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LIEBIG, JUSTUS VON, BARON (1803-1873) , German chemist, was born at Darmstadt, according to his baptismal certificate, on the 12th of May 1803 (4th of May, according to his mother). His father, a drysalter and dealer in colours, used sometimes to make experiments in the hope of finding improved processes for the production of his wares, and thus his son early acquired familiarity with practical chemistry. For the theoretical side he read all the text-books which he could find, somewhat to the detriment of his -ordinary school studies. Having determined to make chemistry his profession, at the age of fifteen he entered the shop of an apothecary at Appenheim, near Darmstadt; but he soon found how great is the difference between practical pharmacy and scientific chemistry, and the explosions and other incidents that accompanied his private efforts to increase his chemical knowledge disposed his master to view without regret his departure at the end of ten months. He next entered the university of Bonn, but migrated to Erlangen when the professor of chemistry, K. W. G. Kastner (1783-1857), was appointed in 1821 to the chair of physics and chemistry at the latter university. He followed this professor to learn how to analyse certain minerals, but in the end be found that the teacher himself was ignorant of the process. Indeed, as he himself said afterwards, it was a wretched time for chemistry in Germany. No laboratories were accessible to ordinary students, who had to content themselves with what the universities could give in the lecture room and the library, and though both at Bonn and Erlangen Liebig
Liebig
Apart from Liebig's labours for the improvement of chemical teaching, the influence of his experimental researches and of his contributions to chemical thought was felt in every branch of the science. In regard to methods and apparatus, mention should be made of his improvements in the technique of organic analysis, his plan for determining the natural alkaloids and for ascertaining the molecular weights of organic bases by means of their chloroplatinates, his process for determining the quantity of urea in asolutionthe first step towards the introduction of precise chemical methods into practical medicineand his invention of the simple form of condenser known in every laboratory. His contributions to inorganic chemistry were numerous, including investigations on the compounds of antimony, aluminium, silicon, &c., on the separation of nickel and cobalt, and on the analysis of mineral
series of compounds obtained from oil of bitter almonds, throughout which it behaved like an element. Berzelius hailed this discovery as marking the dawn of a new era in organic chemistry, and proposed for benzoyl the names " Proin " or " Orthrin " (from 7rpn.,1 and o"pOpvs). A continuation of their work on bitter almond oil by Liebig and Wohler, who remained firm friends for the rest of their lives, resulted in the elucidation of the mode of formation of that substance and in the discovery of the ferment emulsin as well as the recognition of the first glucoside, amygdalin, while another and not less important and far-reaching inquiry in which they collaborated was that on uric acid, published in '837. About 1832 he began his investigations into the constitution of ether and alcohol and their derivatives. These on the one hand resulted in the enunciation of his ethyl theory, by the light of which he looked upon those substances as compounds of the radicle ethyl (C2H5), in opposition to the view of J. B. A. Dumas, who regarded them as hydrates of olefiant gas (ethylene); on the other they yielded chloroform, chloral and aldehyde, as. well as other compounds of less general interest
paper on the same subject appeared under his own name alone; by this work T. Graham s doctrine of polybasicity was extended to the organic acids. Liebig also did much to further the hydrogen theory of acids.These and other studies in pure chemistry mainly occupied his attention until about 1838, but the last thirty-five years of his life were devoted more particularly to the chemistry of the processes of life, both animal and vegetable. In animal physiology he set himself to trace out the operation of determinate chemical and physical laws in the maintenance of life and health. To this end he examined such immediate vital products as blood, bile and urine; he analysed the juices of flesh, establishing the composition of creatin and investigating its decomposition products, creatinin and sarcosin; he classified the various articles of food in accordance with the special
economy
body
special
subject was Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricultur and Physiologie in 184o, which was at once translated into English by Lyon Playfair. Rejecting the old notion that plants derive their nourishment from humus, he taught that they get carbon and nitrogen from the carbon dioxide and ammonia present in the atmosphere, these compounds being returned by them to the atmosphere by the processes of putrefaction and fermentationwhich latter he regarded as essentially chemical in naturewhile their potash, soda, lime, sulphur, phosphorus, &c., come from the soil. Of the carbon dioxide and ammonia no exhaustion can take place, but of the mineral
chief
to prevent the alkalis from being washed away by the rain he had taken pains to add them in an insoluble form, whereas, as was ultimately suggested to him by experiments performed by J. T. Way about 1850, this precaution was not only superfluous but harmful, because the soil possesses a power of absorbing the soluble saline matters required by plants and of retaining them, in spite of rain, for assimilation by the roots. Liebig's literary activity was very great. The Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers enumerates 318 memoirs under his name, exclusive of many others published in collaboration with other investigators. A certain impetuousness of character which disposed him to rush into controversy whenever doubt was cast upon the views he supported accounted for a great deal of writing, and he also carried on an extensive correspondence with Wohler and other scientific men. In 1832 he founded the Annalen der Pharmazie, which became the Annalen der Chemie and Pharmazie in 184o when Wohler became joint-editor with himself, and in 1837 with Wohler and Poggendorff he established the HandwOrterbuch der reinen and angewandten Chemie. After the death of Berzelius he continued the Jahresbericht with H. F. M. Kopp. The following are his most important separate publications, many of which were translated into English and French almost as soon as they ap- peared: Anleitung zur Analyse der organischen Kerper (1837); Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agrikultur and Physiologic (184o) ; Die Thier-Chemie Oder die organische Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Physiologic and Pathologie (1842); Handbuch der organischen Chemie mil Rucksicht auf Pharmazie (1843); Chemische Briefe (1844) ; Chemische Untersuchungen uber das Fleisch and seine Zubereitung zum Nahrungsmittel (1847) ; Die Grundsatze der Agrikultur-Chemie (1855); Ober Theorie and Praxis in der Landwirthschaft (1856); Naturwissenschaftliche Briefe fiber die moderne Land- wirthschaft (1859). A posthumous collection of his miscellaneous addresses and publications appeared in 1874 as Reden and Abhandlungen, edited by his son George (b. 1827). His criticism of Bacon, Uber Francis von Verulam, was first published in 1863 in the Augsburger allgemeine Zeitung, where also most of his letters on chemistry made their first appearance. See The Life Work of Liebig (London, 1876), by his pupil A. W. von Hofmann, which is the Faraday lecture delivered before the London Chemical Society in March 1875, and is reprinted in Hofmann's Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde; also W. A. Shenstone, Justus von Liebig, his Life and Work (1895). End of Article: LIEBIG, JUSTUS VON, BARON (1803-1873) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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