Correspondence. 103 
Correspondence of M. Jerome Nickles, dated April 27, 1858. 
made his chef-d’ceuvre out of nothing. ‘Laurent was one of those men 
after the announcement of his fundamental principle which he th 
xpresses :—that m or arrangement often more influence on 
properties than matter itself—a principle which served as the guid- 
ing thread in his researches, even to the theories of substitution, of 
hemimorphism, of isomeromorphism, and of crystalline types, these in 
fact being corallaries from this principle. 
and the great number of new compounds which, with means the most 
ed. 
do not pretend to write his biography. feel neither worthy nor 
capable, and find myself too much under the influence of grief to 
trace out coldly biographical details. But what I. may affirm, afier 
] 
but expressions of deep regret at his unfinished work and his limited 
means for executing his labors. His love of science came out in his 
while at Giessen, gave by request of the chemists of the laboratory, 
is theories in the lecture-room 
hool. Liebig offered him at that time an entire number of his Anna- 
len for the publication of a review of his labors and of the ideas which 
had guided him in his researches; and three of the students offered 
also to translate the work into German, English and Italian. This 
project is now in part to be realized; the manuscript, which I have in 
my hands will 
oe 
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