KOLBE, kaWbc, (1818-84). A Ger man chemist, torn at Elliehausen, near Gottingen.
He studied chemistry under Water at Gottingen, and was assistant to Bunsen and to Playfair. Ile was professor of chemistry from 1852 to 1865 at Marburg, and from 1865 to 1884 at Leipzig. Kolbe carried out many original researches in the field of organic chemistry. Ile investigated the electrolytic decomposition of organic acids; discovered an important synthetic method for transforming compounds of comparatively simple structure into allied compounds having a more complex structure; and discovered (1860), jointly with Lantermann, a method of making salicylic acid (q.v.) by the combination of carbolic and •ar bonic acids. Kolbe edited Liebig and W6hler's Bc.nd•orterbuch der Chemic, and was for ninny years editor of the Journal fiir praktische Charlie. llis publications in book form include: Ansfiihr liehes Lehrbuch der o•ganisehen Chentie (1855 7S, and a later edition) ; Herres Lehrbuch der anorganischen Chemie (2:1 ed. 1884) ; etc. One
of Kolbe's chief titles to fame was his work as a scientific critic, many important researches pub lished during Ids life having been subjected by him to the most careful scrutiny. However, he was altogether too conservative. Thus he ad hered stubbornly to the older theories of chemi cal constitution and refused to accept the modern structural theory in spite of the triumphs achieved by it. The theories of stereo-chemistry, too. were received by him with pointed animosity. (See CHEMISTRY, section on History.) Consult: Hofmann, "Nekrolog auf 11. Kolbe," in the Be riehte der deutsche>: chentisehen Gesellschaft for 1884, and the "Obituary," in the Journal of the Chemical Society (London, 1835).