Ixxii REPORT — 1873. 



forward its value has rapidly increased as each succeeding year augmented 

 the number ol' facts which it explained. 



AUow me at this point of my narrative to pause for a moment in order to 

 pay a tribute of respect and gratitude to the memory of one who has recently 

 passed from among us, and who in the time of his full activity was a leader 

 of the discoveries of new facts in the most difficult part of our science. 

 Liebig has been generally known in tliis countrj' through his writings on 

 agricultural chemistry, through his justly popular letters on chemistry, and other 

 writings, by means of which his brilliant intellect and ardent imagination 

 stimulated men to think and to work. Among chemists he was famed for 

 his numerous discoveries of new organic compounds, and their investigation 

 by the aid of improved methods ; but I believe that the greatest service which 

 his genius rendered to science was the establishment of the chemical school 

 of Giessen, the prototype of the numerous chemical schools for which Germany 

 is now so justly celebrated. I think it is not too much to say that the 

 Giessen laboratory, as it existed some thirty years ago, was the most efficient 

 organization for the promotion of chemistry which had ever existed. 



Picture to yourselves a little community of which each member was fired 

 with enthusiasm for learning by the genius of the great master, and of which 

 the best energies were concentrated on the one object of experimental inves- 

 tigation. 



The students were for the most part men who had gone through a full 

 curriculum of ordinary studies at some other University, and who were 

 attracted from various parts of the world by the fame of this school of 

 research. 



Most of the leading workers of the next generation were pupils of Liebig ; 

 and many of them have established similar schools of research. 



We must not, however, overlook the foct that Liebig's genius and enthusiasm 

 would have been powerless in doing this admirable work, had not the rulers of 

 his Grand-Duchy been enlightened enough to know that it was their duty to 

 supply him with the material aids requisite for its successful accomphshment. 



Numberless new compounds have been discovered under the guidance of 

 the idea of atoms ; and in proportion as our knowledge of substances and of 

 their properties became more extensive, and our view of their characteristics 

 more accurate and general, were we able to perceive the outlines of their natural 

 arrangement, and to recognize the distinctive characteristics of various classes 

 of substances. I wish I could have the pleasure of describing to you the origin 

 and nature of some of these admirable discoveries, such as homologous series, 

 types, radicals, &c. ; but it is more to our purpose to consider the effect which 

 they have had upon the idea of atoms, an idea which, still in its infancy, was 

 plunged into the intellectual turmoil arising from a variety of novel and original 

 theories suggested respectively by independent workers as best suited for the 

 explanation of the particular phenomena to which their attention was mainly 

 directed. 



Each of these workers was inclined to attach quite sufficient importance to 

 his own new idea, and to sacrifice for its sake any other one capable of inter- 

 fering with its due development. 



The father of the atomic theory was no more ; and the little infant had no 

 chance of Hfe, unless from its own sterling merits it were found useful in the 

 work still going on. 



What then was the result ? Did it perish like an ephemeral creation of 

 human fancy? or did it surN-ive and gain strength by the inquiries of those 

 who questioned Nature and knew how to read her answers ? 



