808 



WOEHLER, FREDERICK. 



tons carried one mile; in 1884 the number of 

 tons of freight carried was 4,670,201, an equiva- 

 lent of 949,567,585 tons carried one mile, and 

 at an average cost of 1*44 cent per ton per 

 mile. The number of persons employed by 

 the railroad companies for the year ending 

 June 30, 1884, was 15,423, and the total sum 

 paid these employes was $8,834,358.63. The 

 revenue paid to the State for licenses to oper- 

 ate the railroads was $754,269.44 for the year 

 ending Sept. 30, 1884. 



Fisheries. The Fish Commissioners expend- 

 ed $6,518 for 1883 and $5,950.43 for 1884, and 

 were very successful in their work. 



Political. There were two Republican State 

 Conventions: one on the 30th of April, to 

 choose delegates to the National Convention of 

 the party ; and the other September 3, to nomi- 

 nate State officers. The incumbents were re- 

 uominated. The following were the candi- 

 dates of the other parties : 



At the election on November 4 the Repub- 

 lican ticket was successful. The following was 

 the vote for Governor: Republican, 163,214; 

 Democratic, 143, 945; Prohibition, 8,545 ; Green- 

 back, 4,274; scattering, 16. 



The vote for Presidential Electors was as fol- 

 lows : Republican, 161,157; Democratic, 146,- 

 549; Prohibition, 7,656; Greenback, 4,598; 

 scattering, 72. Seven Republican and two 

 Democratic (Second and Fifth districts) Con- 

 gressmen were elected. The Legislature of 

 1885 consists of 20 Republicans and 13 Demo- 

 crats in the Senate, and 61 Republicans and 39 

 Democrats in the House. 



WOEHLER, FREDERICK, a German chemist, 

 born in Eschersheim, near Frankfort-on-the 

 .Main, July 31, 1800 ; died in Gottingen, Sept. 

 23, 1882. His father, August Anton Woehler, 

 a man of much skill and learning in veterinary 

 art and . rural economy, had been an equerry 

 to the Elector Wiliam II of Hesse-Cassel, but 

 had been obliged to leave that state on account 

 of a personal difficulty in which he became in- 

 volved with the passionate prince. 



The boy Frederick received his earlier in- 

 struction from his father and the public school, 

 with private lessons in Latin, French, and mu- 

 sic, and soon began to show a taste for form- 

 ing collections of minerals and for chemical 

 and physical experiments, in which he was 

 encouraged by Dr. Buch, a friend of the fam- 

 ily, with whom he prepared the newly dis- 

 covered element, selenium. His education was 

 continued in the gymnasium at Frankfort, 

 having graduated from which, he in his twen- 



tieth year entered the university at Marburg, 

 as a student of medicine. But he had more 

 taste for chemistry, and in the next year trans- 

 ferred his university residence to Heidelberg 

 where he enjoyed the instructions of Gmelin. 

 Having received his degrees from the univer- 

 sity in September, 1823, he resolved, upon the 

 advice of Gmelin, to devote himself solely to 

 chemistry, and with that purpose became a stu- 

 dent in the laboratory of Berzelius. 



During his residence at Marburg, Woehler 

 made some investigations of the compounds of 

 cyanogen, in which he discovered the poison- 

 ous iodide of cyanogen shortly after Davy, and 

 described the remarkable behavior of mercu- 

 ric thiocyanate on heating, which has led to 

 its use in the so-called " Pharaoh's serpents." 

 These studies were continued at Heidelberg 

 upon sulphocyanic and cyanic acids ; and he 

 prepared there a prize paper on the " Migra- 

 tion of Matter into Urine," in which he showed 

 that substances taken into the human system 

 become oxidized in passing through it. At 

 Stockholm, besides co-operating with Berze- 

 lius in researches in hydrofluoric acid, silicon, 

 boron, and zirconium, he discovered some new 

 compounds of tungsten. After a year's resi- 

 dence in Sweden, two months of which were 

 spent in travel with Berzelius and Alexander 

 and Adolph Brongniart, Woehler returned to 

 Germany to become a u privat decent " at Hei- 

 delberg. But he was appointed, in 1824, on 

 the recommendation of Leopold von Buch, 

 Poggendorff, and Mitscherlich, teacher of chem- 

 istry in the newly founded Gewerbeschule in 

 Berlin. In 1828 his rank was raised to that 

 of a professor ; and he filled this position till 

 1832, when he retired to Cassel, to be desig- 

 nated in a few months to assist in the organi- 

 zation of a Gewerbeschule there and be pro- 

 fessor of chemistry in it. Jn 1836 he was 

 appointed Professor of Chemistry and Phar- 

 macy at Gottingen, director of the laborato- 

 ries and inspector - general of all the apothe- 

 caries of the kingdom of Hanover, succeed- 

 ing Stromeyer, who had died. Here, resigning 

 the position of inspector of apothecaries after 

 twelve years, he spent the rest of his life. 



The chemical researches of Woehler were ex- 

 tensive and various, and very important. Pre- 

 eminent among them was the synthesis, pub- 

 lished in 1828, of urea, an organic substance, 

 by the molecular transformation of ammo- 

 nium cyanate, a body of purely inorganic 

 origin. Previous to this discovery a perma- 

 nent distinction was believed to exist between 

 inorganic and organic bodies, resting upon a 

 " vital force " peculiar to the latter. Woehler's 

 synthesis demonstrated the fallacy of this view, 

 and was the first of a series of researches that 

 have resulted in the contradiction of the doc- 

 trine of vital force. At about this time Woeh- 

 ler became acquainted with Liebig, who was 

 also engaged, with Gay-Lussac, in investigations 

 of the cyanogen compounds. The two chem- 

 ists resolved to work in common, and became 



