The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-26 00:00:00

FUNERAL OF BARON VON LIEBIG.

The funeral of Baron Justus Von Llebig took place
on Sunday afternoon amidst universal marks of sym-
pathy and respect on the part of the whole population
of Munich for the fiftieth. ,WS deceased.

The prooession was of a very imposing character, mid
consisted of the moot distinguished of the late b.ron'o
countrymen, wile lighted candles, banners, and cruci-
fixes were borne around the coffin, which was covered
with the choicest fowera

Shortly before five o'clock the funeral cortege arrived
at the City cemetery, when the coffin was lowered
into the vault in pruirnce of all the civil and military
authordies, including the judges and magistrates, and
all the professors of the various colleges in the city.
Dr. Dollinger was also present. The service was read
by a Lutheran minister, after which an oration was
delivered over the grave.
The weather was extremely unfavourable, being
very wet, but this did not prevent the cemetery from
being crowded to excess by the people of Munich.

The Daily Telegraph macs the following obsecvationanpon
the Baron's distinguished career :
Baron Justus von Liebig died at Munich on Friday
last, in his seventieth year. His claim' to be considered
the father of applied chemistry are indisputable. As
Socrates 'brought philosophy down from Heaven and
made her discourse in the marketplace," so did Liebig
drag chemistry forth from theslaboratory and make her
labour to cheapen our food, to lengthen our days, to
bless oar fields and crops, and to fill our garners with
all manner of store. At the early age of twenty he
was a consummate master of, and original explorer in
the domain of organic Chemistry, and his paper
on fultninic acid and the fulmmates written in
1823, gained him the friendship of Humbolt and
the Professorship of Chemistry at Giessen.
From that day Liebig devoted himself exclasively to
original chemical research. Never, probably, was
there a scientific man so thoroughly imbued with the
spirit of the Novum Organon, or so fully resolved to
meter the secrete of Nature, and so to make her the
handmaid of man. Ths opitit of his labours is no-
where more apparent than in his " Familiar Letters
on Chemistry "—a book which is to be found in
almost every English household, and which is a
model of lucidity and conciseness. But the
greatest test of the worth of Liebig'e discoveries
is that thousands benefit by them who have never
heard his name. " Liebig's extract of meat" is,
it is true, known from Antipodes to Antipodes.
But to Liebig are also due almost all of those im-
provements in agriculture which have led to the
modern methods of high fanning, and he was the first
to give • scientific axle-elution and definite value to such
o d rules as those which bear on the rotation of crops,
and the importance of letting each corn field have back
its own straw. He was also the first to apply chemistry
to dietetics and cookery, and to teach us that without
some knowledge ..f science not even a leg of mutton
can be properly boiled, or a dish of vegetables pro-
perly dressed. Lastly, it is mainly to his re
searches that we are indebted for our modern system
of man drainage and sewage utilisation. He
was, indeed, the first to teach us to give back to the
land what we take from it, and to warn us that the
nation which empties its sewage into the ea is guilty
of waste as reckless as if it deliberately fired its forests
and coal mines. Crotchets the great chemist had, it is
true; and some of his theories he pushed to an extreme
length. Nor will his name, perhaps, be handed down
along with those of Priestley, Cavendish, and Far..-
day; but the number of his discoveriee can hardly be
counted, nor can their importance poseibly be over-
estimated. He stands, indeed, to chemistry mach as
Watt stands to mechanics. He caught Ariel, pretoned
him, and made him work for man ; and in • ripe old
age he passed sway, not before he had seen his dreams
realised and his hopes fulfilled.