indicate whether the size of ΔS° agrees with what you would have predicted simply by looking at the chemical equation.
- Answer
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The entropy change is negative, as one would expect from looking at the chemical equation, since three moles of reactants yield one mole of product; that is, the system becomes much more “ordered” as it goes from reactants to products.


4.1: Learning Objectives
Case 3 describes a patient’s experience with unstable angina and potential myocardial infarction (MI). The interprofessional collaboration is between physician, medical laboratory and medical radiology health professionals.
Learners reviewing this case can consider the pathophysiology of heart disease and how ethnicity, employment, and family may play a role in this common disease process. Interprofessional collaboration is ideal in this case and presents opportunities for discussion on what makes the interactions presented ideal.
Learning Objectives
In this case, learners have an opportunity to:
- Review etiological factors (i.e., risk factors, prevalence, comorbidities) associated with acute coronary syndrome
- Build knowledge related to the patient’s experience of chest pain (including the experience of chest pain and sudden critical illness)
- Continue to develop comprehensive assessment and monitoring skills and abilities (i.e., chest pain assessment, risk analysis, ECG changes, laboratory data)
- Consider the links between evidence-based knowledge and practice in the care of patients with chest pain (e.g., chest pain guidelines)
- Recommend interventions based on the risk factors, status, and progression of cardiac disease
- Define the roles of healthcare professionals and the contributions they make to the healthcare team (or describe your own role and the roles of those in other professions)


10.2: Rounding Integers
Rounding as an Approximation
A primary use of whole numbers is to keep count of how many objects there are in a collection. Sometimes we're only interested in the approximate number of objects in the collection rather than the precise number. For example, there are approximately 20 symbols in the collection below.
The precise number of symbols in the above collection is 18.
We often approximate the number of objects in a collection by mentally seeing the collection as occurring in groups of tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. This process of approximation is one method of rounding . Rounding is very useful in estimation. When we think of a collection as occurring in groups of tens, we say we're rounding to the nearest ten . When we think of a collection as occurring in groups of hundreds, we say we're rounding to the nearest hundred . This idea of rounding continues through thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, etc.
One Rounding Rule
Most people reading this text will be used to one rounding rule. We will think of this as the standard rounding rule. The process of rounding whole numbers using this rule is illustrated in the following examples.
Round 67 to the nearest ten.
Solution
On the number line, 67 is more than halfway from 60 to 70. The digit immediately to the right of the tens digit, the round-off digit, is the indicator for this.
Thus, 67, rounded to the nearest ten, is 70.
Note that we can also refer to the place value when rounding. The previous example involved rounding 67 to the tens place .
Round 4,329 to the nearest hundred.
Solution
On the number line, 4,329 is less than halfway from 4,300 to 4,400. The digit to the immediate right of the hundreds digit, the round-off digit, is the indicator.
Thus, 4,329, rounded to the nearest hundred is 4,300.
Unfortunately, the word "nearest" can make rounding confusing.
Round 16,500 to the nearest thousand.
Solution
On the number line, 16,500 is exactly halfway from 16,000 to 17,000.
By convention, when the number to be rounded is exactly halfway between two numbers, it is rounded to the higher number.
Thus, 16,500, rounded to the nearest thousand, is 17,000.
Note the phrase "by convention" in the previous example. What that means is that the community we are discussing has made a decision (consciously or not) to do things one way. For example, by convention, we say that the letter "U" comes before the letter "V" in the English alphabet. But it does not have to be that way. It would be just as reasonable if "V" came before "U".
Most of the time, when we say "round to the nearest ____" we leave out the caveat "unless the number is exactly halfway between two values, in which case choose the larger one". This fact is merely something people decided. In fact, sometimes, we want to choose the lower value. In such cases, we must specifiy that's what we want since that's not the convention. One way a person might state this is by saying, "round down" instead of "round".
A person whose salary is $41,450 per year might tell a friend that she makes $41,000 per year. She has rounded 41,450 to the nearest thousand. The number 41,450 is closer to 41,000 than it is to 42,000.
The Method of Rounding Whole Numbers using the Standard Rule
From the observations made in the preceding examples, we can use the following method to round a whole number to a particular position.
- Mark the position of the round-off digit.
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Note the digit to the immediate right of the round-off digit.
- If it is less than 5, replace it and all the digits to its right with zeros. Leave the round-off digit unchanged.
- If it is 5 or larger, replace it and all the digits to its right with zeros. Increase the round-off digit by 1.
In the following example, you will see some cases that can confuse many people.
Use the method described above to do the following.
- Round 3,426 to the nearest ten.
- Round 9,614,018,007 to the nearest ten million.
- Round 148,422 to the nearest million.
- Round 397,000 to the nearest ten thousand.
Solution
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We are rounding to the tens position. Mark the digit in the tens position.
Observe the digit immediately to the right of the tens position. It is 6. Since 6 is greater than 5, we round up by replacing 6 with 0 and adding 1 to the digit in the tens position (the round-off position): 2+1=32+1=3.
Thus, 3,426 rounded to the nearest ten is 3,430. -
We are rounding to the nearest ten million.
Observe the digit immediately to the right of the ten millions position. It is 4. Since 4 is less than 5, we round down by replacing 4 and all the digits to its right with zeros.
Thus, 9,614,018,007 rounded to the nearest ten million is 9,610,000,000. -
Since we are rounding to the nearest million, we'll have to
imagine
a digit in the millions position. We'll write 148,422 as 0,148,422.
The digit immediately to the right is 1. Since 1 is less than 5, we'll round down by replacing it and all the digits to its right with zeros.
0,000,000
Thus, 148,422 rounded to the nearest million is 0. -
We are rounding to the nearest ten thousand.
The digit immediately to the right of the ten thousand position is 7. Since 7 is greater than 5, we round up by replacing 7 and all the digits to its right with zeros and adding 1 to the digit in the ten thousands position. But 9+1=109+1=10 and we must carry the 1 to the next (the hundred thousands) position.
Thus, 397,000 rounded to the nearest ten thousand is 400,000.
Now try to do some on your own.
Use the method described above to do the following.
- Round 3387 to the nearest hundred.
- Round 26,515 to the nearest thousand.
- Round 30,852,900 to the nearest million.
- Round 39 to the nearest hundred.
- Round 59,600 to the nearest thousand.


19: Transition Metals and Coordination Chemistry
Transition metals are defined as those elements that have (or readily form) partially filled d orbitals. These include the d -block ( groups 3–11) and f-block element elements . The variety of properties exhibited by transition metals is due to their complex valence shells. Unlike most main group metals where one oxidation state is normally observed, the valence shell structure of transition metals means that they usually occur in several different stable oxidation states. In addition, electron transitions in these elements can correspond with absorption of photons in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, leading to colored compounds. Because of these behaviors, transition metals exhibit a rich and fascinating chemistry.
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- 19.1: Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of Transition Metals and Their Compounds
- The transition metals are elements with partially filled d orbitals, located in the d-block of the periodic table. The reactivity of the transition elements varies widely from very active metals such as scandium and iron to almost inert elements, such as the platinum metals. The type of chemistry used in the isolation of the elements from their ores depends upon the concentration of the element in its ore and the difficulty of reducing ions of the elements to the metals.
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- 19.2: Coordination Chemistry of Transition Metals
- The transition elements and main group elements can form coordination compounds, or complexes, in which a central metal atom or ion is bonded to one or more ligands by coordinate covalent bonds. Ligands with more than one donor atom are called polydentate ligands and form chelates. The common geometries found in complexes are tetrahedral and square planar (both with a coordination number of four) and octahedral (with a coordination number of six).
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- 19.3: Spectroscopic and Magnetic Properties of Coordination Compounds
- Crystal field theory, which assumes that metal–ligand interactions are only electrostatic in nature, explains many important properties of transition-metal complexes, including their colors, magnetism, structures, stability, and reactivity.


12.3: Creating a Database
Learning Objectives
- Create a blank database
You can open Access from the Start menu (or the Applications folder on a Mac) by clicking on the Access icon. The Access icon comes in a variety of forms depending on your OS and version of Access, but it always features the color red or maroon and the letter A.
New Database
There are two easy ways to create a blank database in Access. One way is to click the Blank Database option in the welcome screen (Figure 1).
The second way to create a new database is to use the File New option from the menu bar (Figure 2).
- On the File tab, click New , and then click Blank Database .
- Type a file name in the File Name box. To change the location of the file from the default, click Browse for a location to put your database (next to the File Name box), browse to the new location, and then click OK .
- Click Create .
Access creates the database with an empty table named Table1, and then opens Table1 in Datasheet view. The cursor is placed in the first empty cell in the Click to Add column.
- Begin typing to add data, or you can paste data from another source, as described in the section.
Entering data in Datasheet view is designed to be very similar to working in an Excel worksheet. The table structure is created while you enter data. When you add a new column to the datasheet, a new field is defined in the table. Access automatically sets each field’s data type, based on the data that you enter.
PRactice Question
Contributors and Attributions
- Creating a Database. Authored by : Robert Danielson. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution


18.S: Ethers and Epoxides; Thiols and Sulfides (Summary)
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Concepts & Vocabulary
- Ethers are molecules containing oxygen which is bonded to two carbon groups.
- Thiols are sulfur analogues of alcohols with an SH group instead of OH.
- Sulfides are sulfur analogues of ethers with sulfur bonded to two carbon groups instead of oxygen.
18.1 Names and Properties of Ethers
- Ether groups are named as alkoxy groups.
- Ethers do not have intramolecular hydrogen bonding (unlike alcohols), therefore ethers have significantly reduced intermolecular forces causing boiling points that are much lower than similar sized alcohols.
- Alkoxymercuration can be used to prepare an ether from an alkene.
18.3 Reactions of Ethers: Acidic Cleavage
- The carbon-oxygen bonds of ethers can be cleaved with strong acids through either nucleophilic substitution or elimination reactions.
18.4 Reactions of Ethers: Claisen Rearrangement
- The Claisen rearrangement is a [3, 3] sigmatropic rearrangement reaction that converts aryl or enol ethers into carbonyl compounds (though the aromatic version rearranges into a phenol to re-establish aromaticity.
- Epoxides, also called oxiranes, have a three-membered ring structure with one oxygen and two carbon atoms.
- Epoxides can be formed from alkenes by reaction with peroxy acids (MCPBA for example).
- Epoxides can be formed from halohydrin molecules by reaction with a base, which causes an intramolecular Williamson ether synthesis.
18.6 Reactions of Epoxides: Ring Opening
- When epoxides are ring opened under basic conditions, they follow S N 2 mechanism leading to the nucleophile adding to the less substituted side of the epoxide.
- When epoxides are ring opened under acidic conditions, they follow S N 1 mechanism leading to the nucleophile adding to the more substituted side of the epoxide.
- When epoxides are ring opened in aqueous reactions, the result is an anti-diol.
- Halo acids can be added to epoxides to form anti-halohydrins.
- Crown ethers are cyclic ethers containing several oxygen atoms.
- Crown ethers are named by the number of total atoms in the ring, followed by the word crown and finally the number of oxygen atoms (18-crown-6 for example).
- Thiols can be prepared from alkyl halides through reaction with hydrosulfide ion (SH - ) or through a more complicated series of reactions including thiourea.
- Thiols can be oxidized with mild oxidizing agents to form disulfides.
- Disulfide bridges link cysteine residues in protein structures.
- Sulfides are sulfur analogues of ether, though are much better nucleophiles with sulfur in place of oxygen.
- Ethers show standard C-H stretches and bends in IR along with a strong C-O stretch around 1000 cm -1 .
- In 1 H NMR, hydrogens on carbons adjacent to the oxygen typically appear between 3.4-4.5 ppm.
- Hydrogens on carbons of an epoxide ring typically appear between 2.5-3.5 ppm in 1 H NMR.
18.10 Interchapter: A Preview of Carbonyl Chemistry
- Carbonyl groups are one of the most important features in organic chemistry and consist of a sp 2 carbon double-bonded to oxygen.
- Carbonyl groups are present in ~10 different functional groups.
- Carbonyl groups are polarized with a partial positive charge on carbon and partial negative charge on oxygen. This makes the carbon atom an electrophile, while the oxygen can act as a nucleophile.
- Carbonyl groups can react through several mechanisms including nucleophilic addition and nucleophilic acyl substitution, alpha substitution and condensation.
Skills to Master
- Skill 18.1 Name ethers using common naming and IUPAC.
- Skill 18.2 Write reaction equations for preparation of ethers.
- Skill 18.3 Write mechanisms for reactions of ethers with strong halogen acids.
- Skill 18.4 Draw mechanisms for Cope and Claisen rearrangements.
- Skill 18.5 Draw mechanisms for ring-opening epoxides under acidic and basic conditions.
- Skill 18.6 Draw and name crown ethers.
- Skill 18.7 Explain how disulfide bridges contribute to protein structure.
- Skill 18.8 Give an example of S-adenosyl methionine activity in biological systems.
- Skill 18.9 Use IR and NMR spectra to identify ethers.