5 so TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



was established and somewhat later Davy's use of the electric current 

 in the studv of the alkaline earths. 



In a word, activit.y in chemistry was evident everywhere, and theory 

 and methods were being rapidly developed, but nowhere was chemistry 

 a part of university study. Berzelius, Gay-Lussac and others had or- 

 ganized laboratories for the training of chemists, but it remained for 

 the University of Giessen to establish the first chemical laboratory 

 under the control of a university. Here, Liebig in 1836, when only 21 

 years of age, opened his laboratory and began his labors in organic 

 chemistry. 



The event is of importance, not only for chemistry, bnt for medical 

 research in general, for the admission of chemistry to the university 

 was the first step towards the overthrow of the " natur-philosopher " 

 and hence to the development of that modern science which has made 

 German universities so justly famous. It is also important from 

 another point of view; in France science had been the work of the 

 academicians, in England of workers in private laboratories or in those 

 supported by commercial companies; by the new departure at Giessen, 

 the precedent for university laboratories was established, and the world 

 has since followed Germany's lead. 



This laboratory of Liebig at Giessen was a success immediately and 

 became the training school for most of the eminent chemists outside of 

 Paris. The training offered at Giessen was systematic and methodical 

 in qualitative, quantitative and organic analysis. In his autobiography, 

 Liebig speaks of the difficulty " as the numbers increased, of the prac- 

 tical teaching itself " but " a progressive way of working " was thought 

 out and tried, I can not refrain from quoting his own words concern- 

 ing the development of the work in organic chemistry. 



The first years of my residence at G-iessen were almost exclusively devoted 

 to the improvement of organic analysis, and with the first snceesses there began 

 at the small university an activity such as the world had not yet seen. . . . Every 

 one was obliged to find his own way for himself. . . . We worked from dawn to 

 the fall of night, there were no recreations and pleasures at Giessen. The only 

 complaints were those of the attendant, who in the evenings, when he had to 

 clean, could not get the workers to leave the laboratory. 



In another place he says : 



I have found among all who frequent this laboratory (Giessen) for technical 

 purposes a prominent inclination to occupy themselves with applied chemistry. 

 They usually follow hesitatingly and with some suspicion my advice to leave 

 alone all this time-absorbing drudgery, and simply to become acquainted with 

 the necessary ways and means of solving purely scientific questions. 



Such were the habits, the methods of work and the ideals of the man 

 who in four years established that simple and accurate method of or- 

 ganic analysis known by his name. From his labors and those of 

 Wohler, who in 1828 announced the first synthesis of an organic sub- 



