1884.] Professor Thorpe on the Chemical Worh of Wohler. 477 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 15, 1884. 



Sir Feederick Beamwell, F.R.S. Manager and Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



Professor Thorpe, Ph.D. F.E.S. 



The Chemical Worh of Wohler. 



The lecturer began by reminding his audience of the brilliant 

 eulogy of Liebig which Professor Hofmann pronounced in the 

 theatre of the Eoyal Institution some nine years ago, and said that it 

 seemed fitting that something should be said concerning one whose 

 life-long association with Liebig has exercised an undying influence 

 on the development of scientific thought. The names of Liebig and 

 Wohler are inseparably connected. No truer indication of the 

 singular strength and beauty of their relations could be given than is 

 contained in a letter from Liebig to Wohler written on the last day 

 of 1871. 



" MiiNCHEN, 31 December, 1871. 



"Ich kann das Jahr nicht ablaufen lassen, ohne Dir noch ein 

 Zeichen meiner Fortexistenz zu geben und die herzlichsten Wiinsche 

 fiir Dein und der Deinigen Wohl im neuen auszusprechen. Lauge 

 werden wir uns Gliickwiinsche zu neuen Jahren nicht mehr senden 

 konuen, aber auch wenn wir todt und langst verwest siud, werden die 

 Bande, die uns im Leben vereinigten, uns Beide in der Erinnerung 

 der Menschen stets zusammenhalten als ein nicht haiifiges Beispiel 

 von zwei Mannern, die treu, ohne Neid und Missguust in demselben 

 Gebiete rangen und stritten und stets in Freuudschaft eng verbunden 

 blieben." 



The father of Wohler, August Anton, was formerly an equerry in 

 the service of the Elector William II. of Hesse ; his mother was con- 

 nected by marriage with the minister of Eschersheim, a village near 

 Frankfort, and it was in the minister's house that he first saw the 

 light, on the 31st July, 1800. When quite a boy, the bent of his 

 mind towards natural science was directed by Dr Buch, a retired 

 physician who had devoted himself to the study of chemistry and 

 physics ; and it was in the kitchen of his patron's house that he 

 prepared the then newly-discovered element selenium, of which an 



