For Louis Pasteur, the two distinctive properties of dissymmetric systems, optical activity and chiral discrimination, provided prime evidence for a Divine origin to the universe. Handedness appeared to be built into the macrocosm of the galaxies, each with a non-superposable mirror image by virtue of its rotation, as well as the microcosm of each molecule of most natural products. The best that the chemist in the laboratory could accomplish appeared to be the synthesis of the detordu internally-compensated meso-form and, as Pasteur ultimately came to admit, the externally-compensated...

This book, first published in 1982, presents a comprehensive introduction to studies of the singular chemical and physical properties of chiral molecules, both organic and inorganic. The topics discussed include the physical basis of the optical activity and the selective interactions of chiral molecules, and the general principles underlying enantiomer separation and asymmetric synthesis. In addition, the successive stages in the development of structural theory that were dependent upon the study of optically active materials are briefly surveyed.