Liebigiana: Old and New Perspectives

“Chemistry is a gibberish of Latin and German, but in Liebig's hands it becomes a powerful language.” Grimm Jacob , Deutsches Wörterbuch (1854) in Kleinere Schriften (1890, reprinted Hildesheim, 1966), viii, 336–7; quoted by Habrich Christa , “Justus Liebig zum 100. Todestag”, Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift, cxv (1973), 791–4, p. 793.

Sonntag Otto , “Religion and science in the thought of Liebig”, Ambix, xxiv (1977), 159–69, p. 159.

Partington J. R. , A history of chemistry, iv (London, 1964), 300.

Paoloni Carlo , Justus von Liebig. Eine Bibliographie Sämtlicher Veröffentlichungen (Heidelberg, 1968; a seeond edition is in preparation). See my review, Ambix, xvii (1970), 130–2.

There was a small exhibition of Liebigiana at Munich and a special issue of Giessener Universitätsblätter, vi (April 1973) devoted to Liebig. (For contents see my review, Ambix, xxi (1974), 88–89.) Other publications included a notable Marxist biography, Strube Irene , Justus von Liebig (Leipzig, 1973). Note also her “Liebig and the industrial revolution” (in German), NTM (Leipzig), xi (1974), 106–14. More trivially, see Habrich (ref. 1); Brock W. H. , “Justus von Liebig”, M. & B. Laboratory bulletin, x (June 1973), 72–75, and “Liebig buys platinum from Janety the younger”, Platinum metals review, xvii (1973), 102–4; van Spronsen J. W. , “Justus von Liebig. Chemisch Genius”, Spiegel Historiael, viii (1973), 220–7, with illustrations of the Liebig Museum (in Dutch); Kröhnke Fritz , “Leben, Wesen und Wirken Liebigs”, Justus Liebigs Annalen, Heft 4 (1973), 547–52.

Hofmann A. W. , Third Faraday Lecture, “The lifework of Liebig in experimental and philosophic chemistry; with allusions to his influences on the development of the collateral sciences and the useful arts”, Journal of the Chemical Society, xxviii (1875), 1065–140, reprinted in Chemical Society Faraday lectures 1869–1928 (London, 1928). Hofmann's éloge is in explicit ‘heroic’ mode. Dr N. W. Fisher (Aberdeen) is currently working on the function of heroes and hero-worship in nineteenth century chemistry.

Williams L. P. , “The physical sciences in the first half of the nineteenth century: Problems and sources”. History of science, i (1962). 1–15 for a brief comment on Airy's Herstmonceux manuscripts (13) and other collections.

Hertha von Dechend's fascinating anthology (1953) of snippets of Liebig's letters, or from his contemporaries' letters, which was clearly based upon a thorough knowledge of sources, was unfortunately not extended into a biographical study. See von Dechend H. , Justus von Liebig in eigenen Zeugnissen und solchen seiner Zeitgenossen (2nd ed., Weinheim, 1963). Incidentally, the striking portrait opposite p. 17 is not Wöhler, but the architect Leo von Klenze (1784–1864). Dr Emil Heuser of Baeyer AG informs me (letter, 19 June 1978) that he is looking at Liebig's life and work. Note that the rebuilt Ludwig University at Giessen has been renamed (since 1950) Justus Liebig Universität, ensuring (along with Liebig's Extract of Beef which is still marketed in Germany under its original title) that Liebig's name is kept before the German public. There has been some Japanese interest, notably from the prolific pen of Nozomu Yamaoka (1892–1978) whose nine-volume Kagakushidan (“Gleanings in the history of Chemistry”) (Uchida-Rökakuho-Shinsha, Tokyo, 1951–70) includes Giessen no Kagaku-Kyoshitsu (“The chemical laboratory at Giessen”) (1952) and Liebig-Wöhler Ofuku-Shokan (1966), a Japanese translation of Emile Wöhler and A. W. Hofmann's edition of the Liebig-Wöhler correspondence. Yamaoka's pupil, Hazime Kasiwagi, has published (under the pseudonym “Sizuo Sonoé”), Yuibutoron Keisei no Kagakusiteki Hakei, Liebig Ronkö, (“The chemical background to the formation of materialism in Germany, an essay on Liebig's ideas”) (Kyoto, 1949), and a translation of Liebig's Chemische Briefe (2 vols, Tokyo, 1952–53). My thanks to Professor Kasiwagi, the Editor of Kagakushi, the journal of the Japanese History of Chemistry Society, for this information.

Lipman Timothy O. , “The response to Liebig's vitalism”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, xl (1966), 511–24, and “Vitalism and reductionism in Liebig's physiological thought”, Isis, lviii (1967), 167–85; Brock W. H. , “Liebig's laboratory accounts”, Ambix, xix (1972), 47–58; Sonntag Otto , “Liebig on Francis Bacon and the utility of science”, Annals of science, xxxi (1974), 373–86, and “Religion and science” (ref. 2); Glas E. , “The Liebig-Mulder controversy. On the methodology of physiological chemistry”, Janus, lxiii (1976), 27–46, and “Methodology in the emergence of physiological chemistry”, Studies in the history and philosophy of science, ix (1978), 291–312 (see also ref. 15); Krätz Otto P. , “Historische Experimente (1850). Justus von Liebig: Bereitung von moussirendem Maiwein”, Chemie Experiment und Didaktik, i (1975), 247–50; Krätz Otto P. , “Historische Experimente (um 1856), Justus von Liebig: Experimental-vorlesungen über Selen, Phosphor, Kohlenstoff und Kohlenwasserstoffe”, ibid., ii (1976). 71–76; Krätz Otto P. , “Historische Experimente” (1858). von Liebig Justus und Beeg Dr. : “Die Farbe der Spiegel und der Teint der Französinversuche zur Versilberung von Glas”, ibid., ii (1976), 401–6; Tutzke Dietrich , “Liebigs Beitrag zur Spiegelindustrie und der Kampf der Arzte gegen Hydrargyrose in den Spiegel-fabriken”, NTM, xiv (1977), 92–98; Szökefalvi-Nagy Z. , “Justus von Liebigs Einfluss auf der Chemie Ungarns”, ibid., xvi (1979), 118–20. For Liebigs physiological dynamics, see Hall V. M. D. , “The role of force or power in Liebigs physiological chemistry”, Medical history, xxiv (1980), 20–59, and “The contribution of the physiologist, William Benjamin Carpenter (1813–1885), to the development of the principles of the correlation of forces and the conservation of energy”, ibid., xxiii (1979), 129–55. For a clever children's introduction to Liebig, see Kuslan Louis and Stone A. Harris , Liebig the master chemist (Englewood Cliffs, N. Jersey, 1969).

Holmes Frederic L. , Introduction to J. Liebig, Animal chemistry, trans. Gregory W. , with notes and corrections by Gregory and John W. Webster, facsimile of Cambridge, Mass. ed. of 1842 (New York, 1964).

Brock W. H. , “The chemical career of William Prout” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Leicester, 1966); Coley N. G. , “The Animal Chemistry Club: Assistant society to the Royal Society”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxii (1967), 173–85; Coley N. G. , “Animal chemists and urinary stone”, Ambix, xviii (1971), 69–93; Coley N. G. , “Henry Bence-Jones, M.D., F.R.S. (1813–1873)”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxviii (1973), 31–56; Coley N. G. , From animal chemistry to biochemistry (Amersham, Bucks., 1973); Mendelsohn E. , Heat and life: The development of the theory of animal heat (Cambridge, Mass. 1964); Teich M. , “On the historical foundations of modern biochemistry”, Clio medica, i (1968), 41–57; Teich M. , “From ‘enchyme’ to ‘cytoskeleton’. The development of ideas on the chemical organization of living matter”, in Teich M. and Young R. (eds), Changing perspectives in the history of science (London, 1973), 439–71; Florkin M. , A history of biochemistry , 4 vols (Section VI, vols 30–33 of Comprehensive biochemistry) (Amsterdam, 1972–77); Needham Dorothy M. , Machina camis. The biochemistry of muscular contraction in its historical development (Cambridge, 1972); Fruton Joseph S. , Molecules and life (New York, London, Sydney, Toronto, 1972) for Liebig on alcoholic fermentation; Goodman D. C. , “Chemistry and the two organic kingdoms of nature”, Medical history, xvi (1972), 113–30; Kohler R. , “History of biochemistry”, Journal of the history of biology, viii (1975), 175–318; Doke T. , “The controversy between Liebig and Pasteur”, Japanese studies in history of science, vi (1967), 87–95, of little value.

Art. “Liebig”, Dictionary of scientific biography, viii (1973), 329–50. Holmes's study may be read in conjunction with Fisher's three studies of the problem of classification in mid-nineteenth century organic chemistry. See Fisher N. W. , “Organic chemistry before Kekule”, Ambix, xx (1973), 106–31; xx (1973), 209–33; xxi (1974), 29–52. Note also the excellent essay on Liebig by Carl Wurster in Die Grossen Deutschen, iii (Berlin, 1935–36; rep. 1956), 313–26.

See, for example, Kapoor S. C. , “Dumas and organic classification”, Ambix, xvi (1969), 1–65. The bias was more explicit in conversations! Despite a tendency to prolixity, Kapoor's move to the art world in the early 1970s was a serious loss to history of chemistry scholarship.

Holmes F. L. , Claude Bernard and animal chemistry (Cambridge, 1974). The book is a synthesis of Introduction to Animal chemistry (ref. 10) and “Liebig” (ref. 12), together with a minute analysis of Bernard's laboratory notebooks.

Glas E. Chemistry and physiology in their historical relations (Delft, 1979). This is an expansion of Glas, “The Liebig-Mulder controversy” (ref. 9). For criticism of Glas's philosophical approach, see Hall , “The role of force” (ref. 9).

Kargon R. H. , Science in Victorian Manchester. Enterprise and expertise (Manchester, 1977), esp. 101–16 and 117–34. For an interesting review, see Neve M. , Times literary supplement, 21 July 1978, 819.

Sonntag , “Liebig on Francis Bacon” (ref. 9), 382–3.

von Liebig J. , Reden und Abhandlungen, ed. by Liebig G. and Carrière M. (Leipzig and Heidelberg, 1874; rep. Wiesbaden, 1965), 266.

The phrase is Charles Webster's via Henry Stubbe. See History of science, vi (1967), 117.

Sonntag , op. cit. (ref. 2), 164.

Gregory F. , Scientific materialism in nineteenth century Germany (Dordrecht, 1977).

Hall , “The role of force” (ref. 9), 22. Hall had access to a preliminary version of my review.

Sonntag , op. cit. (ref. 2), 167.

Pelling Margaret , Cholera, fever and English medicine 1825–1865 (Oxford, 1978), esp. ch. 4, 113–45. Note also Meyer-Habrich C. , “Eine Krankheitstheorie Justus von Liebig”, Fortschritte der Medizin, xcvi (1978), 2044. For the use of Liebig by the medical statistician, Farr William , see Eyler John M. , Victorian social medicine. The ideas and methods of William Farr (Baltimore and London. 1979).

The standard, but now unsatisfactory, source is still Moulton F. R. , Liebig and after Liebig. A century of progress in agricultural chemistry (Washington, D.C., 1942). For an interesting attempt to examine the social and knowledge context of the development of agricultural chemistry in Europe, see Krohn Wolfgang and Schäfer Wolf , “The origins and structure of agricultural chemistry”, in Lemaine Gerard (eds). Perspectives on the emergence of scientific disciplines (Mouton. The Hague and Paris; Aldine, Chicago, 1976), 27–52. Their findings complement those of Kargon — that Liebig was concerned with “finalized science” in which human needs and interests (i.e., civic) explicitly form a part of the subject field of chemistry. British agricultural chemistry is one of the areas included in the Open University's History of Science Group's ‘indicators’ project now preparing for publication. Note also Sir Russell E. John , “Rothamsted and its experimental station”. Agricultural history, xvi (1942). 161–83. and his standard A history of agricultural science in Great Britain 1620–1954 (London, 1966), esp. chs. 3–4; Aulie R. P. , “The mineral theory”, Agricultural history, xlviii (1974), 369–82; Welte E. , “Die Bedeutung der mineralischen Düngung, und die Düngemittelindustrie in den letzen 100 Jahren”, Technikgeschichte, xxxv (1968), 37–55. The researches of Emeritus Professor Cyril Tyler of the University of Reading on C.W.A. Thaer (1818–1906) have not unfortunately led to any publications on Liebig's agriculture.

Kargon , Science in Victorian Manchester (ref. 16), 104–5. See also Reid T. Wemyss , Memoirs and correspondence of Lyon Playfair (London, 1899), 69–70.

Rossiter M. , “Justus von Liebig and the Americans. A study in the transit of science, 1840–1880” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Yale, 1971), published as The emergence of agricultural science. Justus Liebig and the Americans, 1840–1880 (New Haven and London, 1975). Part of this is based on the experiences of E. N. Horsford at Giessen, for which also see Reznek S. , “The European education of an American chemist and its influence in 19th century America: Eben Norton Horsford”, Technology and culture, xi (1970), 366–88.

Rosenberg Charles E. , No other gods: On science and American social thought (Baltimore, 1976).

Hall V. M. D. , “Justus Liebig and agricultural chemistry in Britain, c. 1840–1880” (unpublished paper given to the British Society for the History of Science, 24 May 1980). I have drawn on Dr Hall's abstract and my notes of the meeting. See also Hall , “The role of force” (ref. 9).

Wankmüller A. , “Ausländische Studierende der Pharmacie und Chemie bei Liebig in Giessen”, Deutsche Apotheker-Zeitung, cvii (1967), 463–6, also offprinted as Tübinger Apothekengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, Heft 15 (Stuttgart, 1967).

Morrell J. B. , “The chemist breeders: The research schools of Liebig and Thomas Thomson”, Ambix, xix (1972), 1–46. Note also W. V. Farrar's standard, but delightful, contribution, “Science and the German university system” in Crosland M. P. (ed.), The emergence of science in modern Europe (London and Basingstoke, 1975), 161–79; and the Open University film by Russell G. A. , “The development of laboratory techniques”, which was shot at the Giessen Museum, T.V. Programme 1, The Nature of Chemistry, S304 (S351). Dr Robert Anderson of the London Science Museum informs me that there are plans to modernize the Gesellschaft-Liebigs Museum and to make its collections more accessible to historians.

Roberts G. K. , “The establishment of the Royal College of Chemistry: An investigation of the social context of early-Victorian chemistry”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, vii (1976), 437–85. The thesis upon which this was based, “The Royal College of Chemistry (1845–1853): A social history of chemistry in early-Victorian England” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Johns Hopkins University, 1973) must still be consulted for its prosopographical evidence. See also, for the more familiar view of Liebig's British influence, Bentley J. , “The chemical department of the Royal School of Mines: Its origins and development under A. W. Hofmann”, Ambix, xvii (1970), 153–81.

Morrell J. B. , “Individualism and the structure of British science in 1830”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, iii (1971), 183–204.

Gustin Bernard H. , “The emergence of the German chemical profession 1790–1867” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of Chicago, Department of Sociology, 1975). The University of Chicago does not subscribe to the University Microfilms programme, but xerox copies may be ordered through the University. I am grateful to Dr Gustin for sending me a copy, and allowing me to quote from it in the text above. Dr Gustin, who has left the sociology of science for the world of business, hopes “in some later phase of life” to write a biography of Liebig (letter, 16 December 1978). On the strength of the thesis, it is to be hoped that this becomes possible.

Morrell , “The chemist breeders” (ref. 31). Brock W. H. , “The spectrum of patronage”, in Turner G. L'E. (ed.), The patronage of science in the nineteenth century (Leyden, 1976), 173–206.

Hufbauer Karl G. , “The formation of the German chemical community (1700–1795)” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1970); summarized as “Social support for chemistry. Germany during the eighteenth century: How and why did it change?”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, iii (1971), 205–31.

Crellin John K. , “The development of chemistry in Britain through medicine and pharmacy, 1700–1850” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1969). As with Gustin, it is unfortunate that an alternative career (medicine and history of medicine) seems to have prevented Crellin from making his valuable research more publicly available.

Gustin here draws upon the important thesis by Pohl Dieter , “Zur Geschichte der pharmazeutischen Privatsinstitute in Deutschland von 1779 bis 1873” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of Marburg, 1972).

Krätz Otto , article “Kästner”, Neue Deutsche Biographie, xi (Berlin, 1977), 324, and the essay “Der Chemiker in den Grunderjahren”, in Schmauderer E. (ed.), Der Chemiker im Wandel der Zeiten (Varlag Chemie, Weinheim, 1973), 259–84, esp. 262–4; Löw R. , Pflanzenchemie zwischen Lavoisier und Liebig (Donau-Verlag, Straubing and Munich, 1977), esp. 329–32. Vol. xii of the NDB, which will presumably contain a new entry for Liebig, is awaited with interest.

Berl Ernst (ed.), Briefe von Justus Liebig n̅ach neuen Funden (Giessen, 1928). Gustin makes excellent use of this source.

Gustin , op. cit. (ref. 34), 99–100. See Gregory W. , Letter to the…Earl of Aberdeen (London, 1842) and the discussion in Morrell, “The chemist breeders” (ref. 31).

Roberts , op. cit. (ref. 32).

Gustin , op. cit. (ref. 34), 87, following Berl , “Briefe von Liebig“(ref. 40).

See my “The Liebig-Hofmann correspondence”, Proceedings of XII International Congress of the History of Science, Moscow 1971 (Moscow, 1974), vii, 145–50.

Gustin B. H. , lecture to Society for History of Alchemy and Chemistry, 31 May 1975.

Brock , “The Liebig-Hofmann correspondence” (ref. 44) and Roberts's thesis (ref. 32).

I plan to complete an edition of this correspondence during 1981.

A recent addition to this is Kleinert Andreas (ed.) Justus von Liebig “Hochwohlgeborner Freyherr”. Die Briefe an Georg von Cotta und die anonymen Beiträge zur Ausburger Allgemeinen Zeitung (Bionomica Verlag, Mannheim, 1979). Keen R. , “Friedrich Wöhler's chemical contacts” (a lecture to the Society for History of Alchemy and Chemistry on 6 May 1978) demonstrated what could be done with published correspondence. See Keen R. , “The life and work of Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882)” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1976). It is to be hoped that Dr Keen will publish his analysis of Wöhler's relationship with Liebig and Berzelius.

Steil Hans , “Katalog des Archivbestandes des Liebig-Museums in Giessen”. Gießener Universitätsblatter (ref. 5), 90–108.

The typescript catalogue, “Liebigiana”, occupies 161 pages and embraces the following manuscript categories: Biographical (1–34), Appreciations (35–40), Drafts of essays, lectures, etc. (41–55), published pamphlets (56), Liebig's outgoing correspondence (57), Liebig's incoming correspondence (58), Miscellaneous letters (59).

Volhard Jacob , Justus von Liebig (2 vols, Leipzig, 1909). Carrière published an edition of the Berzelius-Liebig correspondence. See Paoloni , Liebig (ref. 4).

Nicely exploited by Farrar W. V. Farrar K. and Scott E. L. , in “The Henrys of Manchester. Part 6”, Ambix, xxiv (1977), 1–26.

The Liebig-Pelouze correspondence has been used effectively by Crosland M. P. , Gay-Lussac, scientist and bourgeois (London, 1978).

A starting point is Phillips J. P. , “Liebig and Kolbe, critical editors”, Chymia, xi (1966), 89–97. I have not seen Harff Horst , Die Entwicklung der deutschen chemischen Fachzeitschrift (Berlin, 1941). Note also Wolfgang Melzer, “Geschichte der deutschsprachigen chemischen Wörterbuches im 19. Jahrhundert” (Dissertation, University of Hamburg, 1971).

To the best of my knowledge Liebig's influence on the beginnings of the convenience foods industries has not been investigated. See Drummond J. C. and Wilbraham Anne , The Englishman's food (2nd ed., London, 1957).

The international relationships of the nineteenth century chemical communities is the subject of current research by Dr Christopher Meinel whose major study of chemistry at the rival (and more picturesque) University of Marburg offers a useful foil to historians' concentration on Giessen. See Meinel C. , Die Chemie an der Universitäts Marburg seit beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts (N. G. Elwert Verlag, Marburg, 1978).

On chemical interest groups, see Roberts , “The establishment of the Royal College of Chemistry” (ref. 32); Brock W. H. , “The society for the perpetuation of Gmelin: The Cavendish Society, 1846–1872”, Annals of science, xxxv (1978), 599–617; Bud Robert , “The origins and early years of the Chemical Society of London” (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1980).

For a review of recent German scholarship on chemical industrialization, see von Gizycki Rainald , “Science, state and industry in 19th-century Germany”, Minerva, xiv (1976–77), 268–74.

Borscheid Peter , Naturwissenschaft, Staat und Industrie in Baden, 1848–1914 (Stuttgart, 1976). An English translation of this important monograph is desirable. It was first presented as a dissertation at the University of Heidelberg in 1974 under the more explicit title “Entwicklung der Naturwissenschaften und wissenschaftlich-technische Revolution. Zu den Beziehungen zwischen praxisnaher Ausbildung und industrieller Entwicklung von 1848 bis 1913, gezeigt am Beispiel von Baden”. Compare the historical social-political-industrial-chemical nexus of common salt portrayed by Multhauf R. P. , Neptune's gift. A history of common salt (Baltimore and London, 1978).