66 Hofmann and Modern Chemistry. [Jan., 
researches reached its mature form of an important practical appli- 
cation. 
Hofmann’s first published paper was the record of an investi- 
gation into the nature of the volatile bases of coal gas naphtha, 
amongst which Hofmann demonstrated the presence of ANILINE. 
This has become the starting point of a long series of researches 
which have richly benefitted both theory and practice. A second 
paper “ On the Metamorphoses of Indigo,” which finally settled the 
question of the substitution of chlorine for hydrogen (which at the 
time engrossed the attention of chemists) received the prize medal 
of the Société de Pharmacie of Paris. : 
At this time the élite of young chemical Europe, the founders 
of Modern Chemistry were working side by side in the Giessen 
laboratory, and Hofmann was the favoured assistant of the master. 
It would be difficult to conceive conditions more inciting to work for 
a young savané than this. With a far less powerful stimulus than 
this, the energetic assistant of Liebig would have made his position, 
but, surrounded by such influences, there is little doubt that his pro- 
gress was considerably accelerated. Still this enviable position 
could not be more than a transitional one, an important stepping- 
stone to further progress. The time arrived when the young 
assistant, anxious to obtain an independent sphere of action, had: to 
try the strength of his own wings. In the spring of 1845, the 
young chemist took leave of Giessen, of Liebig, and of a delightful 
circle of the nearest relations and most intimate friends, and became 
a private teacher in the University of Bonn. Here we find Dr. 
Hofmann lecturing on Agricultural Chemistry, and in a laboratory 
of the smallest dimensions he was busily engaged in following up 
his experimental researches ; but his stay in Bonn was not to be of 
long duration. 
The extraordinary development which the study of chemistry, 
and more especially of organic chemistry, had reached in Germany 
by Liebeg’s teaching, was not without its influence in England. In 
the curriculum of the English universities at this time Chemistry 
played an essentially subordinate part. Public laboratories in which 
experimental researches could have been carried out by students did 
not exist. Even in London and Edinburgh it was difficult at that 
period to get admission into a scientific laboratory for the purpose 
of acquiring the practice of analysis, and it could only be done at 
considerable cost. Consequently the study of Practical Chemistry 
was accessible only to a limited few. This condition, however, was 
not to continue much longer, and it will be interesting to trace the 
causes, in their operation towards producing a sensible change. 
The British Association was doing its work in showing the thinking 
portion of the British public that science was needful to them, and 
that a great manufacturing people could not make any considerable 
