1884.] 
Wohler and Liebig. y n 
been supremely happy in working side by side with vou 
dear friend. J ’ 
I send you here enclosed the essay on Amygdalic Oil. 
the writing of it kept me longer than I thought it would. 
1 beg you will read the whole with great attention, and es- 
pecially to have an eye on the ciphers and formula. Please 
change without much ado what does not suit you. I often 
feel that something is not as it ought to be, but I cannot 
hnd the right expression for it.” 
In 1836 an important change took place in Wohler’s life. 
He was elected Professor of Chemistry at Gottingen, 
leaching thus the goal of his ambition — a Professorship at 
a Gei man University. With renewed zeal Wohler, seconded 
by Liebig, devoted himself now to scientific researches, and 
duiing the next twenty years a series of eminent discoveries 
delighted and astonished the world. 
It is elevating, indeed, to behold the mutual endeavours 
of the two savants to investigate the realm of Nature. Their 
working in common only ceased when Liebig began to 
occupy himself with the application of chemistry to agri- 
culture and physiology. He often regretted, in after times, 
having abandoned this sphere of adtion, and the sight of 
the brilliant discoveries which Wohler was continually 
making awakened in his breast a feeling of regret. It is 
called forth by the consciousness of having exchanged a 
field of work where laurels bloom for one covered with 
thorns. His letters from the years 1857 to i860, when he 
lived already as a Professor at Munich, fill us with deep 
sympathy. 
Liebig to Wohler. 
“ Munich, April 15, 1857. 
“ Your letters of the 5th and of the 15th sound in my 
ears like a fairy tale. My youth, years that are past, times 
that have died away, arise in me and remind me of the time 
when we worked side by side, joyfully and without envy. 
You have kept your mind unspotted, you are able to procure 
for yourself an enjoyment that is ever new, while I feel as 
though I were a deserter, a renegade who has forsaken his 
religion. I have left the highway of Science, and my en- 
deavours to be of some use to physiology and agriculture 
are like rolling the stone of Sisyphus, — it always falls back 
on my head, and I sometimes despair of being able to make 
the ground solid.” 
