GOETHE AND THE CHEMISTS 335 



experimented with divining rods for the location of minerals and water 

 below the surface, and developed a theory of siderism that for a time 

 enjoyed considerable notoriety. His writings continued to exert an in- 

 fluence over Goethe, and their effect is traceable in the latter's novel 

 " Die Wahlverwandschaf ten." 



But the most notable of all Goethe's chemical helpers was the young 

 Bavarian, Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner. The son of poor parents, this 

 young man secured education enough to become a pharmacist's assist- 

 ant, and even caine so far at one time as to own a small establishment of 

 his own. But the fates seemed working against him. Although he had 

 published a number of monographs which had made him nationally 

 known, it seemed for a time as if he would be unable to gain even the 

 most meager living for himself and his family. In 1810 he was penni- 

 less and unable to secure the humblest position as an apothecary's assist- 

 ant, when Duke Karl August and Goethe, whose attention had been at- 

 tracted to him by his publications and who were confident that he would 

 be competent and useful in spite of his irregular education, called him 

 to Jena to replace the deceased Gottling. 



This was the beginning of a long and useful period of forty years 

 at Jena, ending only with his death, although in the course of his ac- 

 tivity there he received at least five more favorable offers from other 

 institutions. His was a faithful, affectionate nature, and he felt such 

 gratitude to his Weimar patrons for having come to his assistance at 

 the time of his greatest need that he refused to leave on any terms. He 

 showed his idealistic turn of mind very strikingly at other points. Al- 

 though he is responsible for several inventions which have great indus- 

 trial value, he always refused — and in this matter Goethe was heartily 

 at one with him — to impose any restrictions on their use, but threw 

 them open to the world and allowed others to reap the profits. He was 

 always ready to give free advice to industrials, and made large fortunes 

 for others, while he himself was struggling along on the utterly inade- 

 quate salary which was all his little university was able to spare him. 



Dobereiner did useful work in stoichiometry and atomic measure- 

 ments ; as Gay-Lussac had established the laws of proportion in inor- 

 ganic chemical compounds of gases, so the young German was able to de- 

 velop the proportions for organic compounds. His discussions " On 

 Pneumatic Chemistry " were valuable additions to the chemistry of gases 

 in general. His measurements of the amount of carbonic acid gas which 

 escapes in the alcoholic fermentation of sugar and the publications which 

 he based on the data thus obtained, extended knowledge of a process 

 which Lavoisier had already established in a general and partially only 

 theoretical fashion. In 1829 appeared his "Attempt at a Grouping of 

 the Elements according to their Analogy." Here occurred for the first 

 time the celebrated arrangement into triads — chlorine, bromine, iodine, 



