xiv 



consult, he now had access to Dr. Buch's rich library. His room was 

 gradually converted into a laboratory, full of glasses, retorts, flasks, 

 stones, &c, all in the utmost disorder. Experiments requiring heat, 

 which he could not carry on in this room, he used to make in the 

 kitchen, where he pressed all the basins into his service. He likewise 

 built up a small voltaic pile with some large Russian copper coins and 

 zinc plates, and became acquainted with their property of decomposing 

 water and causing shocks. This pile had not power enough to reduce 

 potassium; but his desire to see and possess this remarkable metal, 

 which he only knew from description, was so great that he endea- 

 voured to procure it chemically, according to the method followed by 

 Curandau, an operation which was not easy, but which, to his great 

 satisfaction, succeeded. By way of a stove he made use of a large old 

 tile of graphite, which Bunsen, the Master of the Mint, had given 

 him. Bunsen had also lent him a pair of bellows, which Wohler's 

 sister used to blow. 



Wohler had many other interests and occupations besides, these 

 scientific experiments ; he took regular lessons in drawing, to which 

 his father, who was himself a good draughtsman, attached much 

 importance, and when making excursions in the neighbourhood, in the 

 Taunus, on the Rhine, &c, he always had his sketch-book with him. 

 He also painted in oils. One of his hobbies was collecting old coins, 

 of which he had a considerable number, as also of Roman urns, lamps, 

 &c, which at that time were still frequently found in the old Roman 

 camps at Gaddersheim, Maintz, and Wiesbaden. He also began a 

 closer study of the German poets, under the guidance of the young 

 painter from whom he learnt drawing. 



Wohler was as yet too young to have a clear insight into the great 

 political events of that time, but as a boy he saw the triumphant 

 entrance of Napoleon into Frankfort, and later on the entrance of the 

 allied armies, and of the Cossacks, &c. 



His father paid special attention to his physical development, to the 

 strengthening and invigorating of his rather weakly frame by regular 

 physical exercises such as riding, gymnastics, fencing, swimming, &c, 

 and by shooting, both in winter and summer. 



At Easter, 1820, he being then nearly twenty years of age, young 

 Wohler was sent to the University as 'prima. It had been previously 

 settled by a family conclave that he should study medicine, not only 

 because he wished it himself, but also because for several reasons this 

 profession seemed to offer him the best prospects. He passed his first 

 year of studentship in Marburg, where his father had studied before 

 him, and where there were old family friends residing who could look 

 after and advise the inexperienced student. He attended Ullmann's 

 lectures on mineralogy, those on botany by Windewitz, Gerling's 

 lectures on physics and mathematics, Bunger's lectures on anatomy, 



