BUNSEN AND KIRCHHOFF 337 



atoms together in combination, and with Faraday's second 

 electrolytic law, to a certain extent, but not in every respect. 

 The fact that they could not satisfy Bunsen, particularly 

 when they received an all too definite expression in 'struc- 

 tural formulae,' is still more self-evident than in his time; for 

 in spite of the fact that essentially new data have since come 

 to light, nothing final is yet known concerning the structure 

 of molecules. Nevertheless, the idea of saturation, which 

 was expressed in the formulae in question, has become ex- 

 tremely valuable in correspondence with its content of 

 actual fact; particularly as regards the numerous organic 

 compounds, it has become, since the introduction of 

 Kekule's benzine formula (1865), the best means of orienta- 

 tion and guide to work as regards the preparation of large 

 numbers of these compounds.-^ 



The life stories of both Bunsen and Kirchhoff were of a 

 very simple character. 



Robert Wilhelm Bunsen was born in Gottingen as the son 

 of a professor of philology; he entered the university of his 

 birthplace at the age of seventeen, and later became a mem- 

 ber of its teaching staff after visits to Berlin, Paris, and 

 Vienna. In the year 1836 he was called to the technical 

 school at Cassel, two years later to the University of Mar- 

 burg, then to Breslau, and soon afterwards, in 1852, to 

 Heidelberg. Here he remained for thirty-seven years, and 

 became one of the most eminent figures of university life. 



Famed both as a discoverer and teacher, he always drew 

 a large number of pupils to his laboratory; scarcely any 

 scientist of the next generation and none of the founders of 

 the German chemical industry which soon developed, but 

 worked at least a few terms with him. His experimental 

 lectures were unique in their elegance, in which Bunsen's 



* August Kekul6 lived between 1829 and 1896; he was born in Darm- 

 stadt, became assistant under Bunsen, and finally professor of Chemistry 

 in Bonn. 



Ys 



