SKETCH OF BARON LIEBIG. 233 



his work on " Organic Chemistry, in its Application to Agriculture " 

 (Brunswick, 1840), which was translated into most European lan- 

 guages, and had an enormous circulation both in Europe and America. 

 In 1845 he received from his sovereign the honor of an hereditary bar- 

 ony. Seven years later, in 1852, he accepted the position of Professor 

 of Chemistry in the University of Munich, and director of the chemical 

 laboratory of that city. 



His principal works, besides those already mentioned, are : " Ani- 

 mal Chemistry, or Chemistry in its Applications to Physiology and 

 Pathology" (1842); and "Familiar Letters" (1844), which brought 

 his views on applied chemistry before a very wide public, in a style so 

 simple and popular that practical agriculturists could understand and 

 profit by the instruction there conveyed. 



In 1848 he commenced the publication of his " Annalen" or, "An- 

 nual Report of the Progress of Chemical Science." He published his 

 "Researches on the Chemistry of Food" in 1849. His " Dictionary 

 of Chemistry," in which he had the assistance of other writers, ap- 

 peared in parts between 1837 and 1851. 



In estimating the relation of Baron Liebig to the thought of his 

 age, we are not to regard him as simply a chemist ; he was much more 

 he was, in its broadest sense, a philosophical chemist, a man of 

 ideas. Since the death of Berzelius, no man has appeared who had the 

 weight of universal authority in chemical science. The subject has 

 developed into such vastness of detail, that men can only become 

 great by limiting themselves to special branches of it. Liebig devoted 

 himself to organic chemistry, and even here there are other men who 

 have probably surpassed him in the number and importance of their 

 immediate contributions to the science. Yet, since Berzelius closed his 

 career, no savant has appeared in the chemical field who has achieved 

 so brilliant and conspicuous a position as Liebig. 



He had in an eminent degree the traits of a successful pioneer in 

 the world of thought. He was a man of impulse, sympathy, and en- 

 thusiasm, as well as of intellect. He could not give his life to simple, 

 quiet laboratory investigation, content to make a few additions to the 

 stock of scientific truth. Although trained to the strict methods of 

 investigation, and competent to bend his energies to specific research, 

 yet his manly interest in his fellow-beings, and the welfare and prog- 

 ress of society, determined the course of his studies, and led him 

 constantly to the development of large practical results. When he 

 began with organic chemistry, it was in its infancy, and chiefly con- 

 fined to the production of a few organic compounds by laboratory 

 decomposition. As for the chemical interpretation of the living organ- 

 ism, it was hardly thought of. The mystery of the vital forces reigned 

 supreme, and barred the way to true inductive investigation. So also 

 with agricultural chemistry. Davy had originated the name early in 

 the century, and presented some of its elementary facts ; but they did 



