266 JUSTUS VON LIEBIG. 
The first years of my career in Giessen | devoted almost exclusively 
to the improvement of the methods of organic analysis, and the imme- 
diate result was that there began at this little university an activity 
which had never before been seen. 
For the solution of innumerable questions connected with plants and 
animals, on their constituents, and on the reactions accompanying their 
transformation in the organism, a kindly fate brought together the most 
talented young men from all the countries of Europe, and any one can 
imagine what an abundance of facts and experiences I gained from so 
many thousands of experiments and analyses, which were carried out 
every year, and for so many years, by twenty and more indefatigable and 
skilled young chemists. 
Actual teaching in the laboratory, of which practiced assistants took 
charge, was only for the beginners; the progress of my special students 
depended on themselves. I gave the task and supervised the carrying 
out of it, as the radii of a circle have all their common center. There 
was no actual instruction; I received from each individual every morn- 
ing a report upon what he had done on the previous day, as well as his 
views on what he was engaged upon. I approved or made my criti- 
cisms. Every one was obliged to follow his own course. In the asso- 
ciation and constant intercourse with each other, and by each partici- 
pating in the work of all, every one learned from the others. Twice a 
week, in winter, I gave a sort of review of the most important questions 
of the day; it was mainly a report on my own and their work combined 
with the researches of other chemists. 
We worked from break of day till nightfall. Dissipations and amuse- 
ments were not to be had at Giessen. The only complaint, which was 
continually repeated, was that of the attendant (Aubel), who could not 
get the workers out of the laboratory in the evening, when he wanted 
to clean it. 
The remembrance of this sojourn at Giessen awakened in most of my 
pupils, as T have frequently heard, an agreeable sense of satisfaction 
for well-spent time. 
I had the great good fortune, from the commencement of my career 
at Giessen, to gain a friend of similar tastes and similar aims, with 
whom, after so many years, I am still knit in the bonds of warmest 
affection. 
While in me the predominating inclination was to seek out the points 
of resemblance in the behavior of bodies or their compounds, he pos- 
sessed an unparalleled faculty of perceiving their differences. A keen- 
ness of observation was combined in him with an artistic dexterity, 
and an ingeniousness in discovering new means and methods of research 
or analysis such as few men possess. 
The achievement of our joint work upon urie acid and oil of bitter 
almonds has frequently been praised; it was his work. I can not suffi- 
ciently highly estimate the advantage which the association with Wohler 
