ON THE VITALISTIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



393 



chemistry at the Medical School of Paris in 1841. 

 With him was associated Boussingault, the man who, 

 next to Liebig, did most for the elaboration of the true 

 principles of agricultural chemistry. 



To Liebig, organic chemistry did not mean the chemis- 

 try of the carbon compounds as it is denned nowadays, 

 and has largely become since Dumas himself introduced 

 into science the fruitful method and idea of substitution. 

 This idea extended the facilities of the laboratory chemist 

 enormously, 1 but also marks the altered view which has 

 since taken hold of organic chemistry, the alliance with 

 arts and industries rather than with an understanding 

 of the economy and the phenomena of living organisms. 

 From the moment* of that alliance dates the division 

 of organic chemistry into the two great branches of 

 the chemistry of carbon compounds and the chemistry 



15. 



Change in 

 organic 

 chemistry. 



1 It is well known that organic 

 chemistry during Liebig's lifetime 

 outgrew the canons and the circle of 

 ideas in which he moved, and that 

 he complained of not being able to 

 understand the papers in his own 

 periodical, the ' Annalen,' 4c. 

 Liebig originally opposed Dumas' 

 ideas on substitution, but in the 

 end admitted himself defeated, 

 when, through Hofmann, he became 

 convinced "that the character of a 

 chemical substance does not depend 

 so much as he had supposed on the 

 nature of its constituent atoms, 

 and depends very largely also on 

 the manner in which these atoms are 

 arranged. Some years afterwards, 

 at a dinner given by the French 

 chemists to chemical visitors to the 

 Exhibition of 1867, Liebig made his 

 defeat on this occasion the source of 

 a happy retort to Dumas, who had 

 asked him why of late years he had 

 devoted himself exclusively to agri- 



cultural chemistry. " I have with- 

 drawn from organic chemistry," said 

 Liebig, " for with the theory of 

 substitution as a foundation, the 

 edifice of chemical science may be 

 built up by workmen : masters are 

 no longer needed " (Shenstone, ' J. 

 von Liebig,' 1895, p. 61). Already, 

 in 1838, Liebig and Wohler, in their 

 investigation on uric acid and its 

 derivatives, prophetically suggested 

 the twofold development which 

 organic chemistry was destined to 

 take : " From these researches the 

 philosophy of chemistry must draw 

 the conclusion that the synthesis 

 of all organic compounds which 

 are not organised must be looked 

 upon not merely as probable, but as 

 certain of ultimate achievement " 

 ('Annalen,' &c., vol. xxvi. p. 242). 

 In fact, we have now a chemistry 

 of organic and one .of organised 

 substances. 



