Project Gutenberg's Familiar Letters of Chemistry, by Justus Liebig

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Title: Familiar Letters of Chemistry

Author: Justus Liebig

Editor: John Gardner

Posting Date: August 8, 2009 [EBook #4524]
Release Date: October, 2003
First Posted: February 2, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILIAR LETTERS OF CHEMISTRY ***

Produced by Steve Solomon. HTML version by Al Haines.

FAMILIAR LETTERS ON CHEMISTRY,

AND ITS RELATION TO COMMERCE, PHYSIOLOGY, AND AGRICULTURE,

BY JUSTUS LIEBIG, M.D., PH. D., F.R.S.,

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GIESSEN.

EDITED BY

JOHN GARDNER, M.D.,

MEMBER OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY.

Second Edition, Corrected.

LONDON:

MDCCCXLIV.

PREFACE

The Letters contained in this little Volume embrace some of the most
important points of the science of Chemistry, in their application
to Natural Philosophy, Physiology, Agriculture, and Commerce. Some
of them treat of subjects which have already been, or will hereafter
be, more fully discussed in my larger works. They were intended to
be mere sketches, and were written for the especial purpose of
exciting the attention of governments, and an enlightened public, to
the necessity of establishing Schools of Chemistry, and of
promoting, by every means, the study of a science so intimately
connected with the arts, pursuits, and social well-being of modern
civilised nations.

For my own part I do not scruple to avow the conviction, that ere
long, a knowledge of the principal truths of Chemistry will be
expected in every educated man, and that it will be as necessary to
the Statesman, the Political Economist, and the Practical
Agriculturist, as it is already indispensable to the Physician, and
the Manufacturer.

In Germany, such of these Letters as have been already published,
have not failed to produce some of the results anticipated. New
professorships have been established in the Universities of
Goettingen and Wuertzburg, for the express purpose of facilitating
the application of chemical truths to the practical arts of life,
and of following up the new line of inv