238 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Organic chemistry was little known or appreciated in this 

 country, and the keen spirits who wished to study it had 

 perforce to go to Liebig at Giessen, or to Wohler at Gottingen. 



Prof. Justus von Liebig was already exerting a great 

 influence on the development of organic chemistry both by 

 his fine research work and still more by his lectures both in 

 Germany and in this country, where they were received with 

 great enthusiasm ; this was, however, of rather a fleeting 

 character so far as the British were concerned. 



In 1840 Liebig published his treatise on The Chemistry 

 of Agriculture and Physiology, in which for the first time it 

 was shown how important was an exact knowledge of chemistry 

 for these two subjects, which up to that time had been almost 

 entirely empirical and governed by rule of thumb. It may 

 be remembered that in 1828 Wohler had succeeded for the 

 first time in preparing from purely inorganic materials a sub- 

 stance — urea — which was previously believed to be capable 

 of production solely by living agencies. 



The doctrine of a special " Vital Force " slowly disappeared 

 before the advance of chemical research, and it was gradually 

 realised that many substances previously of purely animal or 

 vegetable origin might in the not very distant future be pro- 

 duced by the chemist in his laboratory. In 1842 Liebig toured 

 through England and delivered a series of lectures upon the 

 importance of chemistry from a national point of view. The 

 immediate result was to make chemistry a popular science and 

 to enforce the need for laboratory work. 



As a result a scheme was formulated for the establishment 

 of a National College of Chemistry, where chemistry should be 

 taught and studied for its own sake, and not simply as a sub- 

 sidiary subject for the training of pharmacists, mining engineers, 

 and others, such as was related, for instance, of the Turk in 

 Playfair's laboratory who wished merely to learn enough 

 chemistry to enable him to expound the doctrines of Para- 

 celsus 1 



Largely through the efforts of the Prince Consort and of 

 Sir James Clark, the Queen's physician, a fund was opened to 

 provide such an institution, and in 1845 the Royal College of 

 Chemistry arose, which was at first housed in George Street, 

 Hanover Square, and in 1846 moved to new buildings in Oxford 

 Street. 



