XXIX 



of promise of future greatness. It is related by Liebig that when they 

 had accomplished some difficult work, such, for instance, as satisfac- 

 torily finishing a difficult analysis, Gay-Lussac would often take him 

 by the hand and the two would dance together around the laboratory 

 table. 



The result of Liebig's study under Gay-Lussac was that the latter 

 recommended the youth so strongly to the Grand Duke Ludwig, that 

 the Grand Duke on his own responsibility appointed him Professor 

 Extraordinary of Chemistry at the University of Giessen. It will easily 

 be understood that Liebig was regarded with jealousy by the majority 

 of his elder colleagues, and found but little support and sympathy in his 

 endeavours for the reform of chemical instruction. 



Liebig, however, was able to overcome all obstacles. Two years after- 

 wards he was promoted to the Professorship of Chemistry. He made 

 every arrangement within his power, even at his own personal expense 

 and risk, for his own and his students' work. His reputation rapidly 

 increased ; and when it had at last spread to such an extent that young 

 chemists came from all parts of Europe to work under him, the State at 

 length resolved to build him a large Chemical Laboratory outside of 

 Giessen. 



Liebig's scientific activity may be divided into two periods, the first 

 from 1824 to about 1839, which was specially devoted to pure Chemistry, 

 and the second from 1840, when his labours in the department of 

 Applied Chemistry began to be prominent. 



There is scarcely a branch of chemistry into which Liebig's activity 

 did not extend. Perhaps no other chemist excepting Berzelius had 

 accomplished so many difficult investigations. The 'Annalen der Chemie 

 mid Pharmacie,' which he edited conjointly with others, contain more 

 than 200 papers on various branches of pure and applied chemistry. 



Great as were Liebig's services in all branches of the science, that of 

 Organic Chemistry is chiefly indebted to him, and he is accordingly 

 called the founder of Organic Chemistry. There may be a difference of 

 opinion as to how far its foundation was already laid, but it cannot be 

 denied that Liebig contributed more than any other chemist of his time 

 to the edifice. 



The so-called organic substances originating in plants and animals 

 had, at the period when Liebig entered on his scientific career, been 

 already the subject of many chemical researches, and it was already 

 known that all, unlimited as they are in number, contained carbon 

 combined with hydrogen, and sometimes oxygen or nitrogen in regular 

 proportions ; but just as it was supposed that they owed their origin to 

 other than chemical forces, it was imagined that their relation to each 

 other was something quite different from that subsisting between inor- 

 ganic mineral substances. 



But Liebig soon came to the distinct conviction that even if there 



