Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Chemical Physiology
”
30
), which turned out to be sucessful: “The essay
made much more noise than I hoped. The mathematicians, professors,
philologists were irritated because of the disdainful manner they are
treated, as they say.”
31
Liebig also used simple words and clear sentences that anyone could
understand, and thus contributed not only to the formation of the chemi-
cal language,
32
but also to the broader public education. In addition, he
frequently used simple images and analogies drawn from ordinary life,
particularly in his
Letters on Agriculture
and in the last editions of the
Agricultural Chemistry
. The first part of the first volume of the seventh
edition of the
Agricultural Chemisty
was a model of simplicity and non-
specialization, making clear to everyone the principles of his agriculture
and the crucial importance of chemistry for improving crops without ex-
hausting the earth. The farmer must respect the great principle of chemis-
try: nothing is left, nothing is created, everything changes. The prosperity
of the ancient little farm, of Chinese agriculture, rested on the principle
of restitution, the first law of the circulation of elements. Regarding ma-
nure as a magic remedy to save our exhausted fields was the same as
seeking for the philosopher's stone.
6. Conclusion
During the second half of his life, Liebig worked as a propagator of
chemistry, partly at the expense of his scientific activity. He was deter-
mined to make his science known to the general public, as a primary
service to chemistry. In 1851, he dedicated to Dumas his
Nouvelles
Lettres sur la Chimie
: “I have tried to popularize the doctrines for which
you played such an important part.” (Liebig 1852) However, he was
never really in agreement with Dumas's doctrines. Rather than teaching
doctrines, Liebig placed chemistry in the very center of everybody's
daily life. Since '
alles ist Chemie
', everybody had to know chemistry.
Without any of our modern means of mass communication, Liebig
30
Liebig to Vieweg, May and June 1840.
31
Liebig to Vieweg, 12 June 1840.
32
Brock (1997, p. 223) quotes the Grimm brothers' homage in their
Deutsches Wörter-
buch
: in Liebig's mouth, chemistry becomes '
Sprachgewalt
'.
