Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/588

 568 LIELIE and thus explained the a .1 vantage of a rotation of crops. The arti ficial manures which he introduced contained the essential mineral substances, and a small quantity of ammoniacal salts, because he Held that while the air supplies ammonia it does not always supply it fast enough, particularly to the lyss leafy plants. He bought a field near Giessen for his experiments, and treated it with the artificial manure, but the result was disappointing. The manure was not inactive, but not nearly so active as it should have been. It was many years before he detected the cause. To prevent the rain washing away the alkalies in the manure, he had taken great pains to render them insoluble. Way s experiments on the absorp tion of manure by soils (1850) occurred to him as suggesting an explanation, and in 1857 he made a number of experiments on the retention of various substances by earth. In these he confirmed and extended Way s observations, and thus saw that his effort to Miake his manure better had made it worse. As he says, &quot;I had sinned against the wisdom of the Creator, and received my righteous punishment. I wished to improve His work, and in my blindness believed that, in the marvellous chain of laws binding life on the earth s surface and keeping it always new, a link had been forgotten which I, weak powerless worm, must supply.&quot; Now, just as he skowed that plants require certain often small quantities of particular substances, else they will not grow at all, however great may be the quantities of other kinds of food supplied, so he showed that animals also require, not only a proper quantity of food, but also the right proportion of the different kinds of food, mineral as well as organic. In the classification of the kinds of organic food into heat-producing and blood-forming, it was necessary to examine whether the carbohydrates, starch, sugar, &c., should be placed alongside of fat. He was thus led to inquire into the power of the animal body to produce fat from starch or sugar, and came to the conclusion, contrary to the opinion of Dumas and Boussingault, that this transformation does take place. Liebig s investigations into the relations of organic chemistry to physiology led him to the conviction that the only source of animal heat is the heat produced by the oxidation of the tissues, and, strange as it may appear, he had to defend this view against what he truly enough, though perhaps somewhat impolitely, called the absurd nonsense of his medical opponents. He also succeeded in demolishing, it is to be hoped finally, the ridiculous belief in the possibility of the spontaneous combustion of the human body, i Liebig s theory of FERMENTATION (q.v.) aimed at explaining the phenomena on purely chemical principles. He ridiculed the physiological theories, and looked upon the growth of fungi rather as incident of the fermentation, adducing the fermentative changes of amygdaline and similar substances as cases of fermentation without life. We have still to notice one of Liebig s chemical discoveries, of secondary interest chemically, but of great practical importance. This is his discovery of a method for depositing a uniform film of inetallis silver on smooth clean surfaces. This method may render it possible to use reflectors for astronomical telescopes of a sizo unattainable with the old speculum metal. The most important of Liebig s works separately published are as follows: Anteititng zur Analyse organischen Koi per, 1837, 2&amp;lt;t ed., 1853 ; Die Cliemie in ihrer Amccndiing auf Ayricitltur uml P/uj.nologie, 1840, 9th ed., 1875-7G ; Die Thirr-Chemie oder die or/janische Chemie in Hirer Anwenduna auf P/nisioIogie und Pathologie, 1842, 3d ed., 1847 ; Hand-buck der Chemie mil Rilckticht auf Phar- macit, 1843; vol. i. of GeiRer s Hamlbnch der 1 harmacie, new ed.; Chemische Jiriefe, 1844, fith ed., 1878 ; Chemisclie Untertuchungen uber das Fieisch und seine Zubereltung alt Nahrunysmitfpl, 1847; Gntndsdtze der Agricultur-Chemie,&amp;gt;5~&amp;gt;; /Air Thcorie und Praxis in der Landicirthfchaft, 1856 ; Nahtrwissenachaftliclie Brief e titter die moderne Landicirth&chaft, 1859; Reden und Abhandlungen, 1874, a posthumous collection of some of his addresses and shorter publications. Iik-big s scientific papers were chiefly published in Pogctendorff s Anna/en till 1839, and in Liebig s Annalfn from 1832 onwards. His criticism of Bacon appeared in the Awjslurgn alhjcmeine Zeitung in 1863 and 1864, and also as a separate publication. (A. C. B.) LIECHTENSTEIN&quot;, a sovereign and independent prin cipality, the smallest in Germany, is bounded on the N.E and E. by the Austrian Vorarlberg, on the S. by the Swiss canton of Grisons, and on the W. by the Rhine, while on the north it tapers almost to a point. The state, consisting of the lordships of Vaduz and Schellenberg, is only 15 miles in length, hardly over 5 miles in its average breadth, and comprises an area of 68 square miles. Excepting in the immediate neighbourhood of the Rhine, the surface of the country is mountainous, being traversed from south to north by spurs of the Rhtctian Alps, which at some points attain an altitude of about 7000 feet. The climate is mild, and the soil generally fertile and well watered. The chief products are corn, wine, flax, fruit, and timber. Agriculture and the tending of cattle form the chief employment of the inhabitants. A branch of the Yorarlberg railway from Feldkirch to Buchs passes through the state. In 1876 the population amounted to SGG4, of old German extraction, and Roman Catholics by con fession. The capital is Vaduz or Liechtenstein, with 9GO inhabitants. Until 1866 Liechtenstein formed part of the German confedera tion, but from that date it has been constitutionally independent, although for the sake of convenience the postal system, customs, and currency are under the general Austrian administration, from which the principality receives annually some 1600 as its share in the customs dues. According to the charter of the 26th September 1862, Liechtenstein is a constitutional monarchy, the sovereign prince sharing the legislative power with a diet of fifteen members (elected sexennially), of whom three are nominated by the prince, and twelve elected by popular suffrage. The chief control of the principality is carried on at Vienna by a court chancellory, which also serves as the judicial court of appeal of first instance, the ulti mate court of appeal being at Innsbruck. The immediate direction of the principality in administrative and judicial matters is at Vaduz. The inhabitants are free from military service and direct taxation. The annual revenue amounts to about 6000. Although the sovereignty of the prince is so small, his estates in Austria and elsewhere render him one of the wealthiest landed proprietors in Germany, his income from them amounting to nearly 140,000 sterling. The house of Liechtenstein, one of the oldest in Central Europe, was elevated to the princely dignity in the early part of the 17th century. Anthony Horian in 1713 obtained a vote and seat in the imperial diet, and after the union, in 1719, of the lord ships of Vaduz and Schellenberg into one principality under the name of Liechtenstein, his privileges were, in 1723, confirmed to his successors. See Jacob von Falke, Gcscfiichlc dcs filrstUchcn Hauscs Liechtenstein, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1868-77). LIEGE (Germ., Liittich ; Dutch, Luik ; Walloon, Ltye; usually Latinized as Leodiimi), a city of Belgium, the chief town of the province of Li6ge, is situated in 50 39 N. lat. and 5 31 E. long., 56 miles east of Brussels (62| by Plan of Liege. rail), and 16 miles south-south-west of Maestricht. It occupies a remarkably fine position on the banks of the Meuse, which at this point is joined by the Ourthe. On the left-hand side stands the older city with the citadel and the more important historical buildings ; on the right hand lies the lower and more modern portion, commanded by the fort of the Chartreuse. The river, there 460 feet across, is spanned by several bridges, of which the Pont des