1908-9.] Life and Chemical Work of Archibald S. Couper. 197 
university attendance we may conclude that Couper had decided not to 
follow his father’s business, and that his father was pleased to allow his 
talented son the choice of a learned career. 
In Edinburgh the study of philosophy took its place beside that of 
language. Couper attended the lectures of Sir William Hamilton on logic 
and on metaphysics, and of Professor MacDougal on moral philosophy. 
Still Couper does not seem to have taken to chemistry ; at least, we find 
no mention of scientific studies in his notebooks. 
Next summer, 1853, Couper and Hamilton returned to Germany and 
spent some weeks on a visit to Berring’s family in Minden, Westphalia. 
They then made a tour through South Germany, North Italy and the 
Tyrol, and returned to Scotland. 
In the autumn of 1854, or the spring of 1855, Couper came again to 
Berlin, which evidently had an attraction for him. His friendship with 
Berring, who was then studying engineering at the “ Bauakademie ” in 
Berlin, led the two to take rooms together in a small private hotel. 
75 Dorotheenstrasse, where they lived together till Couper left Berlin for 
Paris in August 1856. 
In the meantime Couper had made up his mind for physical science 
in general and for chemistry in particular. We have no means of know- 
ing what influences or considerations led to this decision, but in any case 
the turn for chemistry was not present in his early youth, but must have 
gradually developed during the years of his university life. Berring 
cannot now with certainty give the name of Couper’s teacher of chemistry 
in Berlin, but he thinks he worked under Rammelsberg. However that 
may be, there is no doubt that he attended Sonnenschein’s lectures on 
analytical chemistry, and worked for two months in the summer of 1856 
in his laboratory. In short, he used the three or four sessions he spent 
in Germany to perfect himself in analytical chemistry. 
While many of his countrymen went to Heidelberg or to Munich, to 
work under Bunsen or to hear Liebig’s lectures, Couper turned to Paris 
and found a place in Wurtz’s laboratory. 
In passing, it may be mentioned that in the same year Kekule began 
to lecture in Heidelberg, his chemical student days lay behind him when 
Couper’s hah just begun. 
With astonishing rapidity, after only three or four sessions of chemical 
study, Couper had acquired the knowledge and the skill necessary 
to enable him to carry out independently experimental chemical 
investigations. 
On Couper’s arrival in Paris, Wurtz had just published his brilliant 
