28 NATURE 
[May 8, 1873 
‘aus ein rosenroth gefarbten punkt), and carbonic acid 
fei dem Harnorganen) will be long remembered, and 
even at the present day the satire has not lost its applica- 
bility. Then again ina letter purporting to be written 
from Paris and signed S. C. H. Windler, though doubtless 
written by Liebig, he laughs to scorn the idea that the 
theory of substitution, which he himself upheld, could be 
so far extended as was by some chemists believed possible. 
In this letter he states, as the last great discovery of the 
French capital, that it had been found possible to replace 
in acetate of manganese, first the atoms of hydrogen 
by chlorine, then the atoms of oxygen, then those of 
manganese, and lastly that even the atoms of carbon had 
been replaced by this gas. So that a body was in the 
end obtained, which, although it contained nothing but 
chlorine, still possessed the essential properties of the 
original acetate of manganese. He adds ina note: “Je 
viens d’apprendre qu'il y a déja dans les magasins 4 
Londres des étoffes en chlor filé, trés recherchés, dans les 
hépitaux, et preférés 4 tout autres pour bonnets de nuits, 
calecons, etc.!” 
Those who wish to read an unsparing critique, may 
turn to Liebig’s remarks on Gerhardt (1846), to those 
on Mulder as regards his protein theory, or again on 
Gruber and Sprengel respecting a review of his own book 
on Organic Chemistry (1841). It was not in Liebig’s 
nature to spare either private persons or Governments 
when he thought that scieuce would be advanced by 
plain speaking. In his two papers on “ Der Zustand der 
Chemie in Oestreich” (1838), and in “ Preussen” (1840), 
whilst he points out the shortcomings of both countries, 
bravely asserts, in the strongest terms, the dependence of 
national prosperity upon original research, a subject con- 
cerning which in England, most people, thirty years 
later (to our shame be it said) are altogether in the dark / 
Other and wider questions, to the solution of which 
Liebig in later life turned his energies, were those re- 
specting the establishment of a Scientific Agriculture, and 
the foundation of a new science of Physiological Che- 
mistry. It is in this direction that his labours are best 
known to the general public in England; and there is 
no doubt, although in many details his views have since 
proved erroneous, that he was correct in the main issues, 
and that the stimulus given to British agriculture through 
Liebig’s writing and investigations, has been of the most 
important kind. Agriculturists have thus been made 
aware that a scientific basis for their practice exists 
which, if not as yet complete, can still explain much in 
their art of what had previously depended on mere em- 
piricism. Then, again, the interest and attention which 
were thus brought to bear on these subjects, has led to 
the establishment of Agricultural Colleges and “ Ver- 
suchs-Stationen,” and to the carrying out of researches 
like those magnificent ones of Lawes and Gilbert, from 
which we are receiving information concerning the 
various questions relating to plant life such as long-con- 
tinued investigation and observation alone can yield. 
In the year 1852, having lectured for sixty semestres in 
Giessen, he left the university to which he had given a 
world-wide fame, to become the centre of a galaxy of men 
of science whom Maximilian II. of Bavaria had called to 
Munich. There, having built himself a good laboratory 
and a spacious house adjoining, he spent the remainder 
of his days in quiet labour and well-earned and honoured 
repose. The active period of his life having passed, he 
entirely withdrew from discussions on purely theoretical 
questions, and occupied himself with investigations chiefly 
of a practical character, such as those on the extract of 
meat, and on infants’ food. He continued to re-edit his 
various books, indulging occasionally in his old habit of a 
sharp hit at the views of some scientific brother. His last 
investigation and critical discussion of the labours of 
other chemists was published in 1870, “On Fermentation 
and the Origin of Muscular Force.” In this he strenuously 
upholds his old theory of fermentation against Pasteur’s 
explanation of the phenomena, and his views and argu- 
ments are as forcibly and clearly expressed as we find 
them in his early publications. The last of his hundreds 
of communications to the Annalen is a notice on the 
discovery of chloroform, published in March of last year, 
in which he calls attention to the fact that the discovery 
of this important substance is due to himself in 1831, and 
not to Soubeiran, as is generally supposed, although 
Liebig overlooked the small quantity of hydrogen (08 
per cent.) which chloroform contains, and termed it a 
chloride of carbon. 
As an author, Liebig is remarkable for the lucidity and 
grace of his style. The best examples of this are to be 
found in his ‘‘ Familiar Letters on Chemistry.” His 
mode of popular treatment of a somewhat obscure sub- 
ject is seen in the well-known chapter (xxiv.) in his 
“Familiar Letters,” on “Spontaneous Combustion of the 
Human Body.” He there goes step by step through all 
the better authenticated cases, shows the want of suffi- 
cient evidence in each case, points out the fallacies of the 
theories proposed to explain them, and concludes with 
proving, by the application of known physicaland chemical 
laws, that the supposed phenomena cannot possibly cccur. 
Looking once more back upon the labours of Liebig, 
we again come to the conclusion that the chief and 
characteristic glory of his life is the impulse which he 
gave to the study of our science and the personal influ- 
ence which he exerted among his numerous and distin- 
guished pupils. 
The present short and imperfect sketch of the scientific 
bearings of a great life is not one in which personal 
qualities can be discussed ; suffice it to say that though 
Liebig was an awkward adversary, he was a faithful 
friend, and always ready and anxious to assist deserving 
merit. H. E. ROSCOE 
NOTES FROM THE “CHALLENGER” 
WE left Santa Cruz on the evening of Friday, the 14th 
of February. The weather was bright and pleasant 
with a light breeze—force equal to about 5—fromthe north- 
east. Our course during the night lay nearly westward, 
and on the morning of the 17th we sounded, about 75 
miles from Teneriffe, and 2,620 miles from Sombrero 
Island, the nearest point in the Virgin group, in 1,891 
fathoms, with a bottom of grey globigerina ooze, mixed 
with a little volcanic detritus. The average of two 
Miller-Casella thermometers gave a bottom temperature 
of 2h1G, : 
The slip water-bottle which was used by Dr. Meyer and 
Dr. Jacobsen in the German North-Sea Expedition of 
last summer was sent down to the bottom, and Mr. 
Buchanan determined the specific gravity of the bottom 
water to be 1'02584 at a temperature of 17°9 C., the 
specific gravity of surface water being 1':02648 at a tem- 
perature of 18°°5 C. 
All Sunday, the 16th, we spent sailing with a light air 
from the northward, and by Monday morning we had 
made about 130 miles from our previous sounding. The 
dredge was put over at 5.15 A.M. with 2,700 fathoms rope, 
and a weight of 2 cwt. 300 fathoms before the dredge. 
After steaming up to the dredge once or twice, hauling- 
in was commenced at 1.30 P.M., and the dredge came up 
at 3.30 half full of compact yellowish ooze. The ooze 
was Carefully sifted, but nothing was found in it with the 
exception of foraminifera, some otolites of fishes, some dead 
shells of pteropods, and one mutilated specimen of what 
appears to be a new Gephyrean. This animal has been 
examined by Dr. von Willemces-Suhm, who finds that 
it shows a combination of the character of the Sipuncu- 
lacea and the Priapulacea. As in the former group, the 
excretory orifice is near the mouth, in the anterior part of 
