Justus von Liebig

thumb|Justus von Liebig circa 1866 Justus von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. Quotes Chemistry, in its application to animals and vegetables. Endeavours jointly with physiology to enlighten us respecting the mysterious processes and sources of organic life. Familiar Letters on Chemistry (London, 1854). The acquisition of a new truth is like the acquisition of a new sense, which renders a man capable and recognizing a large number of phenomena that are hidden from another, as they were from him originally. Chemische Briefe (1851) Full Text (quote's translation probably by Martin H. Fischer); quoted in Physical Chemistry in the Service of Medicine (1907), Wolfgang Pauli, p. 71, tr. by Martin H. Fischer. Full Text. To investigate the essence of a natural phenomenon, three conditions are necessary: We must first study and know the phenomenon itself, from all sides; we must then determine in what relation it stands to other natural phenomena; and lastly, when we have ascertained all these relations, we have to solve the problem of measuring these relations and the laws of mutual dependence—that is, of expressing them in numbers. In the first period of chemistry, all the powers of men's minds were devoted to acquiring a knowledge of the properties of bodies; it was necessary to discover, observe, and ascertain their peculiarities. This is the alchemistical period. The second period embraces the determination of the mutual relations or connections of these properties; this is the period of phlogistic chemistry. In the third period, in which we now are, we ascertain by weight and measure and express in numbers the degree in which the properties of bodies are mutually dependent. The inductive sciences begin with the substance itself, then come just ideas, and lastly, mathematics are called in, and with the aid of numbers, complete the work. Familiar Letters on Chemistry, Tr. Blythe, 4th ed., London, 1859, p. 60 as quoted by John Theodore Merz, A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century Vol.1 (1903). Quotes about Justus von Liebig Shortly after becoming professor at Giessen in 1824 he instituted systematic laboratory instruction in chemistry, and Giessen soon became the most famous chemical school in the world, attracting many who were subsequently themselves to become leaders in further development. Still more important was Liebig's pioneer work on the chemistry of the Biological process processes of life, both animal and vegetable, work which makes him the real founder of two branches of the subject—biochemistry and the Agricultural chemistry chemistry of agriculture; the development of these two branches is being attended with incalculable benefits to human welfare. John Johnston (chemist) John Johnston, {{cite book|chapter=Chapter III. Chemistry|title="'The Development of the Sciences|pages=75–127|year=1923|series=6 chapters from 6 different lectures delivered in 1920 at Yale University by Ernest William Brown, Henry Andrews Bumstead, John Johnston, Frank Schlesinger, Herbert Ernest Gregory, & Lorande Loss Woodruff|publisher=Yale University Press|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNi4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA100}} (327 pages; edited by Lorande Loss Woodruff; quote from p. 100) His first investigation was made under the direction of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac Gay-Lussac, and his first paper was published in the Annales de chimie et de physique Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Liebig did much to point the way to the physiologist, the agriculturist, the manufacturer, in the practical application of chemistry to useful purposes; but the great work which he had achieved in 1837 was to inaugurate the systematisation of what was then rightly called organic chemistry'', as distinguished from the chemistry of minerals, Salt (chemistry) salts, and inorganic nature in general. William A. Tilden Sir William Augustus Tilden, A Short History of the Progress of Scientific Chemistry in Our Own Times London Longmans, Green & Company 1899 https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Short_History_of_the_Progress_of_Scien.html?id=VeFHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA12 12 (276 pages) External links Category:Chemists from Germany Category:Academics from Germany Category:Inventors Category:1803 births Category:1873 deaths