Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
results “with the pen”; and from those of “poor Henry and Plisson who
are using bad methods of beginners”.
4
Although Liebig's method of or-
ganic analyses was only an improvement upon the works of many previ-
ous chemists, his laboratory quickly became a place to which many
chemists from around the world traveled.
5
The publication of his
Anleitung zur Analyse organischer Körper
(1837) pushed Liebig to the center of the international stage and made
him on par with the most eminent chemists of the time, Berzelius and
Dumas. Liebig took over the fifth edition of P. Geiger's
Handbuch der
Pharmacie
, which became the
Handbuch der Chemie
(1843), he edited
the
Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie
(1842ff.), and
since 1832 the
Annalen der Pharmacie
, which he used to make his own
ideas widely known.
However, with the two violent pamphlets, 'Der Zustand der Chemie
in Österreich' ('The State of Chemistry in Austria', 1838) and, particu-
larly, 'Der Zustand der Chemie in Preussen' (1840, 'The State of Chem-
istry in Prussia'), Liebig began to act as a propagator of chemistry, a sci-
ence that had to be known, to be taught, and to be valued. Up to then,
chemistry “had been the servant of the physician, because it provided
purgatives and emetics […] it did not exist in the universities apart from
medicine and pharmacy”. Useful to make soda and soap, to improve iron
and steel, to prepare dyes for cotton and silk, it was not considered an
element of intellectual education or research of nature (Liebig 1840).
“Chemistry proceeds by answering questions, just as physics does. It
teaches the way to know the various substances of which the crust of the
earth consists, the constitution of animal and vegetable organisms.”
(Ibid., p. 112)
From 1840 on, Liebig's occupations began to change as reflected in
the titles of his publications:
Organic Chemistry in its Applications to
Agriculture and Physiology
,
Animal Chemistry or Organic chemistry in
its Applications to Physiology and Pathology
,
Familiar Letters on Chem-
istry and its Relation to Commerce
,
Physiology and Agriculture
,
Chemische Briefe
, and
Nouvelles Lettres sur la Chimie
, while his scien-
4
Berzelius to Liebig, 8 Jan. 1831, 8 May 1831.
5
Cf
. Wöhler to Liebig, 8 May 1839.
