Editing Ouroboros (section)

=== Kekulé's dream ===
[[File:Ouroboros-benzene.svg|thumb|upright=1|The ouroboros, [[August Kekulé|Kekulé]]'s inspiration for the structure of benzene]]
[[File:Historic Benzene Formulae Kekulé (original).png|thumb|right|Kekulé's proposal for the structure of benzene (1872)]]

The German organic chemist [[August Kekulé]] described the [[eureka moment]] when he realised the structure of [[benzene]], after he saw a vision of Ouroboros:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Read |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6J-AUOWzpMC |title=From Alchemy to Chemistry |year=1957 |isbn=978-0-486-28690-7 |pages=179–180|publisher=Courier Corporation }}</ref>

<blockquote>I was sitting, writing at my text-book; but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation: long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together; all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.</blockquote>