L I E L I E
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ODO Creasy, i , l:i> 7V/ >/ Plilfurm of International Lau allud ing to l:i~ iV.-iith, his justly said of him, ; America and the civilized vorld in general have litely had to deplore in his death the loss of one whom the French jurist M. Laboulayehas truly styled une des figures les plus originates parmi les jurisconsultes de notre temps. " Bc-?iJ:-3 the works already mentioned, Lieber published at various times miuiy smaller works an 1 pamphlets on different subjects, all of which attracted public attention, such as The Origin and L>c- rtlopr.i-:: . of the Fir* Constituents of Civilization, Great Ecent-s D>^<:rib- J. b j Grt. Hi-Joriam, Essays on Property and Labour, The I/.urj .if Pi jjs*-)-!?!, P>:na! LI.ICS and the Penitentiary System, Prison Di .sc (}/:"., Ti:>: Jldaiion between Education and Crime, Th-e Pardon- injP. r, Th-: I .nradcr oftht Gentleman, International Copyright, Lin.!- L - . I i-.s.n.ii s Vocal Sound*, On Anglican and Gallican Liberty, TJ .c 1 ;* <jf, :-: fnd Posto.l Informs, Independence of the Judicianj, _Y ( ( -. ..: ( . _ . /iiV r .-f the Constitution (an unfinished work), and many miiior tracts and publicatiDns. These works are all written vith"u.> mii -li ease and purity of idiom as if English had been his nativ-.- tonx i -. a fact not more remarkable than that he, a German, slioul 1 Ii.iv- Income the great American teacher of the philosophy of Anjlka:. political science. (M. R. T.) LIEBIG, JUSTUS (1 803-1 S37), was bom at Darmstadt in l*i. 3. His father carried on business as a dry-salter and dealer in dye-stuffs, and mad-? various experiments with a view- to improved methods of preparing and purifying his wares. These I-.-J the sou to take aa interest in chemistry, and to seek for knowledge in the chemical books and periodicals in the irraud-ducal library, which is rich in scientific works. At h rae 1:3 employed his time in repeating, as far as the mean? a: Lis eoninamd admitted, the experiments he found described iu books, and thus while still a boy attained a theoretical and practical knowledge of chemistry compar able with that of many full-grown professors of the science. He determined to be a chemist, to devote his life to the pursuit uf science. The only kind of chemist available for teaching purposes was the chemist and druggist, and accord ingly Liebig, at the age of fifteen, entered the shop of an apoi!i3:ary at Heppenheim near Darmstadt to study cheaiistry. He soon found out how great is the difference between practical pharmacy and scientific chemistry, and returned to Darmstadt, after ten mouths, to look for another and more likely way of attaining his object. After some months spent in study at home he entered the university of Bonn, ^-hich he soon left for Erlangen, There he attended the lectures uf Kastner on chemistry, and, besides the study of allied sciences, devoted some time to make up for the almost total neglect of school work caused by his early love of chemistry. He was much influenced by the metaphysical speculations of Schelling, and ia after life referred to this influence as injurious to him as a scientific investigator. In those days there were no laboratories accessible to ordinary students, and Liebig had to content himself with what the university could give him in the lecture-rc.om and in th-j library. Both at Bonn and at Erlangen he formed a students chemical and physical society for the discussion of new discoveries and speculations as these appeared in scientific books or periodicals. In 1822 he left Erlansren with the degree of Ph.D. By means of the liberality of Loui> I , grand-duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, Liebig was enable! to continue his chemical studies in Paris. There he mile the acquaintance of Kunge, Mitscherlich, and Gustav R >se. He attended the lectures of Gay-Lussac, Thenard, and Dulong, and, while carrying on the investiga tion into the composition and properties of the fulminates which he hil already partly published, he attempted, as at Erlangen, to work up his neglected school studies. The results uf his work on the fulminates were communicated to the Academy of Sciences, and attracted the favourable attention of Humboldt. who was at that time in Paris. Humboldt introduced Liebig to Gay-Lussac, who admitted him into his private laboratory as a pupil. Here he had opportunities of learning all the mysteries of the art from -ue of the most skilful and ingenious of experimenters. It v.-as on the advice of Humboldt that Liebig determined to become a teacher of chemistry, but difficulties stood in his way. As a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, he ought, according to the academical rules of the time, to have studied and graduated at the university of Giessen, and Humboldt had to use his influence to induce the authorities to forgive his having attended the foreign university of Erlangen. After examination his Erlangen degree was recognized, and in 1824, in his twenty-first year, he was appointed extra ordinary professor of chemistry iu the university of Giessen. Two years later he was promoted to the post of ordinary professor, which he held for twenty-five years, notwith standing the most tempting offers from other universities. It was here, in the small town and small university of Giessen, that by far the most of Liebig s work was done. He began by remedying the evil which as a student he had himself felt. He induced the Darmstadt Government to build a chemical laboratory in which any student of the university might obtain a thorough practical training. It is difficult for us, who live in a time when nearly every university and many schools possess well-arranged and often well-endowed laboratories, to understand how great a revolution was made in the practical teaching of physical science by the foundation of the Giessen laboratory. We can form some idea of it by reading Liebig s articles on the condition of chemistry in Austria, and Prussia, in which he goes over in detail the means of teaching afforded in the various universities of those great countries. He tells us that in 1838 two young Prussians came to Giessen to study chemistry, unable to obtain entrance to a laboratory in their own country, but were ordered back again by the Prussian Government. Fortunately other Governments were less strict, or other students were less obedient, and crowds of young men anxious to study chemistry came to Giessen, and carried home the light there acquired. Partly by Liebig s urgent appeals to the interests and to the shame of the great German states, partly by the influence of his pupils, a great reform was effected, and German universities now vie with one another ia offering opportunities of practi cal instruction in chemistry and the other physical sciences. The amount and the importance of the laboratory work done by Liebig in Giessen were very great Without con sidering here the work done by his students under his direction, of which no doubt a very large part was conceived by him, and in the execution of which he constantly contri buted his assistance and advice, we shall look only at what appears under his own name. During the twenty-six years he spent at Giessen as ordinary professor, he contributed to scientific journals more than two hundred papers, about twenty of which were records of joint work, chiefly with AVuhler. During the same time he published his works ou organic analysis, organic chemistry, chemistry applied to physiology and agriculture, his Chemical Letters, and many smaller treatises. From 1832 he was joint editor of the Annalen der Pharmacie, from 1837 of the Handvnjrter- bitch der reinen und anrjeirandtai Chemif, and from 1847 to 1856 of the Jahreslericht dfr Chemte. These statements give some idea of the amount of his work ; of its import ance and of its effect on the history of science we shall speak later. In 1845 he was raised to the hereditary rank of baron under the title of Freiherr von Liebig. In 1852 he accepted the invitation of the Bavarian Government to the ordinary professorship of chemistry in the university of Munich". This office he held till his death in 1873. In private life Liebig was hospitable, courteous, and kindly. Honoured by all the great scientific societies of the world, and regarded by almost every one as the great authority in chemistry, he a-sumed no airs of superiority,
