xvi THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 



ing firm of Kuhn, Loeb and Company. While the boy was 

 still young, his parents removed to New York, and his 

 primary education took place at the school of Dr. Julius Sachs 

 in that city. In the autumn of 1879 he entered Harvard Uni- 

 versity and graduated there with the degree of Bachelor of 

 Arts in 1883. 



He was an able and conscientious student in college. His 

 interest centred at first in the older discipline of the classics, 

 but it changed to the newer discipline of chemistry and phys- 

 ics as his college life advanced. His experience under Charles 

 Loring Jackson in "Chemistry 1 " during his Freshman year 

 seems to have awakened that love of science which, fostered 

 as it was by Wolcott Gibbs in his later years, determined his 

 life work. As an undergraduate he received a "Detur" or 

 prize for high scholarship, and at graduation he attained 

 his degree "Magna cum Laude" on his general average, as 

 well as with "Honorable Mention" in chemistry and English 

 composition. His best chemical work in college was done in 

 the field of organic chemistry under Henry Barker Hill, 

 and this interest was continued in his studies immediately 

 afterwards in Germany, as is evidenced in his first two scien- 

 tific papers. 



During the period of his stay in Berlin, where he studied 

 under August Wilhelm von Hofmann and received the de- 

 gree of Ph.D. in 1887, the new interest in physical chemistry 

 had risen above the intellectual horizon of Germany, and 

 Loeb's farsighted intelligence at once grasped the significance 

 of the coming science. The winter after he received his de- 

 gree, he entered the University of Heidelberg for the study 

 of physical chemistry, and during the following summer he 

 attended the University of Leipzig, working under the bril- 

 liant new leader, Wilhelm Ostwald, and in collaboration with 

 his able assistant, Walther Nernst. 



