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Justus von Liebig

Justus von Liebig Books

Chemist

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“Chemistry, in its application to animals and vegetables. Endeavours jointly with physiology to enlighten us respecting the mysterious processes and sources of organic life.”

ProcessAnimalSourceMysteriousChemistryApplicationVegetablesEnlighteningEndeavourPhysiologyOrganic Life
Book:Familiar Letters on Chemistry, and its relation to Commerce, Physiology, and Agriculture: Edited by John Gardner
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“The finest imagination in the world could not have conceived of a better idea than the philosophers' stone to inspire the minds and faculties of men. Without it, chemistry would not be what it is today. In order to discover that no such thing as the philosopher's stone existed, it was necessary to ransack and analyze every substance known on earth. And in precisely this lay its miraculous influence.”

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Author:Justus von Liebig
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“I would... establish the conviction that Chemistry, as an independent science, offers one of the most powerful means towards the attainment of a higher mental cultivation; that the study of Chemistry is profitable, not only inasmuch as it promotes the material interests of mankind, but also because it furnishes us with insight into those wonders of creation which immediately surround us, and with which our existence, life, and development, are most closely connected.”

MeanScienceInterestPowerfulExistenceWonderStudyMankindCreationMaterialsDevelopmentHigherOffersIndependentConvictionInsightConnectedMost PowerfulChemistrySurroundProfitableAttainmentCultivation
Book:The Development of Chemistry, 1789-1914: Familiar letters on chemistry
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“I will now direct the attention of scientists to a previously unnoticed cause which brings about the metamorphosis and decomposition phenomena which are usually called decay, putrefaction, rotting, fermentation and moldering. This cause is the ability possessed by a body engaged in decomposition or combination, i.e. in chemical action, to give rise in a body in contact with it the same ability to undergo the same change which it experiences itself.”

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Author:Justus von Liebig
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“Only about seventy years ago was chemistry, like a grain of seed from a ripe fruit, separated from the other physical sciences. With Black, Cavendish and Priestley, its new era began. Medicine, pharmacy, and the useful arts, had prepared the soil upon which this seed was to germinate and to flourish.”

YearsArtScienceBlackYears AgoMedicinePreparedFruitSeedsErasSoilChemistryGrainSeventiesRipeNew EraPhysical SciencePharmacyRipe Fruit
Book:Familiar Letters on Chemistry, in its relation to Physiology, Dietetics, Agriculture, Commerce and Political Economy: Edited by John Blyth
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“Without an acquaintance with chemistry, the statesman must remain a stranger to the true vital interests of the state, to the means of its organic development and improvement; ... The highest economic or material interests of a country, the increased and more profitable production of food for man and animals, ... are most closely linked with the advancement and diffusion of the natural sciences, especially of chemistry.”

MenMeanCountryStatesScienceInterestNaturalAnimalKnowledgeEconomicMaterialsDevelopmentHighestEconomicsAccountsProductionsStrangerImprovementChemistryAgricultureLinkedAcquaintanceAdvancementProfitableStatesmenNatural ScienceDiffusion
Book:Familiar Letters on Chemistry, in its relation to Physiology, Dietetics, Agriculture, Commerce and Political Economy: Edited by John Blyth
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“But it must not be forgotten that ... glass and porcelain were manufactured, stuffs dyed and metals separated from their ores by mere empirical processes of art, and without the guidance of correct scientific principles.”

KnowsArtScienceStuffProcessPrinciplesKnowledgeMereForgottenGlassesGuidanceMetalsPorcelain
Book:The Development of Chemistry, 1789-1914: Familiar letters on chemistry
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“What struck me most in England was the perception that only those works which have a practical tendency awake attention and command respect, while the purely scientific, which possess far greater merit are almost unknown. And yet the latter are the proper source from which the others flow. Practice alone can never lead to the discovery of a truth or a principle. In Germany it is quite the contrary. Here in the eyes of scientific men no value, or at least but a trifling one, is placed upon the practical results. The enrichment of science is alone considered worthy attention.”

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Author:Justus von Liebig
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“There are various causes for the generation of force: a tensed spring, an air current, a falling mass of water, fire burning under a boiler, a metal that dissolves in an acid-one and the same effect can be produced by means of all these various causes. But in the animal body we recognise only one cause as the ultimate cause of all generation of force, and that is the reciprocal interaction exerted on one another by the constituents of the food and the oxygen of the air. The only known and ultimate cause of the vital activity in the animal as well as in the plant is a chemical process.”

WellsMeanBodyScienceFallForceCausesProcessWaterAnimalKnownFireGenerationsAirEffectsActivityMassSpringUltimatePlantCurrentsVariousBurningChemicalsMetalsInteractionOxygenAcidRecogniseConstituentsReciprocalBoilerFire Burning
Author:Justus von Liebig
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“There is in the chemist a form of thought by which all ideas become visible in the mind as strains of an imagined piece of music. This form of thought is developed in Faraday in the highest degree, whence it arises that to one who is not acquainted with this method of thinking, his scientific works seem barren and dry, and merely a series of researches strung together, while his oral discourse when he teaches or explains is intellectual, elegant, and of wonderful clearness.”

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Author:Justus von Liebig
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“By the deficiency or absence of one necessary constituent, all the others being present, the soil is rendered barren for all those crops to the life of which that one constituent is indispensable.”

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Book:Principles of agricultural chemistry with special reference to the late researches made in England: By Justus von Liebig. (Ed. by William Gregory)
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“A time will come, when fields will be manured with a solution of glass (silicate of potash), with the ashes of burnt straw, and with the salts of phosphoric acid, prepared in chemical manufactories, exactly as at present medicines are given for fever and goitre.”

ScienceGivenFieldsSolutionsMedicinePreparedGlassesChemicalsSaltAshesAcidFeverStraws
Book:Chemistry in its applications to agriculture and physiology: By Justus Liebig. Edited from the manuscript of the author by Lyon Playfair
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“Since the discovery of oxygen the civilised world has undergone a revolution in manners and customs. The knowledge of the composition of the atmosphere, of the solid crust of the earth, of water, and of their influence upon the life of plants and animals, was linked to that discovery. The successful pursuit of innumerable trades and manufactures, the profitable separation of metals from their ores, also stand in the closest connection therewith.”

WorldEarthWaterAnimalSuccessfulInfluenceRevolutionDiscoveryConnectionsTradePlantSeparationPursuitMannersAtmosphereCustomsMetalsClosestCompositionLinkedOxygenProfitableCivilisedPlants And Animals
Book:Familiar Letters on Chemistry, in its relation to Physiology, Dietetics, Agriculture, Commerce and Political Economy: Edited by John Blyth
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