DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 3 



graduate in medicine of the University of Marburg in 

 1820, he numbered among his fellow-students Friedrich 

 Wohler, the celebrated chemist and discoverer of 

 organic chemical synthesis, 1 with whom he formed a 

 warm and lasting friendship. 



From Marburg he proceeded to Wiirzburg, where 

 two years were spent at the University and hospital, 

 and where he enjoyed the instruction of the Natur- 

 philosoph Ignatius Dollinger, the founder of embry- 

 ology, teacher of Agassiz and von Baer, and father of 

 Dr. Johann von Dollinger of Munich, the leader of the 

 Old Catholics. Dr. Goessmann subsequently became 

 Kreisphysikus or district physician and health officer 

 in Hesse-Cassel, and in recognition of his services was 

 made a medical councillor by Emperor William I. In 

 addition to this distinction the University of Wiirzburg 

 conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of 

 Medicine. He died at Fritzlar, 22 February 1880. 



The life and work of Charles Anthony Goessmann 

 falls naturally into three well-defined periods. The 

 first period ended in 1857 with his departure from 

 Gottingen; the second, and shortest, terminated in 

 1868 with the call to Amherst; and the third comprised 

 his two-score years of service here as Professor in the 

 College and Director of Research. During the first 

 period he made his most important researches and dis- 

 coveries in theoretical chemistry, organic and analy- 

 tic. The second period was marked by investigations 



"The first synthesis of an organic compound, that of urea, achieved 

 more than a quarter of a century ago by the illustrious Wohler, will, for 

 simplicity and elegance of the successive reactions employed, ever remain 

 the model of synthetical processes.' A. W. HOFMANN in 1863. 



