February i8, 1909] 



NA TURE 



453 



acted as Liebig's assistant, and ultimately was en- 

 trusted by him with the delivery of the course of 

 lectures on organic chemistry which he regularly gave 

 in the summer semester. It is this intimate personal 

 knowledge of his subject, and the whole-hearted sym- 

 pathy, appreciation, and respect which a life-long 

 intercourse had engendered, that gives to Dr. Vol- 

 hard's work its special and peculiar value. 



It is quite impossible within the compass of a notice 

 -Such as this to do more than briefly indicate how 

 xidmirably Dr. Volhard has risen to his opportunity. 

 As already stated, the work is worthy of the subject, 

 and no higher praise is possible. 



Justus von Liebig — the first of his name to be en- 

 nobled — belonged to an Odenwald family which could 

 trace its ancestry as far back as 1575. Some of the 

 members spelled the name as it is pronounced, viz. 

 Liebich. Justus was the second son in a family of 

 ten children, and was born in 1803. His father, 

 Johann Georg Liebig, was a druggist and drysalter 

 in Darmstadt, who had his shop in a little house in 

 Xhe Kaptaneigasse, one of the oldest streets in the old 

 town. His mother, Marie Caroline Moser, was de- 

 scribed as an active little woman with the bright 

 €yes and sharply cut features of her famous son. 

 indeed, from her Liebig seems to have inherited also 

 many of his mental and intellectual characteristics, his 

 «nergy, and remarkable power of work. 



It is easy to determine the conditions which made 

 Liebig a chemist. From his earliest years he was 

 familiar with the sight of chemical operations. 

 Chemical utensils and apparatus were his toys, and 

 for a time he had no other aim in life than to follow 

 his father's occupation. But as his knowledge in- 

 creased his interests widened, and science eventually 

 claimed him. Even before he left the gymnasium 

 he had settled in his own mind what his life's work 

 was to be — " Chemiker will ich werden, nicht Apothe- 

 ker " — and accordingly in 1820 he was sent to Bonn 

 10 listen to Kastner's dull and formal prelections. 

 In the following year he went with Kastncr to 

 Erlangen, where he published his first scientific com- 

 munication. It appears in Buchner's Repertoriiini 

 der Pharmacie, xii., 412, with a commendatory 

 notice from Kastner, under the title " Einige Bermerk- 

 ungen ijber die Bereitung und Zusammensetzung 

 des Brugnatellischen und Howardschen Knallsilbers. 

 Vom Herrn Liebig, der Chemie Beflissenen aus Darm- 

 stadt." With August von Platen as his friend, Liebig 

 was " ein ganzfideler Student," to whom the Erlan- 

 gen " Karzer " was not altogether unknown, as the 

 acts of the university testify. Kastner was not very 

 Inspiring, and knew nothing of analysis. 



From Erlangen Liebig passed to Paris, where, 

 thanks to the interest of Humboldt, he was well re- 

 ceived by Gay-Lussac, Thenard, Dulong, Biot, and 

 t^ rest of the remarkable group which made Paris 

 the chief centre of scientific activity of that age. A 

 tiew era dawned on Liebig ; with Gay-Lussac his 

 relations became especially cordial. They worked 

 together on fulminic acid, and under Gay-Lussac's 

 insf^iration and direction Liebig became an investi- 

 gator. " Liebig," says his biographer, " bewahrte 

 SO. 2051, VOL. 70] 



dem vaterlichen Freund die warmste Verehrung. 

 Sein Zusammenarbeiten mit Gay-Lussac bildet den 

 Glanzpunkt seiner Jugend. " To the end of his days 

 Liebig always spoke of this association with the 

 warmest feelings of pleasure and gratitude. He was 

 wont to relate how, when some particularly difficult 

 analysis had succeeded, or when some new and sur- 

 prising fact had been elicited, the two investigators 

 sought to relieve their excitement by waltzing together 

 round the laboratory table. 



It was mainly through the good offices of Gay- 

 Lussac, working through his friend and fellow aca- 

 demician Ale.xander von Humboldt, that the Grand 

 Duke of Hesse was led to interest himself still further 

 in the fortunes of the young man " der Chemie 

 Beflissenen aus Darmstadt," and in 1S24 Liebig, in 

 the twenty-first year of his age, was appointed, with- 

 out previous consultation with the faculty, and some- 

 what to their displeasure, extraordinary professor of 

 philosophy at the University of Giessen. On the death 

 of Zimmermann in the following year he became 

 ordinary professor and sole teacher of his subject. 

 Liebig's life during the twentj'-eight years he re- 

 mained at Giessen is, of course, the main theme of 

 Dr. Volhard's book. The principal features of his 

 Giessen career are familiar to everyone who has even 

 the slightest acquaintance with the development of 

 chemistry during the second quarter of the nineteenth 

 century, but these features are now filled in by Dr. 

 Volhard with a degree of detail which is almost 

 Boswellian in its completeness and exactitude. One 

 rises, in fact, from the perusal of the narrative with 

 the conviction that surely the last word on the subject 

 has been said. Liebig's chief work was, of course, 

 done at Giessen, and the twenty years of his subse- 

 quent life at Munich, whilst it in nowise diminished, 

 hardly added to the world-wide and imperishable 

 reputation which his sojourn at the " little university 

 on the banks of the Lahn " had secured for him. 



Liebig's life was so full, his services were so re- 

 markable, and his achievements so striking, that not 

 even the most unskilful of biographers could fail to 

 invest his story with interest. 



Dr. Volhard is very far from being an unskilful 

 biographer, and he has put together his great mass 

 of material with circumspection and judgment. Much 

 of Liebig's correspondence has already been published, 

 and his relations to his contemporaries and to the 

 scientific movements of his time are already well 

 known, and passing references to these matters, suffi 

 cient to make the story complete, were alone neces- 

 sary. 



Exception might perhaps be taken to certain features 

 in the construction and plan of the work, and, as a 

 book for general readers, it suffers from the common 

 fault of biographies of being over-elaborate. But Dr. 

 Volhard may urge that his book was primarily in- 

 tended for those who have a lively and abiding interest 

 in Liebig, viz. the chemists who revere his name and 

 who seek to be inspired by his example, and these will 

 certainly not cavil at the wealth of detail which is 

 manifested in this monumental work. 



T. E. Thorpe. 



