LIEBIG, JuSTus VON, Baron (ante). Soon after becoming professor of chemistry at Giessen, Liebig established an analytical laboratory, and it was this that constituted the great attraction which drew pupils from all parts of the world. Among the English students of practical chemistry were profs. Playfair, Gregory, and Johnston; and Americans were too numerous for impartial mention. Profs. Hofmann, Will, and Fresenius were his assistants. In 1832, in connection with prof. Geiger of Heidelberg, he established the Annalen der Pharmacie, to which he was a contributor till near his death in 1873. At a meeting of the British association for the advancement of science in 1838 he was requested to draw up a paper on isomeric bodies, and another on organic chemistry. It was in response to this that his work entitled OrganischeGremieinihrerAop uendung auf Agricultur was dedicated to the British association. It was translated into English from the manuscript by prof. Lyon Playfair in 1840 under the title Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology. It was also published at Brunswick in the same year in the original German under the above title. A French translation by Ger hardt also appeared. Soon afterwards was published his Chemische Britfe, which had a wide circulation in England and America under the title, Familiar Letters on Chemistry and its Relations to Commerce, Physiology, and Agriculture. These letters created great interest in Europe and America, and were the cause of the foundation of many chemical schools in colleges and universities. His second report in 1842 to the British associa tion, entitled Die Thier-chemie oder Organische Chemie in ilerer Anwendung avf Physi ologie and Pathologie, and translated from the manuscript by prof. Gregory under the title, Animal Chemistry, or Chemistry in its application to Physiology and Pathoh,gy, was the means of calling general scientific attention to the subject of food and diet, and of renewing the Study of therapeutics. Many papers from Liebig appeared in the Anna len der Pharmacie,• which afterwards were collected in two works, one published at Leipsic in 1847, the other at'Brunswick in 1848. They were translated by prof. Gregory
under the titles, Researches on the Chemistry of Food and the Motions of the Juices in the Animal Body. With Poggendorff, Liebig compiled the Hand-Worterbach der Clnmie in 9 vols. (Brunsw., 1837-64). He also wrote the organic chemistry in Turner's Ele ments of Chemistry. In 1848, in connection with prof. Kopp, he commenced the publication of an annual report on the progress of chemistry, which has been continued till the present time. In 1855 he published Grundsiitze der Agricaltar Mende; in 1856 Theo)* and Praxis der Landwirthschaft, and in 1859 iVaturwissenschaftliehe BriefC id( r d'e iroderne Landwirthschaft; all of which have been translated into several languages. IIe gave great attention to the subject of fermentation, and was for many years the great authority upon the subject. no regarded fermentation as the result of the action of a peculiar body whose molecules are in a state of change; producing CD the fermenting body a catalytic action; and that it was not caused by the abstraction I f some of its constituents by growing germs—the theory which has since supplanted 1.%:. (Sec FERMENTATION, ante, and YEAST.) He was for a long time engaged in controve r sies upon the subject, his last paper being published in 1870, in which he maintains his theory with remarkable skill. Liebig's style was both terse and elegant, flowing naturally from a clear and strong intellect, and his capacity for severe and continued Work was rare. He took much interest in America, probably in consequence of the many gifted Americans who became his pupils in the laboratory at Giessen; and it has been said that he sometimes entertained thoughts of coming to the United States to reside and pursue his chemical investigations. Ile was made a baron ini1845 by Louis II., grand duke of His collected works were published at Leipsic and at Heidelberg. iu 1871