May 2, 19 1 8] 



NATURE 



165 



THE CENTENARIES OF GERHARDT AND 

 WURTZ. 



IT is surely a coincidence not without its special 

 significance that, at the very time when 

 France, with the sympathy of the greater part of 

 the civilised world, is nobly struggling to regam 

 the provinces of which she was despoiled nearly 

 half a century ago, it should be her pious duty 

 and peculiar privilege to celebrate the centenaries 

 of two of her many eminent sons, both illustrious 

 in the annals of chemical science, both Alsatians, 

 and Frenchmen to their very finger-tips. These 

 events, occurring under present conditions, we 

 may be sure, have not failed to impress the soul 

 of France, or to stimulate and strengthen her 

 resolution to gather again within her fold those 

 compatriots of whom a brutal and arrogant 

 despotism had ruthlessly robbed her. Subjects of 

 which Gerhardt and Wurtz are types are, indeed, 

 among the most precious of her assets. In thus 

 commemorating the services of these distinguished 

 Alsatians, the Chemical Society of France has 

 also expressed the sentiments of admiration and 

 esteem with which those services are regarded 

 wherever science is appreciated. 



Charles Frederic Gerhardt was born at Stras- 

 burg on August 21, 1816, and died in that city on 

 August 19, 1856. The son of a white-lead manu- 

 facturer at Hangenbieten, near Strasburg, it was 

 the intention of his father that Gerhardt should 

 assist him in his business, and with the object 

 of learning chemistry he was sent, on leaving the 

 Protestant gymnasium of his native place, first 

 to the Polytechnic at Carlsruhe, and then to 

 Leipzig, where he worked in Erdmann's labora- 

 tory. Here, when barely nineteen years of age, 

 he made his first contribution to the literature of 

 science — a lengthy paper in the Journal fiir Prak- 

 tische Chemie on "The Formulae of the Natural 

 Silicates." He now returned to Hangenbieten, 

 but the craft of chemical manufacturing had no 

 attractions for him. He eventually threw up his 

 position and enlisted in a cavalry regiment, from 

 which, thanks to the generosity of Liebig, to 

 whom he became in turn pupil, friend, and rival, 

 he was enabled to procure his discharge. After 

 a short stay at Giessen he made a second attempt 

 to comply with his father's wishes. It was no 

 more successful than the first, and, after eighteen 

 months of irksome drudgery, he finally abandoned 

 the effort and betook himself to Paris. Although 

 only twenty-two, the venture was not altogether 

 hopeless, for he had already made a mark in 

 French scientific circles by his translation of 

 Liebig's " Introduction to the Study of Chem- 

 istry," published by Mathias in 1837. The hand- 

 some, well-grown youth, almost feminine in 

 features, was well received by Dumas, whose 

 early experiences were not wholly dissimilar, and 

 under his encouragement Gerhardt attached him- 

 self to the Repertoire de Chimie, then directed by 

 Gaultier de Claubry. 



On its foundation, in 1840, by Dr. Quesneville, 

 Cerhardt joined the staff of the Revue Scientifique , 

 NO. 2531, VOL. lOl] 



and became one of the most active of the con- 

 tributors to that famous periodical. The times 

 were favourable to the development of his genius, 

 and no field for the display of his peculiar talents 

 could be better than that journal. Revolutions 

 were impending not only in the political world, 

 but also in that of science. It was, perhaps, the 

 most pre-eminently polemical period in the history 

 of chemistry — a time of Homeric combats between 

 the opposing schools of France and Germany. 

 Gerhardt, from his antecedents and upbringing, 

 was well fitted to be what he actually became— a 

 free-lance, whose keen and incisive thrusts were 

 directed, with equal impartiality, sometimes at 

 one protagonist and sometimes at the other. No 

 wonder that the articles over the signature "Z" 

 were eagerly scanned by both sets of combatants. 

 Space will not permit of any detailed examina- 

 tion of Gerhardt 's powers as a critic. One ex- 

 ample, however, may be given, which, although 

 of minor importance, is typical of his skill in 

 sarcasm. As is well known to chemists interested 

 in the history of their science, the followers of 

 Liebig were at first disposed to scoff at the doc- 

 trine of substitution, and the editor of the Annalen 

 had disfigured his pages by a letter, supposed to 

 emanate from Paris, and signed S. C. H. Windier, 

 in which the writer, in execrable French, 

 attempted a reductio ad ahsurdum of Dumas 's 

 great discovery. It was a somewhat clumsy piece 

 of buffoonery, flavoured with that spice of malice 

 which so frequently characterises what Germans 

 regard as humour. Gerhardt took a neat revenge 

 by reprinting the letter in the Revue Scient^que 

 with all the solecisms, faults of grammar, and 

 mistakes of idiom scored through or italicised, as 

 if correcting a schoolboy's composition. The 

 letter, as we now know, was written by Wohler; 

 it was unworthy of that calm and unimpassioned 

 philosopher, and was, we may be sure, in after 

 years regretted by him. 



Whilst in Paris Gerhardt worked with Cahours, 

 and after 1841 many of his papers appeared in 

 the Revue, more especially on didactic subjects 

 connected with chemical philosophy. 



In 1841 he was appointed to succeed Balard 

 at Montpellier, where he remained seven years. 

 He continued to write for the Revue, but the 

 results of his experimental work were, as a rule, 

 sent to the Academy, and appeared in the Annales 

 de Chimie. Almost at the outset of his career as 

 a professor he was brought into conflict with 

 Laurent, but the two men soon healed their dif- 

 ferences, and to the great benefit of science and 

 their own fame became firm friends and active 

 co-workers until separated by Laurent's death in 



1853. 



In 1848 Gerhardt returned to Paris, where he 

 learnt to know Williamson, who was at that time 

 studying mathematics under Comtfe. He had 

 started the Comptes rendus dcs Travaux de 

 Chimie in 1845 •" association with Laurent, pre- 

 sumably to afford its editors a wider and more 

 independent scope for the dissemination of their 

 peculiar views than was possible to them in the 



