7 10 Wohler and Liebig. [December, 
and yet neither has a very clear idea what the other is like ; 
though this is hardly astonishing, considering the lapse of 
time since we met. These thoughts occur to me while 
looking over your last letter, which contains reproaches that 
ought to provoke me if they were not wholly unmerited, and 
if your kind intention were not peeping out between the 
lines. All this, however, is necessary to keep up the 
humorous side of our friendship, and I am very glad that it 
should be so, and that Science should in some degree profit 
by it.” 
In 1831 Wohler resigned, quite unexpectedly, his functions 
at Berlin. The reason for this sudden change may partly 
be found in disagreeable dissensions with his colleagues, and 
partly in his being overburdened with heterogeneous work, 
which hindered his indulging in scientific occupation. A 
school of industry being set up about this time at Cassel, he 
accepted the proposal of going there as a teacher, on con- 
dition that he should leCture on the same subject as at 
Berlin. 
In December, 1831, he writes to Liebig: — “ Everything is 
now most satisfactorily arranged here, and my position at 
the School of Industry will be the same as at Berlin. My 
heart ached when I was offered leave of absence for a whole 
year on condition that I should stay, but for honour’s sake 
I could not aCt otherwise.” 
In 1832 Wohler entered on his functions at Cassel ; his 
innate love for experimental research had revived after a 
period of rest, and the letters of the two friends abound in 
new projects ; they both know perfectly well that they are 
mutually dependent on one another. 
In the midst of his scientific plans Wohler is afflicted by a 
heavy stroke of fate. He loses his young wife after their 
having been united only for two years. In these hard times 
friendship is the goal which opens to the shipwrecked men. 
Liebig does not rest until he knows his almost despairing 
friend safe under his own hospitable roof ; and now the two 
men work for the first time side by side, and the results of 
their efforts are deposed in the admirable work on Benzoic 
Acid. 
Wohler to Liebig. 
“ Cassel, August 30, 1832. 
“ I have now returned to my dreary solitude, and do not 
know how to thank you sufficiently for your love. I have 
