OF MORRIS LOEB xvii 



In the autumn of 1888 Loeb returned to America; he was 

 now so thoroughly imbued with a passionate love for science 

 that the urgent appeal of the brilliant position in banking 

 which was open to him was not heeded. Instead of turning 

 towards finance he entered upon a voluntary private assistant- 

 ship under Wolcott Gibbs, who had recently retired from his 

 Rumford Professorship in Harvard University and as Pro- 

 fessor Emeritus had established a private chemical laboratory 

 near his house at Newport, Rhode Island. Their mutual 

 affection, which had begun years before when both were at 

 Harvard, was intensified by this close association; and it is 

 typical of the characteristic faithfulness of Loeb's nature 

 that nearly a quarter of a century afterward he should have 

 suggested the naming of a new laboratory for research, 

 founded at Harvard by him and his brother James Loeb 

 (of the class of 1888), in honor of Gibbs. 



In 1889 the young physical chemist was appointed to a 

 docentship in Clark University. His opening lecture there 

 was probably the essay given first among the papers included 

 in this volume; he never published it himself, but the man- 

 uscript remains in his own handwriting. This lecture shows 

 his intelligent appreciation of the main problems of the new 

 physical chemistry and their great importance. He was in- 

 deed one of the pioneers in America in this new field of 

 science, and his influence was far-reaching. 



In 1891 he was elected to a professorship of chemistry in 

 New York University, and four years afterwards became direc- 

 tor of the chemical laboratory there, an office which he held 

 for eleven years. His resignation in 1906 was due not to any 

 weakening of his interest in chemistry, but rather to the pres- 

 sure of countless other demands upon his time, which made 

 the routine of such a position almost if not quite impossible. 



Much of his energy was given to a number of charitable 



