96 GERMAN SCIENCE 



prosperity, and one in which their demeanour towards science 

 can be most tellingly illustrated. Let me then briefly indicate 

 to you the history of chemical science in Germany during the 

 last hundred years. 



At the beginning of the nineteenth century Germany was 

 not as conspicuous in chemistry as either France or England. 

 Modern scientific chemistry is dated by Frenchmen with much 

 justification from the time of the great Lavoisier, whose 

 career was tragically ended by the guillotine during the 

 French revolution. Englishmen might be inclined to put 

 their countryman John Dalton in the first position. But 

 no like claim has, so far as I am aware, been made by 

 Germany ; and though undoubtedly the science was cultivated 

 in that land and many valuable discoveries were made there 

 the nation was conspicuous neither by the eminence of its 

 chemists nor by their number. The first commanding figure 

 which appears in the modern history of German chemistry 

 is that of Justus von Liebig. Of him and his services I shall 

 speak directly, but for the moment I mention him as one 

 who has left an authentic account of the state of chemical 

 science in Germany at the beginning of its great epoch. One 

 part of this account, entitled ' The Condition of Chemistry 

 in Prussia V is so interesting and so significant that I will 

 venture to refer to it in some detail. 



Liebig's paper is more of a diatribe than a description. 

 He begins by exclaiming how inexplicable it must be to clear- 

 sighted people that in Prussia, ' a country to which a degree 

 of intelligence and culture is ascribed such as is to be found 

 in few others ', it is the Government itself which has not the 

 most distant idea of the importance of chemistry and that 

 all efforts of the teachers are wrecked by want of recognition 

 on the part of those whose duty it is to provide for and 



1 * Der Zustand der Chemie in Preussen ', published in Liebig's Annalen 

 der Chemie und Pharmacie, vol. xxxiv, p. 47 (1840). 



