412 



NA TURE 



{March 25, 1875 



takes up oxygen and becomes more and more blackened 

 by its action had long been known. But it was reserved 

 for Liebig to found on the fact the measurement of oxy- 

 gen. By treating the gas to be examined first with potash 

 and then with pyrogenic acid, he combined the investiga- 

 tion for oxygen with that of carbonic acid. 



Passing to the researches he effected by the instrumen- 

 tality of his inventions, there came the fulminating com- 

 pounds. At a remote period Liebig compared fulminic 

 with picric acid. There was no satisfactory analysis of 

 the method of fusing substances with prussiate of potash, 

 and he first showed how iron is taken up by ferro- 

 cyanides, and his experiments are the foundation of the 

 modern manufacture. Another valuable poiiit was his 

 simple process of obtaining cyanide of potassium. It is 

 row manufactured on a large scale on his process, and is 

 thus extensively used in electrotyping. This discovery 

 led him to others.. Liebig and \\ ohler furnish us with 

 the group of aromatic compounds which stream forth 

 from benzol in infinite variety. At the conclusion of the 

 description of their experiments they say their inquiries 

 arrange themselves round a group of acids. This analogy 

 induced them to consider the group as a kind of com- 

 pound element, to which they gave the name of benzol. 



When a chemist is fortunate enough to encounter some 

 such guide in the midst of unknown nature, he has good 

 cause to congratulate himself If even now after forty 

 years the results of this research have such fascination, 

 what were the feelings of contemporaries ? One of them 

 "discerns the dawn of a new day," end suggests orthrine 

 for the name of the new compound element from npffpns, 

 '• day-break." Now, the lecturer should by rights unfold 

 before their eyes the chain from oil of almonds to benzolic 

 acid. But time reminded him to hasten on. The uric 

 acid group furnished a path which had not yet conducted 

 us to the goal. Uric acid was not all unknown in 1834, 

 when Liebig established its formula. It had been known 

 in 1734, but it was not till 1850 that a 3'outh in his 19th 

 year discovered the most fertile source of the compound; 

 Liebig and Wohler soon showed that its mutability, its 

 liability to chemical change, entitled them to reap rich 

 harvests from it. Sixteen new and most remarkable 

 bodies were at a single stroke incorporated into the 

 history of chemistry. Only one has since disappeared and 

 called for rectification, and no better proof could be given 

 of their scrupulous accuracy. They showed how clearly 

 they discerned the synthetic direction which organic 

 chemistry was about to take. Sugar, silicine, morphine 

 would be, they say, synthetically prepared. One more 

 illustration must suffice — the remarkable results in the 

 investigation of alcohol. His first experiments were in 

 1832, when his inquiry, undertaken for purely scientific 

 and abstract ends, led to the discovery of chloral and 

 chloroform. He discovered hydrate of chloral and its 

 beautiful crystalline form. In 1847, fifteen years after its 

 discovery, chloroform was used for the first time as an 

 anaesthetic, and twenty years more elapsed before Lie- 

 breich found a similar use for chloral. At the present 

 day the chemical factories of Berlin alone produce 100 

 kilos, a day of the principal anaesthetic. 



Liebig denied the presence of the olefiant gas previously 

 ascribed to alcohols, and gave their chief constituent the 

 name of ether, and although according to our present 

 view the relation between alcohol and ether has changed, 

 no one now speaks of the olefiant theory. The new 

 system of chemical notation introduced by two French 

 chemists was nowhere earlier championed than' here, 

 and by Faraday. To that England owes the honour 

 of being foremost to recognise the truth of the 

 new doctrine. Its modification of Liebig's formula; 

 extends also to his ether. Williamson elucidated 

 the question with striking success, but Williamson 

 owed to Liebig the very agents . he so' successfully 

 employed. Liebig "had no doubt we should suc- 



ceed in the analysis of ether." Liebig's dream was realised 

 by Frankland. 



Our respect .tnd our admiration arc due to Liebig not 

 for his scientific labour alone : we learn from him that 

 anxiety to discover abstract laws is not to be dissociated 

 from efforts for the well-being of our race. The lecturer 

 remembered a little incident so illustrative of Liebig's 

 goodness of heart that he ventured to relate it. He then 

 told the story of a broken soldier, whom, during a tour in 

 the Tyrol, Liebig not only helped with florins, but pro- 

 cured quinine for by a toilsome walk over mountains. Of 

 Faraday's kindness he had a touching example. A gentle- 

 man had handed him a letter of 1834, in which Faraday 

 wrote to a student who had engaged, like many others, in 

 a dream about matter and atoms, and was anxious to 

 submit his ramblings in philosophic dreamland to the 

 greatest chemist of the day. He forwarded it with the 

 suggestion that it was worth while to test it. Over- 

 whelmed, as Faraday then was, with work, he answered 

 not with neglect or with cheap flattery ; he wrote to the 

 unknown youth as follows : — 



" I have no hesitation in advising you to experiment in 

 support of your views, because, whether you confirm or 

 confute them, good must come out of your experiments. 

 With regard to the views themselves, I can say nothing 

 of them except that they are useful in exciting the mind 

 to inquiry. A very brief consideration of the progress of 

 expcrmental philosophy will show you that it is a great 

 disturber of preconceived theories. I have thought long 

 and closely on the theories of attraction and of particles 

 and atoms of matter, and the more I think, in association 

 with experiments, the less distinct does my idea of an 

 atom or a particle of matter become." 



In whatever epoch, continued the lecturer, we shall seek 

 for models of human existence, we can find no two 

 examples more conspicuous for their intellectual worth, 

 more admirable for their lofty views of duty, than Michael 

 Faraday and Justus von Liebig. 



NOTES 



The Enterprise, with the eclipse party for Camorta (Nicobar 

 Islands), left Galle on tlje iSth inst. The TJ'aroa'a with theSiam 

 party should arrive at Singapore to-day, and a telegram has 

 been received at the Admiralty that the Colonial steamer will 

 replace the Charybdis in the journey to Bangkok, as the former 

 is faster and possesses more accommodation. Liitteis have been 

 received from the expedition at Aden. Drs. Vogcl and Schuster 

 have been engaged on board in photographically determining the 

 chemical intensity of different parts of the solar spectrum at 

 different times of the day, and most^important results have already 

 been secured. 



Her Majesty the Queen has been gi'aciously pleased to confer 

 upon Mr. Henry Cole, C.B., the distinction of a Commandership 

 of the Bath, in recognition of his eminent public services. 

 The Executive Committee of the Cole Testimonial Fund have 

 authorised the preparation of a decorative memorial tablet, 

 witli portrait of Mr. Cole in mosaic, as well as a marble bust. 

 It is intended to offer these to public institutions, and the 

 balance of the amount subscribed will be jilaced at the disposal 

 of Mr. Cole. 



The Royal Irish Academy has given ils sanction to the fol- 

 lowing grants from the fund placed at its disposal for aiding 

 scientific researches by providing suitable instruments and 

 materials: — 25/. to Mr. Edward T. Hardman, for "Chemico- 

 Geological Researches ; " 30/. to Mr. W. H. Mackintosh, for 

 " Researches as to the Structure of the Echinoidea ; " 25/. to 

 Mr. G. Porte, for "Micro-Photogi-aphic Experiments ; " 40/. to 

 Dr. Leith Adams, for " Explorations in the Caves of Shandon ; " 



