Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
a formal co-editorship, ridiculed by Wöhler,
26
but an attempt to attract a
European audience. It was also an important step of the time to make the
German pharmacists, “who are on such a high level of education”, more
involved in the advancement of chemistry: “This Journal will be preemi-
nently devoted to the new chemistry, the organic chemistry, without ex-
cluding the most important discoveries in other parts of the science.”
27
In
1840, the journal title changed to
Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie
.
Liebig also used his personal influence, contacts, friendships, and
fame to diffuse his ideas. By all means he tried to make everyone in
every country be acquainted with chemistry, including the readers of the
Allgemeiner Anzeiger
(Gotha), the chancellor of Hessen-Darmstadt, and
Napoleon III. Finlay (1998) has described how Liebig's international
contacts and political connections helped him disseminate his ideas of
chemistry across the world. Among the more curious means was an ex-
tract of meat that was marketed and branded 'Liebigs Fleischextrakt',
which propagated his name and, consequently, the image of chemistry.
In university policy, he used his connection to Linde, the chancellor of
the University of Giessen, “to raise the Institute of Natural Sciences of
Giessen to a higher level than at any other German University”, by inter-
vening into material and financial issues of the building and into new
appointments.
28
For instance, he was influential in the appointment of
Buff to the chair of physics with a decent salary, because “an education
in chemistry is impossible without a former accurate knowledge of
physics”.
29
Liebig was known as a polemicist seeking for quarrels and scandals,
such that only a few chemists and friends escaped his quarrels. However,
he deliberately used his scandals as a means to make himself and his
ideas better known. For instance, his essay 'Der Zustand…' (Liebig
1840a) was meant to raise a scandal for the propagation of his new book
(“The
Zustand
will be the best and most appropriate prospectus for our
26
Wöhler to Berzelius, 30 July 1838.
27
Liebig's 'Vorbericht' (1 Jan. 1838) in
Annalen der Pharmacie
. Note that his essay
'Der Zustand der Chemie in Österreich' was published in the same volume.
28
Liebig to Linde, 22 May 1839.
29
Liebig to Linde, Nov. and Dec. 1837.
