6i8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of facts contained in President "White's 

 pamphlet, but -with nothing of his ad- 

 mirable analysis and exposition of the 

 working of this great financial experi- 

 ment. Let none fail to read and pon- 

 der the document. It is a lesson in one 

 branch of political economy that our 

 citizens cannot afford to neglect, and 

 we are glad to be able to state that the 

 publishers have issued an edition for 

 universal circulation, as a campaign 

 document needed at this time by both 

 parties, and at a price so low that it may 

 be distributed everywhere. 



TEE STATUE TO LIEBIG. 



It is proposed to raise a statue 

 in Munich in honor of the illustrious 

 chemist Liebig. No man better de- 

 serves such a tribute, for the claims of 

 Liebig upon the appreciation and grati- 

 tude of the civilized world are unique 

 and unrivaled. Starting from obscuri- 

 ty, he made his way by the pure force 

 of genius alone, selecting his line of 

 study even in boyhood, when he was 

 snubbed by his teachers for the stupid- 

 ity of his choice ; he gave himself to 

 chemistry early, unreservedly, with the 

 enthusiasm of a vehement nature, and 

 pursued it with indefatigable industry 

 almost to the day of his death. Hebe- 

 came a leader in this field in early life, 

 became the acknowledged master amid 

 a host of powerful competitors, and 

 died the greatest chemist in Germany. 

 The influence exerted by Liebig in the 

 advancement of his favorite science it 

 is hardly possible to over-estimate. His 

 original investigations, each of which 

 pushed forward the branch of inquiry 

 to which it was devoted, are numbered 

 by hundreds, so that, as Dr. Hoffman, 

 in his recent eulogy, justly observes, 

 " Were we to consider merely the vast 

 number and incalculable importance of 

 the chemical facts which he has estab- 

 lished, we should have to proclaim him 

 one of the greatest contributors to 

 chemistry at large that ever have ap- 



peared, while of organic chemistry we 

 could not hesitate to consider him the 

 very source and fountain-head." 



Liebig was a great experimenter, 

 but that is not his highest title to emi- 

 nence as a chemist. He enriched the 

 science by new methods of analytic 

 research, and invented the apparatus 

 which gave a new impulse to organic 

 investigations and made an epoch in 

 organic chemistry, and he vastly en- 

 riched the science by varied and exten- 

 sive laboratory researches. But it was 

 not merely by these inquiries that he 

 made the deepest impression upon the 

 mind of the age. He was not only an 

 experimenter, but a thinker; not only 

 a chemist, but a philosopher; and it 

 was in his grasp of principles and the 

 establishment of general laws that we 

 recognize his highest genius. Chemi- 

 cal analysis, the revision and correction 

 of old processes, and the elucidation of 

 new facts, are of course important and 

 meritorious things, and in this field men 

 of moderate ability may make valuable 

 and permanent contributions to the 

 progress of science. But it requires 

 the insight of a higher genius to pierce 

 through the multitudinous mass of iso- 

 lated results, and bring out the princi- 

 ples that reduce them to order and 

 bring them into living correlation with 

 the general organism of scientific truth. 

 This was the distinguishing character 

 of Liebig's work in the chemical field. 

 "When he began his labors, physiologi- 

 cal chemistry had hardly a foothold of 

 recognition. The vital force was su- 

 preme in the realm of life, and was held 

 to suspend and override all chemical 

 and physical agencies. Liebig made a 

 revolution by showing that a true 

 physiological science can only be estab- 

 lished by interpreting vital processes in 

 the light of chemical and physical prin- 

 ciples. 



But the scientific fame of Liebig has 

 a yet broader basis. He is the father 

 of agricultural chemistry. Not only 

 did he contribute largely to the eluci- 



