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independent existence and had been absorbed into the School of Mines. This event he must have looked upon as a curtailment of its possibilities of usefulness. But, in addition, there is only too much See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason to suppose that he was disappointed at the general apathy with which his science was regarded in England. No See also:

man ever realized more fully than he how entirely dependent on the advance of scientific knowledge is the continuation of a country's material prosperity, and no single chemist ever exercised a greater or more See also:

DIRECT

direct influence upon See also:

INDUSTRIAL

industrial development.

In England, however, See also:

PEOPLE

people cared for none of these things, and were See also:

BLIND, MATHILDE (1841—1896)

blind to the commercial potentialities of scientific See also:

RESEARCH (O. Fr. recerche, from recercher, re- and cercer, mod. chercher, to search; Late Lat. circare, to go round in a circle, to explore)

research. The college to which Hofmann devoted nearly twenty of the best years of his See also:

LIFE

life was starved; the See also:

COAL

coal-See also:

tar See also:

INDUSTRY (Lat. industria, from indu-, a form of the pre, position in, and either stare, to stand, or struere, to pile up)

industry, which was really brought into existence by his See also:

WORK

work and that of his pupils under his direction at that college, and which with a little intelligent forethought might have been retained in England, was allowed to slip into the hands of Germany, where it is now See also:

worth millions of pounds annually; and Hofmann himself was compelled to return to his native See also:

LAND

land to find due appreciation as one of the foremost chemists of his See also:

time. The See also:

REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest of his life was spent in Berlin, and there he died on the 5th of May 1892. That See also:

CITY (through Fr. cite, from Lat. civitas)

city possesses a permanent memorial to his name in Hofmann See also:

House, the See also:

home of the German Chemical Society (of which he was the founder), which was formally opened in 'goo, appropriately enough with an See also:

account of that See also:

GREAT

great See also:

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

triumph of German chemical enterprise, the industrial manufacture of synthetical See also:

INDIGO (earlier indico, from Lat. indicum, the Indian sub-stance or dye; the Sans. name was niti, from nila, dark blue, and this through Arab. al-nil, annil, gives " aniline ")

indigo. Hofmann's work covered a wide range of organic chemistry, though with inorganic bodies he did but little. His first research, carried out in Liebig's laboratory at Giessen, was on coal-tar, and his investigation of the organic bases in coal-See also:

gas See also:

NAPHTHA

naphtha established the nature of See also:

ANILINE, PHENYLADIINE, or AMINOBENZENE, (C6H5NH2)

aniline. This substance he used to refer to as his first love, and it was a love to which he remained faithful throughout his life. His See also:

PERCEPTION (from Lat. percipere, to perceive)

perception of the See also:

ANALOGY (Gr. avaXo-yLa, proportion)

analogy between it and See also:

AMMONIA (NH3)

ammonia led to his famous work on the See also:

AMINES

amines and ammonium bases and the allied organic See also:

PHOSPHORUS (Gr. 4ws, light, sPEpety, to bear)

phosphorus compounds, while his researches on rosaniline, which he first prepared in 185.8, formed the first of a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of investigations on colouring matters which only ended with See also:

QUINOLINE (Benzopyridine), C9H7N

quinoline red in 1887. But in addition to these and numberless other investigations for which he was responsible the influence he exercised through his pupils must also be taken into account. As a teacher, besides the',See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power of accurately gauging the See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character and capabilities of those who studied under him, he had the See also:

FACULTY (through the French, from the Lat. facultas, ability to do anything, from facilis, easy, facere, to do; another form of the word in Lat. facilitas, facility, ease, keeps the original meaning)

faculty of infecting them with his own enthusiasm, and thus of stimulating them to put forward their best efforts. In the lecture-See also:

ROOM

room he laid great stress on the importance of experimental demcnstrations, paying particular See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention to their selection and arrangement, though, since he himself was a somewhat clumsy manipulator, their actual See also:

EXHIBITION

exhibition was generally entrusted to his assistants. He was the possessor of a clear and graceful, if somewhat florid, style, which showed to See also:

SPECIAL

special See also:

ADVANTAGE

advantage in his numerous obituary notices or encomiums (collected and published in three volumes Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde, 1888).

He also excelled as a See also:

SPEAKER

speaker, particularly at gatherings of an See also:

INTERNATIONAL, THE

international character, for in addition to his native German he could speak English, See also:

French and See also:

ITALIAN

Italian with fluency. See Memorial Lectures delivered before the Chemical Society, 1893 .19oo (London, 1901).

End of Article: HOFMANN, AUGUST WILHELM VON (1818-1892)

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