Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/138

 progress of organic chemistry, which he did; and in the same year, speaking of radicles, he said that "in mineral chemistry the radicles are simple; in organic chemistry the radicles are compound—voilà toute la différence."

Liebig was not content to merely formulate generalizations and leave the details of work to others; he brought his philosophy down to the level of the average mind; and by inventing the extractum carnis Liebigis, or Liebig's Extract of Meat, he gave to the world an article of vast importance to the invalid and housewife.

He received most of the honours that are usually awarded to men of science, such as the Copley medal of the Royal Society, and the associateship of the Académie des Sciences (l'Institut de France). He will ever be remembered for his work in agricultural chemistry and combustion analysis, both of which are unique in the annals of chemistry.

Two years after the Franco-Prussian War and the reconstitution of the German Empire, Baron Justus von Liebig died on 18th April 1873, at the age of sixty-nine years, leaving the products of his genius to aid the progress of humanity.

He was "honoured and respected by every student of science, and loved by each of the band of ardent natures whom he had trained and set forth to battle for the good of their race." As a teacher he was unsurpassed, and a brave array of great thinkers sprang up as if by magic,