2 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 



ordinate thoni into a system, while Gay Lussac (1778- 

 1850), Borthollct (1748-1822), Araj^adro (177G-1856), 

 Proust (1754-182G), Stas (1813-1891) and many others 

 were workin«j: on intoriiiolecular relations between the 

 elements. 



While men like these were tirelessly experimenting to 

 establish facts, there ji^rew up a set of men who were 

 destined to lead chemistry to its hif]^liest development. 

 Woehler (1800-1882), Liebi;-,- (1803-1873) and Ilofmann 

 (1818-1892) were three men whose names for all time 

 will be indelibly connected witli the development of 

 chemical science and chemical industry, I had the great 

 privilege of being introduced into chemistry by Frieder- 

 ich Woehler, to be a student under him for three years, 

 and to be assistant in his laboratory for a term of five 

 and a half years, during all of which time I enjoyed 

 daily intercourse with this illustrious man. When I 

 entered the University of Gottingen in 1870 the course in 

 chemistry was carried on quite differently from wliat it 

 is now. During the time I was a student I heard one 

 lecture course on inorganic chemistry by Woehler. The 

 course, comprising one hundred and twenty hours, was 

 spread over twenty weeks. I heard a lecture course of 

 forty hours on organic chemistry by Huebner, and one 

 course on physics by William AVeber (who was one of 

 the inventors of the telegraph) the course also compris- 

 ing forty hours, spread over twenty weeks. These two 

 hundred hours of lectures were all I heard during three 

 years up to my graduation. But we worked in the lab- 

 oratory daily from eight to twelve and from two to six, 

 and work we did. During all these days our teachers 

 were with us, going from student to student inspecting, 

 exhorting and criticising our work. It was on these oc- 

 casions that our teachers would speak to us individually 

 and collectively, and so we heard by word of mouth many 

 interesting facts about the early development of chemis- 

 try. 



