54 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they ask him for the recital. Finally, in September, 1824, Wuhler 

 took leave of Berzelius, and returned to the Continent. He stopped 

 at Guttingen on his way to Frankfort, where he made the acquaintance 

 of Hausmann, who subsequently became his much-valued friend and 

 colleague. During a visit, which he immediately afterward made to 

 Gmelin and Tiedemann, and in accordance with their advice, he de- 

 cided to apply for the position of docent at the University of Heidel- 

 berg. "While preparing to habilitate himself at the university, he 

 enjoyed the intimate friendship of Dr. Buch and of the celebrated 

 astronomer Summering, who was then much occupied with observa- 

 tions on the sun's spots, and with experiments on the concentration of 

 alcohol through membranes. Wuhler undertook at this time the trans- 

 lation of Berzelius's " Jahresbericht," which Christian Gmelin, of 

 Tubingen, Berzelius's first German pupil, transferred to him, as he 

 himself could no longer continue it. Wuhler was the more willing to 

 undertake this translation, as the sale of the book promised to defray 

 by degrees the expense of his Swedish journey. It was while thus 

 engaged at the University of Heidelberg, in 1824, that Wuhler first 

 made the acquaintance of his life -long friend Justus von Liebig. The 

 meeting of these two men took place at Frankfort. By a singular 

 coincidence they had been working in the same direction on cyanogen 

 compounds, and there was a slight scientific misunderstanding between 

 them ; but all this was at once dissipated when they met for personal 

 explanation, and the two young men formed a friendship which con- 

 tinued unbroken to the time of Liebig's death. Finding that their 

 ideas ran in parallel directions, instead of opposing each other, they 

 decided to work together, and for many years they kept up frequent 

 correspondence, met regularly for consultation, and spent their vaca- 

 tions together among the mountains. Liebig's hospitable home in 

 Giessen and Munich became the headquarters for Wuhler, Buff, Kopp, 

 and others, and here were subsequently planned many of the scientific 

 researches which have so greatly enriched our chemical literature. 

 When Liebig and Wuhler first met, the former was not twenty-one 

 years of age, and the latter was only twenty-four ; and yet both had 

 become renowned already for their important discoveries. It is no 

 disparagement to Liebig to say that the acquaintance with Wuhler 

 was of inestimable value to him. The young man needed the quiet, 

 thorough, and solid character of Wuhler to check his own too vivid 

 imagination, and prevent him from jumping too hastily to conclusions. 

 Liebig was quick and impulsive, Wuhler was slow and sure, and the 

 two characters worked admirably together, the one supplementing the 

 other. In after-years they were so much together that it would be 

 difficult to say how far any investigation was absolutely original with 

 either of them. They compared notes on all occasions, and it was 

 especially Liebig who hesitated to publish until he had subjected his 

 paper to the cool criticism of his friend. No envy and no jealousy 



