Justus von Liebig

Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. As a professor, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time. He is known as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his discovery of nitrogen as an essential plant nutrient, and his formulation of the Law of the Minimum which described the effect of individual nutrients on crops. He also developed a manufacturing process for beef extracts, and founded a company, Liebig Extract of Meat Company, that later trademarked the Oxo brand beef bouillon cube.

Justus von Liebig

Biography

Liebig was born in Darmstadt into a middle class family. From childhood he was fascinated by chemistry. At the age of 13, Liebig lived through the year without a summer, when the majority of food-crops in the northern hemisphere were destroyed by a volcanic winter. Germany was among the hardest-hit in the global famine that ensued, and the experience is said to have shaped Liebig's later work. Thanks in part to Liebig's innovations in fertilizers and agriculture, the 1816 famine became known as "the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world".[2]

Liebig was apprenticed to the apothecary Gottfried Pirsch (1792–1870) in Heppenheim and attended the University of Bonn, studying under Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner, a business associate of his father. When Kastner moved to the University of Erlangen, Liebig followed him and later took his doctorate from Erlangen. Liebig did not receive the doctorate until well after he had left Erlangen, and the circumstances are clouded by a possible scandal [see Munday (1990)]. Liebig left Erlangen in March 1822, in part because of his involvement with the radical Korps Rhenania (a nationalist student organization) but also because of his hopes for more advanced chemical studies.

In autumn 1822 Liebig went to study in Paris on a grant obtained for him by Kastner from the Hessian government. He worked in the private laboratory of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, and was also befriended by Alexander von Humboldt and Georges Cuvier (1769–1832).

After leaving Paris, Liebig returned to Darmstadt and married Henriette Moldenhauer, the daughter of a state official. This ended Liebig's relationship with Platen.

In 1824 at the age of 21 and with Humboldt's recommendation, Liebig became a professor at the University of Giessen. He established the world's first major school of chemistry there. He received an appointment from the King of Bavaria to the University of Munich in 1852, where he remained until his death in 1873 in Munich. He became Freiherr (baron) in 1845. He is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich.

He founded and edited from 1832 the journal Annalen der Chemie, which became the leading German-language journal of Chemistry. The volumes from his lifetime are often referenced just as Liebigs Annalen; and following his death the title was officially changed to Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie.

He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1837.
The young Liebig: 1843 lithograph after an 1821 painting (Liebighaus)
Research and development

Liebig improved organic analysis with the Kaliapparat – a five-bulb device that used a potassium hydroxide solution to remove the organic combustion product carbon dioxide.[3] He downplayed the role of humus in plant nutrition and discovered that plants feed on nitrogen compounds and carbon dioxide derived from the air, as well as on minerals in the soil. One of his most recognized and far-reaching accomplishments was the invention of nitrogen-based fertilizer. Liebig believed that nitrogen must be supplied to plant roots in the form of ammonia, and recognized the possibility of substituting chemical fertilizers for natural (animal dung, etc.) ones. Nitrogen fertilizers are now widely used throughout the world, and their production is a substantial segment of the chemical industry. He also formulated the Law of the Minimum, stating that a plant's development is limited by the one essential mineral that is in the relatively shortest supply, visualized as "Liebig's barrel". This concept is a qualitative version of the principles used to determine the application of fertilizer in modern agriculture.

He was also one of the first chemists to organize a laboratory as we know it today. His novel method of organic analysis made it possible for him to direct the analytical work of many graduate students. The vapor condensation device he popularized for his research is still known as a Liebig condenser, although it was in common use long before Liebig's research began. Liebig's students were from many of the German states as well as Britain and the United States, and they helped create an international reputation for their Doktorvater.

In 1835 he invented a process for silvering that greatly improved the utility of mirrors.

Liebig's work on applying chemistry to plant and animal physiology was especially influential. At a time when many chemists such as Jöns Jakob Berzelius insisted on a hard and fast separation between the organic and inorganic, Liebig argued that "...the production of all organic substances no longer belongs just to the organism. It must be viewed as not only probable but as certain that we shall produce them in our laboratories. Sugar, salicin [aspirin], and morphine will be artificially produced." [Liebig and Woehler (1838)]

Liebig's arguments against any chemical distinction between living (physiological) and dead chemical processes proved a great inspiration to several of his students and others who were interested in materialism. Though Liebig distanced himself from the direct political implications of materialism, he tacitly supported the work of Karl Vogt (1817–1895), Jacob Moleschott (1822–1893), and Ludwig Buechner (1824–1899).
German stamp picturing Justus von Liebig, 1953

Liebig played a more direct role in reforming politics in the German states through his promotion of science-based agriculture and the publication of John Stuart Mill's Logic. Through Liebig's close friendship with the Vieweg family publishing house, he arranged for his former student Jacob Schiel (1813–1889) to translate Mill's important work for German publication. Liebig liked Mill's Logic in part because it promoted science as a means to social and political progress, but also because Mill featured several examples of Liebig's research as an ideal for the scientific method. Liebig is also credited with the notion that "searing meat seals in the juices."[4] This idea, still widely believed, is not true.

Working with Belgian engineer George Giebert, Liebig devised an efficient method of producing beef extract from carcasses. In 1865, they founded the Liebig Extract of Meat Company, marketing the extract as a cheap, nutritious alternative to real meat. Some years after Liebig's death, in 1899, the product was trademarked "Oxo".

Liebig is also credited with the invention of Marmite because of his discovery that yeast could be concentrated.[5][6]

After World War II, the University of Giessen was officially renamed after him, "Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen". In 1953 the West German post office issued a stamp in his honor.[7]
Major works

Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology (1840)
Organic Chemistry in its Application to Physiology and Pathology (1842)
Familiar Letters on Chemistry (1843)

See also

History of soil science
List of chemists

Notes

^ Williams, W J. "Scientific Societies amd Institutions in Bath". Bath Royal Litarary & Scientific Institution. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
^ Evans, Robert Blast from the Past, Smithsonian Magazine. July 2002
^ Liebig, J. (1831), "Ueber einen neuen Apparat zur Analyse organischer Körper, und über die Zusammensetzung einiger organischen Substanzen", Annalen der Physik 21: 1–47, doi:10.1002/andp.18310970102
^ McGee, Harold (2004), On Food and Cooking (Revised Edition), Scribner, ISBN 0-684-80001-2 Page 161, "The Searing Question".
^ "Marmite: Ten things you'll love/hate to know". BBC News. BBC. 25 May 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
^ "A brief history of Marmite". I Love Marmite. Seamus Waldron. 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
^ Germany #695, Scott catalogue

References

William H. Brock, Justus von Liebig: The Chemical Gatekeeper (Cambridge University Press, 1997). See also William H. Brock.
Rosenfeld, Louis (2003), "Justus Liebig and animal chemistry.", Clin. Chem. 49 (10): 1696–707, 2003 Oct, doi:10.1373/49.10.1696, PMID 14500604
Kirschke, Martin (2003), "Liebig, his university professor Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner (1783–1857) and his problematic relation with romantic natural philosophy.", Ambix 50 (1): 3–24, 2003 Mar, PMID 12921103
Buttner, J (2000), "Justus von Liebig and his influence on clinical chemistry.", Ambix 47 (2): 96–117, 2000 Jul, PMID 11640225
Thomas, U (1988), "Philipp Lorenz Geiger and Justus Liebig.", Ambix 35 (2): 77–90, PMID 11621581
Guggenheim, K Y (1985), "Johannes Müller and Justus Liebig on nutrition.", Korot 8 (11–12): 66–76, PMID 11614053
Sonntag, O (1977), "Religion and science in the thought of Liebig", Ambix 24 (3): 159–69, 1977 Nov, PMID 11610495
Glas, E (1976), "The Liebig-Mulder controversy. On the methodology of physiological chemistry", Janus; revue internationale de l'histoire des sciences, de la médecine, de la pharmacie, et de la technique 63 (1–2–3): 27–46, PMID 11610199
Sonntag, O (1974), "Liebig on Francis Bacon and the utility of science", Annals of science 31 (5): 373–86, 1974 Sep, doi:10.1080/00033797400200331, PMID 11615416
Kempler, K (1973), "[Justus Liebig]", Orvosi hetilap 114 (22): 1312–7, 1973 Jun 3, PMID 4576434
Halmai, J (1963), "Justus Liebig", Orvosi hetilap 104: 1523–4, 1963 Aug 11, PMID 13952197
Berghoff, E (1954), "Justus von Liebig, founder of physiological chemistry", Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 66 (23): 401–2, 1954 Jun 11, PMID 13187963
Schmidt, F (1953), "To Justus von Liebig on his 150th birthday, 12 May 1953", Pharmazie 8 (5): 445–6, 1953 May, PMID 13088290
Schneider, W (1953), "Justus von Liebig and the Archiv der Pharmazie; in memory of Liebig's birthday, 12 May 1803", Archiv der Pharmazie und Berichte der Deutschen Pharmazeutischen Gesellschaft 286 (4): 165–72, PMID 13081110
G. F. Knapp (1903), "Zur Hundertsten Wiederkehr: Justus von Liebig nach dem Leben gezeichnet", Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 36 (2): 1315–1330, doi:10.1002/cber.19030360202.
Georg Freiherr von Liebig (1890), "Nekrolog: Justus von Liebig. Eigenhändige biographische Aufzeichnungen", Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 23 (3): 817–828, doi:10.1002/cber.18900230391.
"Zur Erinnerung an Justus von Liebig", Journal für Praktische Chemie 8 (1): 428–458, 1873, doi:10.1002/prac.18740080148.

External links

Familiar Letters on Chemistry at librivox.org
Works by Justus von Liebig at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Justus von Liebig in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Justus Liebig, German chemist (1803–73) from the Encyclopædia Britannica, 10th Edition (1902).
The National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame
Texts on Wikisource:
“Justus Liebig,” The Chemical News, 1873
"Justus von Liebig". Popular Science Monthly 40. March 1892.
"Liebig, Justus von". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
"Liebig, Justus von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.