June 12, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



953 



Chemiker, the members of the American 

 Chemical Society, the Society of Chemical 

 Industry and the Chemists' Club partici- 

 pated in a celebration in memory of the illus- 

 trious investigator and chemist, Justus von 

 Liebig, veho was born one hundred years ago. 



The societies met in the assembly hall of 

 the Chemists' Club and listened to addresses 

 by Dr. Ira Eemsen, president of Johns Hop- 

 kins University; Professor Wm. H. Brewer, 

 of Yale; Dr. Carl Duisberg, vice-president of 

 the Verein Deutscher Chemiker and managing 

 director of the Farhenfabriken of Elberfeld, 

 Germany. 



The exercises were opened by Dr. Hugo 

 Schweitzer, chairman of the Verein, who wel- 

 comed the assembly and foreign guests in a 

 very appropriate address, and introduced th6 

 speakers. 



Dr. Eemsen outlined the early life of Lie- 

 big, mentioning his unpromising inaptitude 

 for study at school, which resulted in giving 

 it up and devoting himseK to chemistry; his 

 first interest in which was aroused by the 

 study of colors and dye-stuffs. Later, while 

 at a country fair, he saw an exhibition of 

 Pharaoh's serpents, accompanied by some 

 chemical operation connected with their prep- 

 aration which led eventually to his study and 

 investigation, while attending the lectures of 

 Gay Lussac at Paris, of the cyanides, cyanates 

 and fulminates. This work resulted in his 

 introduction to Gay Lussac, who admitted 

 him to his private laboratory. He was ap- 

 pointed a professor at the University of Gies- 

 sen, in his twenty-first year, 1824, where his 

 laboratory was of the crudest character, not 

 much better than a barn without flooring; 

 but from this modest beginning, with only 

 six or seven students, his work grew and his 

 reputation spread; a new laboratory was built 

 and students came to it from all quarters. 



During the twenty-eight years at Giessen 

 the activity of Liebig and the work he accom- 

 plished were enormous; and he can be truly 

 considered the greatest chemist of that time. 

 His publications in scientific journals amount- 

 ed to more than two hundred papers, in addi- 

 tion to his works on agriculture, organic 



chemistry and analysis; besides acting as 

 editor of several scientific journals. 



Coming to person.al reminiscences of the 

 time when he attended the lectures of Liebig 

 at Munich, Dr. Eemsen described the difficulty 

 he experienced as a student in attempting to 

 harmonize the old system as taught by Liebig, 

 with the new as taught by his assistant, Vol- 

 hard. Speaking of his methods, he said that 

 all Liebig's lectures were profusely illustrated 

 by experiments, many of them so elaborate 

 as to be unthought of in the present-day lec- 

 ture room — metallurgical experiments requir- 

 ing wind furnace, and many others which 

 the speaker said he would now hardly believe 

 could have been done on the lecture table if 

 he had not preserved his note-book filled with 

 rude drawings of all the apparatus used. 



Liebig was fond of a little dramatic effect, 

 and took some care to bring his lectures to a 

 climax with the most effective experiment, 

 whether with a big flash of flame or an ex- 

 plosion or otherwise; and while the present 

 method is more severe and straightlaeed, the 

 speaker said he was not certain that the im- 

 pressions made and the train of thought 

 aroused by Liebig's method were not very 

 effective. 



It was extremely difficult to get admission 

 to Liebig's laboratory as a student; in fact, 

 it was one of his conditions, on accepting the 

 professorship at Munich, that he should not 

 give his time or attention to students. In 

 appearance, Liebig was large of stature and 

 of fine bearing; one of nature's noblemen, 

 but very emphatic in berating his assistants 

 when the experiments went wrong, his lan- 

 guage on such occasions being more remark- 

 able for condensed energy than for rhetorical 

 elegance. 



Professor Brewer, who is the oldest living 

 pupil of Liebig in this country, and who has 

 been his devoted follower in the line of agri- 

 cultural chemistry, told of his enthusiastic 

 desire to study under him, aroused by reading 

 a translation of his work on agriculture in 

 1846. A few years later he went abroad, and 

 with letters of introduction went to Munich. 

 Here he found Ogden Eood, afterward pro- 



