[f. STEREO- + CHEMISTRY.] That department of chemistry which deals with theoretical differences in the relative position in space of atoms in a molecule, in relation to differences in the optical and chemical properties of the substances.
1890. V. Meyer, in Smithsonian Rep., 366. Le Bel and van ’t Hoff … considering those substances which turn the plane of polarization of light, arrived at … a conception of the aggregation of the atoms within the molecules in space. Thus a field of study was created which van ’t Hoff called ‘la chimie dans l’espace’ and which we now call Stereochemistry.
1899. Dublin Rev., Oct., 340. This is called Geometrical Isomerism or Stereochemistry.
So Stereo-chemical a., pertaining to stereochemistry.
1890. V. Meyer, in Smithsonian Rep., 366. Numerous cases of isomerism … were regarded as stereo-chemical ones.
1907. A. W. Stewart, Stereochem., 314. Stereochemical problems into which isomerism does not enter.
