An example of mechanistic evolutionAs one looks back at the evolution of many of our chemical theories, it is often obvious that they develop when the discipline is ripe for their acceptance, not necessarily when the supporting data are available.Like the hemlines of women's clothing, what is the vogue becomes acceptable. One modem example was the dearth of publications on radical chemistry during the early part of this century, even through the period during which Gomberg investigated the triphenylmethyl radical (1). The development of the structural theory of chemistry during the second half of the nineteenth century and the postulate of Kekule that carbon must always function as tetravalent discouraged considerations of the species very seriously (2) . Not until Paneth announced his results in 1929(3) was there sufficient experimental basis for proposing radical mechanisms in organic chemistry.