Annual Report of the Council. 229 



Six months later he became a Privat-docent in the same 

 University, presenting as his " Habilitations-Schrift " an 

 essay "on the chemical theories of Berthollet and Berzelius." 

 He became in 1866 Professor at the Forest School at 

 Ebersvvald, in 1868 Professor at the Karlsruhe Polytechnicum, 

 and finally was elected to the Chair of Chemistry at 

 Tubingen, which he occupied until his death on the nth of 

 April, 1895. Lothar Meyer will be chiefly remembered for two 

 things, his book on " The Modern Theories of Chemistry," 

 and his share in the development of the Periodic Law, for 

 which, in 1882, he was awarded a Davy medal by the Royal 

 Society, the perhaps more important work of MendeleefF 

 on the same subject being recognised by a similar and 

 simultaneous distinction. Nothing is more interesting than 

 to note the way in which Lothar Meyer's thin pamphlet 

 of 1864 grew to its bulky fifth edition* : an increase 

 not disproportionate to the increase in our knowledge of 

 the more general aspects of chemistry, towards the study 

 of which the book itself and its author's original work 

 had contributed so powerfully. It should be remembered 

 that Ostwald's " Allgemeine Chemie " is dedicated, and fitly 

 dedicated, to Lothar Meyer, who continued the tradition of 

 the great critical chemists, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and (in his 

 younger days) Berzelius. Between the years 1830 and 

 1870 the great structure of organic chemistry had grown 

 so rapidly and wonderfully, that there was some temptation 

 for the younger men to turn their eyes away from the study 

 of other portions of the subject, and to develop chemistry 

 in a one-sided way. Doubtless in time the task might 

 have been accomplished by someone else ; but, as it 

 is, the new school of physical chemists, which has averted 

 the danger, owes its immediate origin to the labours 

 of Lothar Meyer. Meyer's critical power is, perhaps, 

 nowhere better illustrated than in a short essay, which 



* Translated into English by Professors Bedson and Williams. 



