MEMOIR OF LIEBIG. 



171 



arrived at only by the finiphing of the material. 

 What is the cause of this he is uot required to 

 explain ; but it is a fact ; it is the case is a a^eat 

 range of facts ; it may be safely taken as unity, 

 and called a power, when we bring many other 

 phenomena under this head, we have arrived at 

 a great point. The action of contagion is, in all 

 appearance, similar. Matter in a state of de- 

 couaposilion comes in contact with healthy mat- 

 ter, and decomposition begins ; this increases, 

 and may be infinitely increased : we saw tliat 

 with the yeast the power of iricrea.siug increas- 

 ed with the progress. How otherwise can we 

 explain the insidious agency of the plague, lurk- 

 ing as it does about org;aiic matter until it has 

 accumulated such force, or until it has excited 

 decomposition in .such a large mass as to cause 

 it to assume the form of a decided disease, and 

 continuing until the whole frame is attacked, un- 

 til tlie brain can no longer act rationally, but in 

 the violence of its decay converts reason into 

 madness ? The same of fever and of other con- 

 tagious disorders. 



Putrifying flesh causes plagues of various 

 kinds bj- the same law ; decaying matter, pla- 

 ced near sound flesh, begins rapid decomposi- 

 tion in it ; putrid gases from sewers con'upt 

 fresh meat w^hich is placed near, and mould rap- 

 idly communicates mould. The case of mould 

 may perhajis be otherwise explained. 



The dairy which is not clean cannot preserve 

 milk well, and the dirtiest farmers see, at least, 

 the use of attending to the cleanness o£lhe wood- 

 en vessels there. Milk decomposing^vill cause 

 other milk to follow it ; and any matter not in a 

 sound state — coming, for example, from dung- 

 heaps — into the apartment by the open \viu- 

 dows, \vill be productive of much mischief. — 

 The position of a dung-hill is not an unim- 

 portant matter in a farm, and a stagnant pool 

 also ought to be in a position in \%'hich it will do 

 little hurt. Some houses have them just between 

 them and the direction of the prevailing winds. 

 On these occasions it is often diflicult for persons 

 unaccustomed to it to .sit long in the place. The 

 prevailing ^vind ought to be known before 

 building a house, and everything that promises 

 a disagreeable odor put on the opposite side. 

 Ponds, much superior in cleanness to those gen- 

 erally near farms, have been known to influence 

 greatly the healing of sores from this very cause ; 

 and, we may make it a rule, because it is in fact 

 a law of nature, that animal and vegetable mat- 

 ter in decay should be removed as far from us 

 a.s possible, that we may be able to eat sound 

 food and to breathe pure air. 



It \^ould scarcely be suitable to this v^-ork to 

 give an account of all Liebig's writings ; much, 

 however, might be gained by a study of the 

 work on Pathology, by studying the nutrition of 

 animals, the production of butter and of fat, the 

 eli'ect of heat and of cold. The phenomena of 

 motion and theory ofdisea.se are more allied to 

 pure philosophy, and, intercstmg as the subjects 

 are, they And little attention among practical 

 men. As a short compendium of organic chem- 

 istry, popularly treated, no work will please 

 general readers so well as the Chemical Letters 

 of Liebig: there every subject which has en- 

 gaged practical chemi.stry to a great extent is 

 touched upon, and, without much study, some 

 idea may be formed of ius nature. 



To have received opposition and not to fall by 

 it, is another characteristic of strength; and cer- 

 tainly no views, at least of very late years, have 

 received moi-e opposition tliau those of Liebig's. 



We are not now in the scholastic ages, and a 

 new idea seldom takes up more of our attention 

 than a few hours— a discussion we expect to be 

 able to read in a short time, and to have done 

 with it — nor could we find sufiicicut, in any pub- 

 lic dispute whatever, to take us a journey of 

 some handred miles, even in an ea.sy railway 

 carriage. The opposition, e.speciallj- in the 

 French periodicals, has been great, although the 

 London 'ones are certainly not to be left out. 



It remains for us now to look a little more close- 

 ly to the person whose life we are considering. 

 Grie.sen. where he resides, is a small tov»-D, con- 

 taining about 8.000 inhabitants ; the population 

 chiefly lives on learning, at least, almost all the 

 respectable class are either judges, lawyers, 

 professors, teachers, or students ; and, as the 

 students amount to 400, and the teachers to an 

 ahnost equal number, we thereby nearly account 

 for the whole male population of maturer years. 

 This is certainly saying too much, but, at any 

 rate, few towns of the size can boast of so many 

 men of superior education. True it is. that many 

 of our luxuries and conveniences are absent, but 

 again the want of a market for surplus produce 

 makes many veiy accessible, which to us are 

 verj' expensive ; and, if we maj- judge from 

 the appearance of the people on Sundays and 

 holidays, none are happier, and we should be 

 obliged to go back to the days of merry old 

 England before we could find such a group of 

 happy Engli.sh workmen. This is said merely to 

 give persons some idea of what the place (of 

 which no one seems to know anything) actually 

 is. It has as.sumed the dress of peace, by substitut- 

 ing an avenue in place of a wall round the town, 

 and several castles in the (^stance — skeletons of 

 combative systems now gone by — tell us that it 

 once was compelled either to suffer or to resi.st 

 oppression. The rising ground near the town is 

 now growing into a new, better-built, and bet- 

 ter-situated town ; and we doubt not that, where 

 the cause of contagion has been so well taught, 

 means will be taken to give everj' house a due 

 supply of that light, heat, air, and cleanliness in 

 general which our towns cannot alwa3's obtain, 

 fi'om the numbers of the population, and the ex- 

 pense of land, &c. 



The university has flourished greatly, as Lie- 

 big has flourished, and the number of students 

 working in his own laboratorj' amounts to about 

 fifty ; whilst a number attend the laboratory of 

 Dr. Will, his former assistant. This is, then, the 

 largest chemical school in the world, and it is 

 richly endowed by the government. The small- 

 er States of Germany seem to believe what in 

 other places seems merely a problem not yet 

 solved, that the education of a man is of the first 

 importance, and that house and lands rank sec- 

 ond, not first. 



Of the honors gained by Liebig \ve all know 

 a little, we know of his late visit to us in autumn, 

 when he received as much attention as a coun- 

 try could give him : especially in Scotland. His 

 own country has not forgotten him however ; 

 Austria and Prussia have both endeavored to 

 obtain his services, and not succeeding there in 

 spite of the most tempting offers, they have been 

 content to honor him. His own government 

 has made him Knight of the Hessian Order, and 

 Russia. Knight of the Order of St. Ann : it need 

 scarcely be added, that he is a member also of 

 manj" societies. It may be well perhaps to fin- 

 ish this sketch by a quotation from Professor 

 Gregory of Edinburgh, who is himself a phre- 

 nologist, and who introduced Liebig to the 



