THE QUARTERLY 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



APRIL, 1871. 



I. A PAGE OF SCIENTIFIC HISTORY : 



REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE ROYAL 

 COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY. 



By A. W. Hofmann, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 



tHE Royal College of Chemistry owes its origin to the 

 grand development of chemical science which took place 

 towards the middle of this century, more especially 

 due to the labours of Professor Liebig, then teaching 

 chemistry in the small University of Giessen. At that time 

 Liebig had already written his " Chemistry Applied to Agri- 

 culture," in which he, for the first time, had laid the true 

 scientific foundation of this most important of all human 

 trades. His work on "Animal Chemistry," which gave a 

 new start to physiological and pathological researches, had 

 just appeared, and his " Familiar Letters on Chemistry " 

 had opened to the many a field of scientific instruction 

 which hitherto had been accessible but to few. But Liebig 

 had done more than this. He had founded a school of 

 chemistry — indeed, the first school of chemistry. Between 

 the years 1835 and 1845, the University of Giessen pos- 

 sessed the only laboratory in which not only chemical 

 analysis, but also the art of performing chemical researches, 

 more especially in the department of organic chemistry, was 

 systematically taught. Young men from all quarters of the 

 globe flocked to Giessen for the purpose of studying under 

 Liebig's auspices, and the number of important chemical 

 investigations which at that period emanated from the 

 Giessen laboratory might with truth be said to form an era 

 in the history of scientific discovery. 



It was more especially in England that the progress 

 of Liebig's school had been watched with deep interest. 

 English agriculture and English industry had obviously 

 received a powerful impulse from the researches carried out 

 by Liebig and his pupils, and the idea very naturally sug- 

 gested itself that the establishment of a similar school in 

 England would materially accelerate their further progress. 



VOL. VIII. (O.S.) — VOL. I. (N.S.) U 



