THE WORK OF J. H. VAN'T HOFF.^ 



By Prof. G. Beuni, 

 University of Padua, Italy. 



Jacob Henry van't Hoff was born August 30, 1852, in Rotterdam, 

 where his father was engaged until 1902 in the practice of medicine. 

 His ancestors had for centuries held the positions of alderman and 

 mayor of the little village of Groote Lind near Rotterdam. He de- 

 scended, therefore, from one of the ancient families of those austere 

 and sturdy Dutch burgesses which the pamtings of so many artists 

 portray, gathered in civic councils, in learned assemblies, and in com- 

 panies armed for the defense of the fatherland. The external traits 

 of this strong race were reproduced in his countenance, and in his 

 character were found its best moral endowments. 



The beginnings of his scholastic career were modest; he attended 

 the elementary schools and took his secondary school work in his 

 native town. His parents seem not to have had great confidence 

 in his future. It is certain, at all events, that at first they did not 

 approve of liis desire to devote himself to the study of pure science — 

 the subject toward which he felt himself drawn. He was obliged to 

 commence by registering in the Polytechnic School at Delft, where 

 at the end of two years he took his final examinations and obtained 

 the diploma of technologist. 



After having thus satisfied his family by securing a professional 

 diploma, he finally obtained the permission he so much coveted, to 

 devote himself to scientific study, and registered in 1871 at the Uni- 

 versity of Leyden, the oldest and most famous center of education 

 in the Netherlands. There he studied mathematics and physics, but 

 devoted himself more especially to chemistry. In 1873 he went to 

 Bonn, where he worked for some months in the laboratary of Kekule, 

 and did his first experimental work. [We shall see later what in- 

 fluence his stay in Bonn was to have on the development of his 

 ideas.] He remained for a shorter period in Paris, where he fre- 

 quented Wurtz's laboratory. [We shall soon see what a deep im- 

 pression was made upon him rather by the works of Pasteur than by 

 the ideas of Wurtz.] 



1 Translated, by permission of the editors, from Scientia, International Review of 

 Scientific Synthesis, published by Messrs. Williams & Norgate, London, No. 3, 1911. 



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