April 26, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
857 
chemistry. At the age of fifteen, therefore, his father 
placed him in a pharmaceutical establishment at Pappen- 
heim. At the end of a year, however, he proceeded to 
the University at Bonn, and from thence to Erlangen, 
where he took his degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
About 1822, while not yet of age, he was sent to 
Paris at the expense of the Grand Duke of Hesse, where 
he prosecuted his studies and was received on friendly 
terms by the most celebrated French chemists. How 
vivid an impression was made upon the young student by 
the kindness which he received in Paris, was shown in an 
address delivered by him before the Bavarian Academy 
of Sciences, nearly half a century afterwards, and at the 
close of the dreadful war between his own country and 
France. “When I went to Paris to study chemistry,” he 
said, accident drew Alexander von Humboldt’s attention 
upon me, and a recommending word of his induced Guy- 
Lussac, one of the greatest chemists and physicists of his 
time, to propose to me, a youth of twenty, to continue and 
complete under his assistance an investigation of mine ; he 
placed me in his private laboratory as pupil and assistant; 
the whole course of my life was thereby decided. Never 
shall I forget the kindness with which Arago, Dulong, 
and Thenard met the German student; and how many of 
my German compatriots might I name, who, like myself, 
thankfully recollect the active assistance in the pursuit of 
their scientific studies given to them by French savants /” 
The “ accident ” that drew Humboldt’s attention to 
Liebig was a memoir which, in 1823, he communicated to 
the French Academy of Sciences, entitled ‘ Sur 1’Argent 
et le Mercure fulminant; ’ and one result of his labours in 
Guy-Lussac’s laboratory was an ‘ Analyse du Fulminate 
d’Argent,’ published in their joint names. Humboldt did 
not cease to be interested in his young countryman, and 
chiefly by his recommendation Liebig was appointed Pro¬ 
fessor Extraordinary of Chemistry at Giessen at the age 
of twenty-one. Two years afterwards he became Ordinary 
Professor of Chemistry in the same university. Here, 
with the assistance of the Government, he so developed 
the teaching of practical chemistry and raised the renown 
of the school, that the laboratory was sought by students 
from all parts of the world, and some of his pupils,—such 
as Will and Fresenius, Hofmann, Playfair, Blyth,,—have 
in their turn won world-wide reputations. 
But the professorial chair did not absorb all Liebig’s 
energies, and memoirs that may be numbered by hundreds, 
and in every one of which his ability and industry were 
made increasingly manifest, came from his pen. In 1837 
he attended a meeting of the British Association, where 
he read a paper on the Composition and Chemical Rela¬ 
tions of Uric Acid, which attracted considerable attention, 
and, at the request of the Association, he undertook to 
draw up two reports, one on Organic Chemistry, and 
another on Isomeric Bodies. The matured result of this 
engagement appeared in 1842, as a Report on Organic 
Chemistry applied to Physiology and Pathology, which 
was published in the British Association Reports of that 
year. His ‘ Familiar Letters on Chemistry in its Rela¬ 
tions to Physiology, Dietetics, Agriculture, Commerce, 
and Political Economy’ rapidly passed through several 
editions in England and America, and were also translated 
into Italian. In their English form many persons in this 
country first became acquainted with the author’s views 
upon the chemistry of agriculture, which have in recent 
years so powerfully influenced farming operations. In these 
letters also he put forth his views upon the Food question, 
and described the preparation of the aqueous extract of 
meat with which his name is now so widely associated. 
Doubts as to the correctness of his conclusions and mis¬ 
understandings as to what he really did say having arisen, 
Liebig in a recent communication to this Joumal, and pro¬ 
bably nearly the last that came from his pen, defended his 
views with all his old force and clearness. Another im¬ 
portant subject dealt with by Liebig was Fermentation, 
and in a memoir read before the Academy of Bavaria he 
disputed the theory of the eminent French chemist Pasteur 
as to its origin ; a translation of this memoir, sanctioned 
by the author, was published in this Journal. Pasteur 
took up the challenge, at a meeting of the French Academy, 
and the subject has been there discussed with a heat un¬ 
usually scientific, and has developed so many ramifications 
as to make it almost impossible to follow them. Liebig 
also assisted Poggendorf in his ‘ Dictionary of Chemistry’ 
and Geiger in his ‘Manual of Pharmacy.’ But we cannot 
enumerate the various productions of his pen. He is 
said to have been the sole author of nearly three hundred 
memoirs, and from thirty to forty were issued jointly with 
other chemists, such as Dumas, Guy-Lussac, Mitscherlich,. 
Pelouze, Pfaff, Rose, and Wohler. Many of them ap¬ 
peared in the Annalen cler Chemie und Pharmacie, of which 
he was a joint-editor. 
Recognition of the value of his scientific labours came 
to him from all quarters. Professorial chairs, both in this 
country and on the Continent, including that at Heidelberg 
vacated by the death of Gmelin, were offered to him, but 
were declined, until in .1852 he accepted office in the 
University of Munich. In 1840 he was chosen a foreign 
member of the Royal Society and received the Copley 
medal.. In 1845 he was made a baron by the Grand Duke 
of Hesse-Darmstadt. He was also elected an honorary 
or corresponding member of most of the learned societies 
in Europe and America. 
The final honours were paid to Baron Liebig in a public 
funeral which took place on Sunday last. He was buried 
at Munich, where it is intended to raise a monument to his. 
memory. 
DR. H. BENCE JONES, F.R.S. 
It is our painful duty this week to record the death of 
two distinguished men whose lives were devoted to the 
advancement of chemical, medical, and pharmaceutical 
science, and who, by the countenance and support they 
gave to the Pharmaceutical Society in its early days, con¬ 
tributed to its successful progress and permanent establish¬ 
ment. Thirty years ago it was no small benefit to the 
struggling but rising Institution in Bloomsbury Square, 
that such men as Liebig and Bence Jones were among 
those who, by their presence as visitors in the then recently 
formed laboratories of the Society, tended to stimulate and 
encourage the little band of working students, some of 
whom have since attained to eminence in their profession. 
The visit of Professor Liebig to our Laboratory, his inquiry 
into all the operations in progress by the students, and his 
instructive remarks and explanations on every subject 
brought under his notice, must be fresh in the memory of 
those who were present on the occasion. Although less 
prominently, yet more frequently, about the same time. 
Dr. H. Bence Jones, then rising to eminence as a chemist 
as well as physician, visited the laboratories of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, and often carried on experiments and 
investigations there with his friend Mr. Fownes, who occu¬ 
pied the chair of chemistry in the Institution. The working 
laboratory of the Pharmaceutical Society was at that time 
a new and unique institution in this country, the establish¬ 
ment of which was soon afterwards followed by those of the 
College of Chemistry under Professor Hofmann, and the 
Birkbeck Laboratory at University College under Professor 
Fownes. In all these provisions for the advancement of che¬ 
mical knowledge Dr. Bence J ones took a deep interest, in¬ 
dicating his attachment to this department of science, and 
his thorough knowledge of chemistry and aptitude for che¬ 
mical investigation were applied especially in the direction 
of physiology and therapeutics. For many years he had a 
chemical laboratory in his house, and an accomplished che¬ 
mical assistant constantly engaged in carrying out his in\ es- 
tigations. After the premature death of his friend Professor 
Fownes, Dr. Jones became one of the editors of Fownes s 
‘ Manual of Chemistry,’ with which his name has been so 
long associated. For many years he has taken an active 
part of the management of the Royal Institution, and. 
continued to act as its Honorary Secretary until ill-health 
