xxvii 



Wurtz, Foucault, Verdet and Bregnet, Himly, Regnault, Robin and 

 Serret. 



When the Institut Agronomique was founded at Versailles in 18,50, 

 Wurtz was appoiuted Professor of Chemistry in it. His appointment, 

 however, was not of long duration, for the new institution was sup- 

 pressed in 1852 by the Prince President. He lost his appointment 

 just as he was about to marry, and it was 25 years before this insti- 

 tution, so much needed fo<r the promotion of agricultural science, was 

 re-established. 



Wurtz was ere long amply compensated for this disappointment 

 by his election as Professor at the Faculte de Medecine in 1853. 

 Dumas had resigned his chair, and Orfila, who had been Professor of 

 Mineral and Toxicological Chemistry, was dead. The two chairs 

 were now united and Wurtz appointed to the post. It might seem a 

 ■■difficult task to replace two men of such talent and reputation, but 

 Wurtz was equal to the emergency, and for 30 years his lecture room 

 was crowded by students who nocked to hear him, attracted by his 

 lucidity and masterly exposition. Whilst lecturing, he would go from 

 the table where his experiments were made, to the black board, all 

 the time speaking with eloquence and vivacity, talking of chemical 

 combinations with as much enthusiasm as though his subject had 

 been the welfare of a State. He always prepared his lectures care- 

 fully beforehand, and more and more carefully as years went on. 



The principal laboratory where Wurtz worked surrounded by his 

 students had been taken in from the little lecture room of the 

 Faculte. It was lofty, with a vaulted roof, and very light, and held 

 about a dozen students besides the Professor. The balances, which 

 were placed on a little stand in the amphitheatre itself, were not 

 accessible while the lectures were going on. Several adjoining rooms, 

 which were at first used for special experiments on a large scale, such 

 as combustions, &c, had afterwards to be given up for the ordinary 

 work for the additional students who came to Wurtz's laboratory. 



Wurtz had only a very moderate sum allowed him for the expense 

 of his course, yet he managed with this and the help of some subscrip- 

 tions from his pupils not only to buy apparatus and substances, but 

 to defray the expenses of various alterations and improvements. His 

 attempts to get a larger allowance for these purposes never succeeded 

 until years afterwards, when as Dean he obtained a rather larger 

 salary, and first one, then a second assistant. 



In the year 1862, being then in London, on the occasion of the 

 Universal Exhibition, Wurtz gave an address to the Chemical Society, 

 ' tour l'Oxyde d'fithyl ene considere comme un lien entre la Chimie 

 Organique et la Chimie Minerale." 



In 1864, he being then in his 47th year, he was elected a Foreign 

 Member of the Royal Society. 



