LIEBIG AND THE UNIVERSITY OF GIESSEN. 
LIEBIG AND THE UNIVERSITY OF 
GIESSEN. 
Giessen impresses the approaching traveller plea¬ 
santly. It is situated on the Lahn, one of the tribu¬ 
taries of the Rhine, upon basaltic peaks; on either 
side, are the ruins of castles and towers seven or 
eight hundred years old. Between them, and upon 
the Lahn, the cultivation is carried to a high degree of 
perfection ; orchards of fruit trees, and woods of oak, 
birch and evergreen, beautify the landscape; and, be¬ 
side the city of Giessen, not less than ten villages are 
seen, across the valley and about, among the hills. 
The road enters the “ new town,” in which the 
medical college, Liebig’s laboratory and residence, 
and a series of beautiful edifices, more nearly in the 
massive Tuscan style than any other, are situated. 
Two low stone edifices mark the entrance to the 
■“ city proper,” encircling which,—a distance of, I 
suppose, a mile and a half—is a fine promenade, oc¬ 
cupying the site of the old ramparts. This prome¬ 
nade is skirted throughout with trees, and conducts 
one through a change of scene, looking from Gies¬ 
sen across the valley of the Lahn, that in summer 
must be especially beautiful. The old town has no¬ 
thing to commend it to grateful consideration. Lon¬ 
don is said to have crooked streets, but they are 
straight lines, compared with the irregular avenues of 
Giessen'; and the buildings along the streets are not 
parallel with anything, even to the direction of the 
streets or the structures opposite. The houses, with 
scarcely an exception, are constructed of wooden 
frames, filled in with brick, and plastered over within 
and without; and the bracing of the frame-work is 
anything but a display of architectural skill. The 
hotels have passages for carriages through the first 
story, and are entered, not from the front, but from 
the carriage-way. The pavements are excruciating, 
the citizens seeming scarcely to have known the lux¬ 
ury of a sidewalk. Even the pebbles of basalt 
which are strewn over the street, and ground to 
powder by the pondrous unwieldy freight-wagons, 
are swept away in a short time by the scavengers, 
and preserved for enriching soils. 
But I have already too long postponed an account 
of the sun of this German scientific world—the man 
who has congregated in his laboratory students from 
every kingdom of Europe, Great Britain, and from 
America; who is in organic chemistry, what Newton 
and Laplace were in astronomy and mathematics— 
Justus Liebig. My first interview with him was in 
his private laboratory. The reception seemed to me 
rather that of a military officer, than that of a scien¬ 
tific man. He was manifestly engrossed with some 
matters of thought, and while he conducted me 
through the apartments of his great laboratory, I 
could not but feel, that working and thinking were 
the only avocations known here. A gentleman to 
whom I was introduced, spoke in a subdued tone, as 
if conversation were contraband. Liebig turns to 
me and says, “ You may converse in English for two 
or three days, but not more.” All this without a 
smile. I then went to seek my lodgings rather de¬ 
pressed. A few days rolled over, and I was one of 
an audience of about a hundred chemical students, 
assembled in the lecture room, awaiting the entrance 
of the distinguished man. The course on organic 
chemistry was about to commence. Gentlemen in 
every variety of costume, with note-books, pens and 
17 u 
ink, or pencils, were seated, conversing upon various 
topics, while before was the assistant just completing 
his arrangement of the suite of substances and arti¬ 
cles of apparatus to be employed in the lecture of the 
day. The hour of eleven was on the point of strik- 
; ing, the murmur of conversation had subsided into a 
; whisper, when presently the whole audience by one 
impulse rose, and I saw entering and bowing to the 
salutation, Professor Liebig. He had just returned 
from England, where the attention of the most learn¬ 
ed, the most wealthy, the most eminent, had been 
lavished upon him, as they have been shared by no 
man of science in modern times. The published 
account of the great dinner at Glasgow had reached 
Giessen ; a welcome with appropriate honors had 
signalized his return; and now, with all these de¬ 
monstrations of regard fresh in his recollection and 
theirs, it was not difficult to see that veneration was 
mingled with the tide of emotion to which they had 
spontaneously given expression. In an instant the 
apartment was breathless, and the lecture commenc¬ 
ed. What it was about I was able to see from the 
formulas on the black-board, and from a word now 
and then which I understood; but I was too much 
absorbed with his manner to give much attention to 
what he said. He is about an inch and a half less 
than six feet, and stands quite erect. His figure is 
slender rather than stout, and cast throughout, origi¬ 
nally, in the finest mould. Toil over the table has 
given a trace of curvature to his shoulders, which is 
apparent when he stands quietly beside the black¬ 
board ; but this vanishes in his walk or animated ex¬ 
planation. All his movements, and particularly 
those connected with demonstration and experiment¬ 
ing, are graceful to a degree I have never seen equal¬ 
led. To see him in an experimental illustration, 
holding in the same hand three test tubes, and an 
equal number of glass stoppers, while with the other 
he is pouring from vessels containing re-agents, at 
first a little excited my surprise. The portraits, to 
some extent, circulated in England and America, pre¬ 
senting him in an overcoat, are caricatures. A litho¬ 
graphic lately published here is better; but no pic¬ 
ture can possibly be made of him. There is an 
expression of thought in all his movements and 
attitudes which I could scarcely have believed upon 
the mere relation. Whether with the chalk and 
black-board, and these he uses in explaining all 
decompositions and recompositions of any complex¬ 
ity ; or, with his index finger along his chin and 
nose, presenting that most singular of all gestures, or 
with his apparatus, it is all the same. He is all 
mind ; and it became as distinctly visible through his 
corporeal tenement, as his chemical compounds are 
seen through the vessels containing them. The 
detail of chemical changes is clear, and expressed in 
language comprehended by all versed in science. 
Occasionally, these details bring into review some of 
his own investigations and theories; then a new ani¬ 
mation is superadded to his ordinary bearing, .and the 
illustrations are dramatic. His large eyes expand, his 
features glow, and his gesticulations are such, that I 
have fancied one might almost understand some of 
his themes, even if he were unable to hear. His 
notes consist of a few formula written out upon two 
or three strips of paper. The remark which I have 
heard made, that Liebig is not an expounder of chem¬ 
istry, or an operator in chemistry, but is chemistry, 
