GOETHE AND TEE CHEMISTS 333 



delighted with this and later flights which he witnessed in Cassel, seems 

 to have finally reached the point of performing the feat himself. He 

 worked also with Buchholz at the analysis of water and its purification 

 by the use of powdered charcoal; and the pharmacist remained until 

 his death, which occurred in 1798, an active and honored member of 

 Goethe's celebrated " Freitaggesellschaft." 



A brother of Goethe's friend Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel had 

 studied mining and metallurgy, secured the title of Bergrat (counsellor 

 of mines) and established a laboratory in Weimar. Goethe appears to 

 have visited him frequently, but we learn of nothing in the way of 

 genuine additions to the world's knowledge that developed from his 

 labors. Current references to him indicate that he occupied himself 

 largely with marvelous chemical exhibitions for lady visitors; and Wil- 

 helm Bode describes him as a man of natural gifts, who, " although he 

 knew more about chemistry, geology, even of the history of countries 

 and races, than all the masters, doctors, scribes and priests," neverthe- 

 less accomplished nothing of serious importance. In 1785 he was sent 

 to North Africa by the French government to study mining conditions 

 there, and Goethe mentions the enterprise several times in his letters; 

 not, however, so much for its scientific importance as because of the 

 fact that he took with him one of the most prominent lady members of 

 Weimar Court society, after she had succeeded in spreading the report 

 of her death and had had a dummy buried in her place. On his return, 

 he gave up his scientific investigations, and Goethe purchased his appa- 

 ratus for his fosterling, the University of Jena; so that in spite of his 

 lack of energy, August von Einseidel played a very essential part in the 

 scientific activity of the Duchy of Weimar, after all. 



One of the assistants of the talented apothecary Buchholz was a 

 young Saxon, Friedrich August Gottling, who was destined to surpass 

 his master. The son of a poor minister, beginning life as an apothe- 

 cary's assistant, he published in 1778 an " Introduction to Pharma- 

 ceutical Chemistry," and so interested Goethe that the latter made it 

 possible for him to study at Gottingen from 1784 till 1787, and to travel 

 and observe industrial conditions in Holland and England. Shortly 

 after his return his powerful patron secured his appointment to a pro- 

 fessorship at Jena, where he was very profitably active for many years. 

 Gottling will be remembered longest for his part in the phlogiston dis- 

 cussion. It was about 1700 that Stahl promulgated his theory that com- 

 bustion involved a loss of substance. Although Lavoisier (1743-1794) 

 proved conclusively that burning is oxidation, i. e., an addition instead 

 of a subtraction, German chemists of Gottling's time, partly perhaps 

 for patriotic reasons, still clung to the exploded theory, and Gottling, 

 who published between 1794 and 1798 a "Contribution toward the 

 Justification of Antiphlogistic Chemistry," stood almost alone among 



