CURRENT LITERATURE.
Justus von Liebig : his Life and Work. By W. A. Shenstone. (Cassell and Co.)—Justus Liebig, as Mr. Shenstone well remarks, was a pioneer. He was born in what, as far as his native Germany was concerned, was a pm-scientific age. It is strange, in view of the present condition of things, to read that he could get no real teaching in chemistry in Germany. His choice lay between Berzelius' laboratory in Stockholm and Paris. He chose the tatter, was introduced to Gay-Lussac by Humboldt, and admitted by the French chemist into his private laboratory. He returned to Germany to become Extraordinary Professor of Chemistry at Giessen (aged twenty-one), and Ordinary Professor two years later. In 1829 began his association with Friedrich Wohler. The two worked together for many years, not unprofitably, for they made many discoveries, of which isomerism was the first Their friendship was interrupted only by Liebig's death. It was a fine time for research, for there was much to be discovered. That there will always be, but not in the regions which Liebig and his contemporaries were the first to traverse One is reminded of the fifteenth century when tha Italian scholars, Poggio and his fellows, had the ransacking of libraries. They .found what we are not likely to find, lost works of the great classics. Mr. Shenstone has given us a highly interesting biography. It was, indeed, time that such a book should be written, for Liebig taught Hofmann, and chemistry in England owes more to Hofmann than can be easily reckoned.
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