Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/684

 664 me upon fulminating silver I was familiar with organic analysis, and I very soon saw that all progress in organic chemistry depended essentially upon its simplification; for in this branch of chemistry one has to do not with different elements which can he recognized by their peculiar properties, but always with the same elements whose relative proportions and arrangement determine the properties of organic compounds. In organic chemistry an analysis is necessary to do that for which a reaction suffices in inorganic chemistry. The first years of my career in Giessen I devoted almost exclusively to the improvement of the methods of organic analysis, and the immediate result was that there began at this little university an activity which had never before been seen. For the solution of innumerable questions connected with plants and animals, on their constituents, and on the reactions accompanying their transformation in the organism, a kindly fate brought together the most talented young men from all the countries of Europe, and any one can imagine what an abundance of facts and experiences I gained from so many thousands of experiments and analyses, which were carried out every year, and for so many years, by twenty and more indefatigable and skilled young chemists.

Actual teaching in the laboratory, of which practiced assistants took charge, was only for the beginners; the progress of my special students depended on themselves. I gave the task and supervised the carrying out of it; as the radii of a circle have all their common center. There was no actual instruction; I received from each individual every morning a report upon what he had done on the previous day, as well as his views on what he was engaged upon. I approved or made my criticisms. Every one was obliged to follow his own course. In the association and constant intercourse with each other, and by each participating in the work of all, every one learned from the others. Twice a week, in winter, I gave a sort of review of the most important questions of the day; it was mainly a report on my own and their work combined with the researches of other chemists.

We worked from break of day till nightfall. Dissipations and amusements were not to be had at Giessen. The only complaint, which was continually repeated, was that of the attendant (Aubel), who could not get the workers out of the laboratory in the evening, when he wanted to clean it. The remembrance of this sojourn at Giessen awakened in most of my pupils, as I have frequently heard, an agreeable sense of satisfaction for well-spent time.

I had the great good fortune, from the commencement of my career at Giessen, to gain a friend of similar tastes and similar aims, with whom, after so many years, I am still knit in the bonds