Animal Chemistry [Christmas Summary Classics]

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG
Baron Freiherr Justus von Liebig, one of the most illustrious chemists of his age, was born on May 12, 1803, at Darmstadt, Germany, the son of a drysalter. It was in his father's business that his interest in chemistry first awoke, and at fifteen he became an apothecary's assistant. Subsequently, he went to Erlangen, where he took his doctorate in 1822; and afterwards, in Paris, was admitted to the laboratory of Gay-Lussac as a private pupil. In 1824 he was appointed a teacher of chemistry in the University of Giessen in his native state. Here he lived for twenty-eight years a quiet life of incessant industry, while his fame spread throughout Europe. In 1845 he was raised to the hereditary rank of baron, and seven years later was appointed by the Bavarian government to the professorship of chemistry in the University of Munich. Here he died on April 18, 1873. The treatise on "Animal Chemistry, or Organic Chemistry in its Relations to Physiology and Pathology," published in 1842, sums up the results of Liebig's investigations into the immediate products of animal life. He was the first to demonstrate that the only source of animal heat is that produced by the oxidation of the tissues.