Liebig's question to Mulder tested by morality and science / by G.T. Mulder ; translated by P.F.H. Fromberg.

Date:
1846
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Liebig's question to Mulder tested by morality and science / by G.T. Mulder ; translated by P.F.H. Fromberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    in its development, we perceive more and more how un- limited is the dominion of knowledge, and how limited our faculties are; how great the depth of truth, and how great the difficulties which attend the attainment of it. The judgment of young men is generally bold, and little indulgent; but it calms down in course of time, and in proportion as they compare themselves with what they wish and ought to be. But Liebig has taken quite an opposite course. Almost every one who moves on the same scientific ground with himself, has been attacked by him with a fury, such as was never exhibited in science. He leaves no one at rest; and pronounces judgment upon men and things in a manner which grows bolder, more severe, and more afflicting, as his circle of knowledge expands. I shall quote here a few out of the hundreds, nay thousands of instances, in confirmation of the above statement. In the Annalen for January 1846, p. 105, he calls Laurent “ one of the most talented chemists of our time, and the most rich in genius and yet, on the same page, he represents him as “ a stage-hero, who covers himself with gilded paper, made out of the un- dervalued labours of otherswhile in p. 112, Laurent and Gerhardt are said to be “ two conceited self- complacent cocks strutting about on the top of a dung- hill.” It is true that some individual is now and then highly praised, but only with a view to the rule : Tolluntur in altum, ut lapsu graviore ruant. Laurent first was per- secuted for a succession of years, then he was allowed to teach at Giessen, and now he is a cock on a dung- hill. Gerhardt was first praised for his excellent trans-