232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The function of liberty in politics deeply interests us. Its power 

 to promote healthful change is obvious. It is really liberty, with its 

 discussion, its free thinking, and free speaking, that makes good poli- 

 tics. Crcsarisni is a thief, robbing free times of their ideas and social 

 results. It can live just as long as the loot holds out ; but, when the 

 stock on hand is exhausted, free men must be set to producing a new 

 crop. The Northwestern Review. 



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BAKON LIEBIG-. 



JUSTUS VON LIEBIG, the famous German chemist, who died at 

 Munich, April 18th, was born at Darmstadt, May 12, 1803. Hav- 

 ing graduated from the gymnasium of his native place at the age of 

 sixteen, his taste for the study of natural science led him first to accept 

 a situation in an apothecary's shop, where he expected to have abun- 

 dant opportunity for experiment and research. 



After six months' service in the apothecary's shop, Liebig set out 

 for the University of Bonn, where he studied for a while, and then 

 went to Erlangen. At the latter university he attracted notice by the 

 zeal with which he devoted himself to the study of chemistry, and he 

 received from the Grand-duke of Hesse a " travelling stipend," which 

 enabled him to spend two years (1822-'24) in Paris. There he had the 

 advantage of association with Alexander von Humboldt, Gay-Lussac, 

 and other eminent scientists. During his stay in Paris he read before 

 the Academy of Sciences a paper on "Fulminic Acid" which at once 

 stamped him as an able chemist. He was then only twenty-one 

 years of age. In 1824 he was, through the influence of Humboldt, 

 appointed Adjunct Professor of Chemistry in the University of Giessen, 

 and two years later he succeeded to the full dignity of professor. The 

 laboratory which he established at Giessen was the best-appointed 

 school of chemistry in Germany, and thither flocked students from 

 all parts of Europe, but especially from England, and also from this 

 country. Leipsic and Gottingen set up chemical laboratories on 

 Liebig's model, and the Giessen school became a kind of scientific 

 focus, a centre of discovery, whose influence was felt everywhere. 



Prof. Liebig visited England in 1838, attending a meetiug of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science. He there brought 

 forward the discovery made by his associate, Wohler, of a process 

 for obtaining urea artificially. This announcement of the first suc- 

 cessful step toward the synthesis of compounds in the laboratory, 

 which had been supposed producible only under the influence of the 

 mysterious forces of life, was received by the Association with pro- 

 found interest. At the urgent request of the Association he wrote 



