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NATURE 



\yan. 4, 1877 



the methods now used for the preparation of condensed 

 food and for its preservation without decomposition. 



On examining the purely scientific work of Liebig 

 brought before our notice by Prof. Hofmann, the reader 

 is at once struck by the varied nature of the researches. 

 In his experiments on the cyanogen group, resulting from 

 his examination of the fulminates, we are led back to 

 some of the earliest stages of Liebig's scientific career. 

 In this investigation, published at the age of nineteen 

 and detailing experiments extending over two years, we 

 have accurate proof given us of the very early age at 

 which he had recognised the natural tendency of his 

 mind. His experiments proving the fulminates to be 

 isomeric with the cyanates brought him in contact with 

 Wohler, already working on the same ground, this friend- 

 ship being soon destined to exercise a most important 

 influence upon organic chemistry. 



Liebig's investigations upon alcohol and its derivatives 

 are interesting, not only from the fact that it was from 

 his earlier experiments on this body proceeded the dis- 

 covery of chloral and chloroform, but also that in his 

 endeavours to elucidate the consiitution of alcohol he 

 was led into a long protracted discussion with Dumas 

 and Boullay, a discussion resulting in the victory of 

 Liebig. It would be impossible here to give a detailed 

 notice of the remaining investigations of Liebig touched 

 on by Prof. Hofmann in his discourse ; it will be suffi- 

 cient for us to mention Liebig's researches on the group 

 of benzoic compounds, his discoveries in uric acid and its 

 derivatives, executed in conjunction with Wohler, and his 

 elaborate work on the constitution of the organic acids. 



Many as Liebig's experimental researches were he still 

 found time for literary labour. It would be almost suffi- 

 cient to mention the work founded by him, in conjunction 

 with his friends, Wohler and Hermann Kopp, as early as 

 1832, a work then and now known as " Liebig's Annalen," 

 a most invaluable collection of recent experimental dis- 

 covery. Of his other larger works two more may be 

 mentioned, his " Dictionary of Pure and Applied Che- 

 mistry," begun conjointly with Poggendorff and Wohler, 

 and his " Handbook of Organic Chemistry," a treatise 

 translated into French and English by Gerhardt and 

 Gregory respectively. 



Examining the whole " Life Work of Liebig " as put 

 before us in this admirable discourse of Prof. Hofmann, 

 the reader must be at once struck with the enormous 

 amount of work which it is almost impossible to believe 

 could have been accomplished by one man during a life- 

 time. The number of his papers published in the records 

 of the Royal Society alone is, we are told by Prof. 

 Hofmann, 317, of which 283 are by Liebig himself, the 

 remainder published in conjunction with other chemists. 

 It is worthy of remark, however, that from the number 

 and ability of the pupils he drew around him, Liebig was 

 able to trust certain of his researches to their care, in- 

 variably, however, giving his assistants all credit for any 

 ideas or discoveries of their own. 



If Liebig was followed ardently by his pupils it was 

 because he possessed the rare gift of inspiring them not 

 only with admiration but with love. With the spirit 

 which was equally characteristic of Faraday's genius, 

 Liebig endeavoured to lead his followers beyond mere 

 single spheres of thought to the conception of laws regu- 



lating wide ranges of phenomena, tending in their results 

 to the material welfare of mankind. 



We feel sure that this interesting account of the work 

 of one so distinguished and widely known as Justus 

 Liebig, will be read with great pleasure not only by 

 chemists but by all who are interested in the progress of 

 natural science. John M. Thomson 



HUNTING-GROUNDS OF THE GREAT WEST 



The Hunting- Grounds of the Great West, a Description 

 of the Plains, Game, and ludiatis of the Great North- 

 Americaji Desert. By Richard Irving Dodge, Lieut- 

 Col. U.S.A. With an Introduction by William Black- 

 more. (London : Chatto and Windus.) 



MR. WILLIAM BLACKMORE, well known to 

 anthropologists in connection with the Blackmore 

 Museum at Salisbury, hunted buffalo on the great plains 

 of the Far West with Col. Dodge. The American 

 colonel's camp-fire stories seemed to his English com- 

 panion well worth preserving, and thus the present volume 

 came to be written, and dedicated to Mr. Blackmore, who 

 has prefaced it with an introduction on the Indian tribes 

 of North America and the causes of their extinction. No 

 doubt Mr. Blackmore was right in encouraging ihis friend 

 to write his book, which contains much curious informa- 

 tion not got up out of other books, but drawn direct from 

 life in the Indian country, and told well in barrack-room 

 fashion. The bold picturesque illustrations by Griset suit 

 the contents well, and the volume in its red and gold 

 binding might have been recommended as a gift-book, 

 had the author had the discretion and good taste to 

 exclude certain stories as to the relations of the sexes 

 among Indian tribes, as well as several pages of revolting 

 details respecting the fate of those who fall as captives 

 into the hands of such tribes as the Comanches, which 

 ought not to have found a place in it. 



In pointing out that these contents must in great 

 measure remove the book from popular circulation, we do 

 not say that they should not have been printed some- 

 where, though a smart ad captandiun volume was not the 

 proper place. In fact they form part of a general descrip- 

 tion of Indian society, which students of the development 

 of law and morals may read with considerable advantage. 

 The necessary growth of some rule of female propriety in 

 societies where the women are the absolute chattels of 

 the men, is illustrated with remarkable clearness among 

 the Cheyennes (see p. 301, &c.), and all. the more plainly 

 by contrast with the habits of their husbands, who, being 

 no one's property, own no social restraint whatever. 

 Again, however brutal ^the individuals of any tribe may 

 be, there must be a social contract observed or the whole 

 society would collapse. This also is well shown among 

 the Cheyennes, by the fact that women obtain absolute 

 protection by a merely symbolic form, which, if any man 

 failed to respect, he would certainly be killed (p. 303). 

 Again, the existing marriage law of the Cheyennes (p. 300) 

 furnishes an instructive commentary on the story of King 

 Gunther's marriage with Brynhild in the Nibelungen 

 Lied, which is possibly a relic of Germanic custom in 

 remote barbaric times. These are a few among many 

 points in which modern savage society throws light on the 



