No. 144.] 219 



class of useful and estimable enr'grants. This is the country of 

 Humboldt, Liebig, and a host of other distinguished and pro- 

 found naturalists, who have contributed so much to develope the 

 agriculture, manufactures and commerce of the age. It cannot 

 escape attention that the inventions and discoveries of the last 

 half century have greatly contributed to cement the bond of na- 

 tions between the nations. Among these I am happy to say- that 

 I witnessed, about eighteen months ago, the introduction of gas 

 made from wood into the rich and cautious city of Basle, under 

 the eye of Prof. Schoubein, the inventor of gun cotton, one of the 

 ablest chemists in Europe. It has been found on trial that wood 

 is a cheaper and better material for the manufacture of gas in 

 lighting houses and cities, like those of Switzerland, remote from 

 good fossil coal, than the latter substance; besides, the article 

 made from wood gives a more brilliant light and less offensive 

 smell than that yielded from mineral coal. 



It is known to scientific men through Dr. Dingler's Polytech- 

 nical Journal of July, 1851, that more than three yeais cigo this 

 invention was tested on a large scale in the railroad depot at Mu- 

 nich in Bavaria, where the inventors reside. Some time before 

 this event the invention had undergone a severe scrutiny and 

 proved practicable. It was, however, reserved to Prof Petten- 

 kofifer, the inventor, who was an assistant of Liebig, to initiate 

 the scientific aivi ndustrial classes of Europe into the nature of 

 the invention by a public lecture, which was reported in the 

 Kunst and Gewerbeblatt of Feb., 1850, published in that city. 

 But we all know the various and great difiiculties whicli are to 

 be overcome in order to bring a discovery into a practical and 

 economical shape. No wonder then that five years passed away 

 before this very important invealion reached i(s highest per- 

 fection. 



I remember to have read that the chemist Emil Breisach, whose 

 name is mentioned in Dr. Dingler's Po jtechic Journal of July, 

 1851, published in the city of Augsburgh in Bavaria, was called 

 by the authorities of that city, he being at that time superintendent 

 of the gas works, to visit Munich, with the view to examine wood 



