1866. | Hofmann and Modern Chemistry. 75 
as it respects the state of chemistry in 1862, than the Chemical 
Report on the Exhibition of that year. 
The “ Introduction to Modern Chemistry ” which Dr. Hofmann 
has given us, on the eve of his departure from this country, is 
another choice example of the completeness of all his works. It 
is a clear and concise explanation of the most recent views enter- 
tained by modern chemists, and of the experimental proofs by which 
they are supported. It should be in the hands of every young 
student of the science. 
Dr. Hofmann, after having repeatedly declined invitations to 
return to his native land, has at last yielded. The Prussian 
Government conceived the idea of erecting in the University of 
Bonn,—which is the scientific centre of the Western Provinces 
of the kingdom,—a Chemical Institution ona grand scale, intended, 
not only to supply the wants of the University, but calculated also 
to advance the rapid growth of the industrial interests of the sur- 
rounding provinces of Rhineland and Westphalia, which have, not 
inappropriately, been called the Lancashire of Germany. The 
invitation to organize the new institution, for which most ample 
funds have been provided by the Chambers, coming as it did from 
the university in which so many years ago he had commenced his 
professional career, proved irresistible to Dr. Hofmann. In 1863 
he undertook an extensive journey through nearly all the European 
Universities in which chemistry is prominently taught, for the pur- 
pose of collecting the needful preliminary information. The data 
thus gathered he embodied into an elaborate plan, going into all 
the numerous mechanical details involved in the prosecution of 
modern chemistry. This plan was adopted by the Prussian Goyern- 
ment, and the magnificent buildings, exclusively intended for the 
advancement of chemical knowledge, and which promise to become 
a model laboratory, are now rapidly approaching completion. 
While things were thus moving forward in the Rhineland Uni- 
versity, an event occurred which was to influence and deeply to 
modify all the plans which Dr. Hofmann had formed with regard 
to Bonn. At the end of 1863 the celebrated Mitscherlich died at 
Berlin. Early in 1864 the Senate of the University of Berlin 
elected Dr. Hofmann to become his successor. The Prussian 
Government sanctioned this election, and charged Dr. Hofmann 
with the organization in Berlin—as the scientific centre of the 
Eastern provinces—of a laboratory similar to that of Bonn, leaving 
him the option after the completion of the two Institutions of taking 
up his abode at either one or the other of these cities. 
In the summer of this year, Dr. Hofmann left London for 
Berlin. On the 28th of April a farewell banquet was given to him 
by “a number of gentlemen who had worked with Dr. Hofmann 
at the Royal College of Chemistry,” and every one, from the Comte 
