Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/135

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LIEBIG
99

of knowledge imbued with the charms of never-ending freshness; none is more calculated to awaken the talent for observation, or to sharpen the intellect in the strict method of applying proof for the establishment of a truth, or in the inquiry into the cause and effect of a phenomenon."

Concerning his great labours in the domain of agriculture, he says: "Does not chemistry promise that instead of seven grains we shall be enabled to raise eight or more on the same soil?"

Great men work not only by their deeds, but also by their personal lives. Liebig laboured by the influence of his own example to destroy a prejudice which restrained most agriculturalists from devoting themselves to the study of scientific farming.

In 1845 the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt conferred upon him the title of baron, and in 1852, as already stated, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry in the University of Munich.

His researches were not only confined to scientific agriculture, but physiology, pathology, and organic chemistry owe much to his indefatigability. His influence in chemistry was great—being one of the world's most famous chemists—and to his numerous pupils he was their "guide, philosopher, and friend." He satirized the work of other leading men, as the following remark bears evidence. In 1867 Liebig being asked by Dumas