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[AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL.]




FRIEDRICH WÖHLER.


No one but a chemist can appreciate the full significance of the brief
message which came to us a month ago without warning--"Wöhler is dead!"
What need be added to it? No chemist was better known or more honored
than Wöhler, and none ever deserved distinction and honor more than he.
His life was made up of a series of brilliant successes, which not only
compelled the admiration of the world at large, but directed the
thoughts of his fellow workers, and led to results of the highest
importance to science.

It is impossible in a few words to give a correct account of the work of
Wöhler, and to show in what way his life and work have been of such
great value to chemistry. Could he himself direct the preparation of
this notice, the writer knows that his advice would be, "Keep to the
facts." So far as any one phrase can characterize the teachings of
Wöhler, that one does it; and though enthusiasm prompts to eulogy, let
us rather recall the plain facts of his life, and let them, in the main,
speak for themselves.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Kopp's "Geschichte der Chemie," iv., 440.]