“ 
104 Correspondence of J. Nicklés. 
work to young men who appeared to him to love science, he was soon in 
a condition to continue freely his labors. Thenard did for him in fact 
what he had done for so many others. e committed to him the chair 
His inconsiderate publication on the formation of nitrous ether by 
means of brucine is due to a similar cause. Laurent was the first who 
did not absolutely reject the conclusions of this research,* so severely 
criticised by Liebig.t 
It is true that at that time nothing allowed him to comprehend, 
much less to explain, the presence of the radical alcohol in an alkaloid, 
and before admitting such an opinion it was right to demand some well 
observed facts. The facts were sought for in vain in the memoir. They 
were afterwards discovered by the pupils of Liebig, who occupied them- 
* M. Liebig et la Chimie, Revue scientifique et industrielle, 1846. 
+ M. Gerhardt et la Chimie, ibid., 1845. 
