From Thomas Archer Hirst   July - 20th 1851

Marburg. | July – 20^th 1851.

My dear John –

Had your letter¹ not arrived to day it was already my intention to write to you so you will have a speedy answer. I read the Athenaeum² with great interest and liked your lecture well as far as one could judge from the Report; your Berlin experiments were very interesting and so far as they go they appear to me very convincing and simple, forming a beautiful corroboration of the theory that you had already deduced from your experiments with Crystals.³ Now your time will be otherwise so much employed I suppose we shall hear less of your Scientific progress though I look forward to another memoir from you in the Phil. Mag:⁴ With your indignation at the flunkeyism I heartily sympathise, though I would out of charity to the Prince⁵ hope that is was also distasteful to him. One small act of Prof. Whewell which I learnt from the Leader⁶ raised my choler a little. Stegmann and I had only the day before been speaking about him and his book on Mechanics,⁷ but the day after I took particular delight in exposing his conduct here – I refer to his interrupting a paper on Sound as not being ‘lively and interesting’ enough for Princely ears. For which piece of flunkeyism – although it must necessarily be defeated in its purpose; –⁸ I should take great pleasure in pulling Prof. Whewells ears. Thank Debus for his letter for me and shake his fist heartily for me also. I will write to him when I have something to say. How does he get on with English, and his Laboratory Pupils? You must continually report to me how you pull altogether I shall often wonder what transmutations you are effecting in that establishment now you have got it so much under you & so free from the Yates species⁹ – Now let me gather for you all the sparing crumbs of Marburg News I possess, which without doubt you will agree with me is very little. The English Kränztchen¹⁰ meet to-morrow evening in Fraulein Bückings¹¹ garden for the first time these many weeks. They have not forgotten you, but think that you have forgotten your promise to write to them!! Knoblauch is as usual, a harmless good natured little fellow, but as usual twittering timidly about the lamp of Physics – I am afraid Knoblauch as a Lecturer is not improving but otherwise. The childish delight in popgun experiments on the whole increases, and he seems more and more to be making his peace with the ruinous notion that a course of lectures on Physics, and not the best possible course, but a kind of sleight of hand skipping one, is all his hearers wish to have from him & consequently (so great is his respect & fear for their opinion) all that it is his duty to give. Kolbe has in some respects a similar tendency but of course not any thing approaching Knoblauch in extent he has too delicate a nose and idea of order for my taste, works also too little himself in the laboratory though for that he may have his own reasons. All I know is that the example of Bunsen and Debus working for themselves had the effect of stimulating more industry last Semester than I see this. Stegmann alone stands firm on his own legs and by comparison rises daily in my esteem. His lectures on Descriptive Geometry he has made very interesting throughout. I have spent a good deal of time with him altogether, and have gone over a pretty fair quantity of ground – A good part of Analytical Geometry (Plane) and all the introductory part of the Analysis as it stands in Burg,¹² we have gone through; now we are working away in Differential Calculus & hope before the close of the Semester to bring it near a Conclusion. –¹³ Mathematics is and must be for some time yet my principal study, if I make an Examination it must furnish my dissertation. At Chemistry I spend from 3 to 4 hours per day – and have to leave experimental Physics for some future period –

I was surprised not long ago by Schnackenberg¹⁴ stepping into my lodgings. I expected to hear of his having left England dissatisfied but was glad to find that he had only brought a student Dickenson in his charge to Germany & on the contrary liked England much. he has now returned as you will know, having received as I hope the dissertation sent you by Prof Hessel.

From across the way at this moment comes the well known cry ‘Lebe hock!’)¹⁵ it is opportune for me; it comes from the Mouths of Marburg & Giessen Professors who have at last succeeded in coming together – to eat & drink to the success of Science & for their own enjoyment. Yesterday morning Wrightson and I rose at 4 ½ AM. and walked over to Giessen¹⁶ to hear Liebig – I dont know I was ever more pleased with a Chemical Lecture & Lecturer, he is a fine, able man – It was his first, on Organic Chemistry and lasted two hours, early in August he goes to England and consequently has much ground to get over He entered the room with an air that did not preposses me much, I thought I could see in his bearing the evil effects of his celebrity. To a certain extent, though with considerable modification, I can say also that impression remains; it would take a man of immense strength to bear uninjured the praises and notoriety which such genius as Liebigs has gathered. This shews itself in many affect[at]ions¹⁷ in manner, and a certain unmistakable expression in his countenance which says as plainly as words could, ‘Listen to a great Chemist’. He sat down slowly in his chair before the table, looked all round in the calmest most self-possessed manner, for a period whose length was sufficient to make one notice it, & then commenced, with his elbows on the table and the fingers in emphatic motion, one of the clearest introductory lectures I ever listened to; without notes he continued giving to his subject that impressiveness which commands your attention, and leading you on without the least confusion or repetition deeper and firmer into his subject – Thus he treated the connection between Inorganic and organic Chemistry, and the several theoretical views of the changes of bodies in the former to others in the latter, & shewing also the influence of the Vital Principle which was now added to those forces considered already in Inorganic Chemistry – Soon he came to his experiments and, simple though they were, he put every process actually before them, not one necessary however insignificant would he pass over – Here however I should say if we compare him and Bunsen that in the Speaking explanatory part, Liebig is more clear and emphatic; but Bunsen more brilliant and convincing in experiment; it arises probably in a great measure from Bunsens being more self helping and Liebig more dictatorial to his assistant at his elbow – His lecture as I said which ought to have been an hour and a half long lasted more than two instead of closing at 12 ½ it was already past 1. still he continued, a rustling of feet, coughing and even hissing shewed that some students thought more of their dinner than even Liebig he turned to them with a sarcastic smile & said ‘you know we have much to do and little time, you must not therefore begrudge it’ for 5 or 10 minutes more out of pure malice as one could see by the corners of his eyes he continued, & then concluded. We followed him immediately but found him already at work in his private Laboratory. My opinion of him improved very soon, he shewed little or no assumption or pride as he shook us by the hand & spoke to us, his youngest daughter a nice little girl of ten years old jumped into the room, and playfully made him guess what colored cherries she had in her hand, as I watched him look and talk to her in return he rose another 20 per cent in my estimation and so on the whole I left him with an opinion that from the first to the last had been on the increase. But I have gossiped on too long I must ‘shut up’. The Bowels John thank God, are immensely improved, as I anticipated the evil was but a mechanical one owing to my torpidity as Noll says, and at last I found a mechanical remedy which I need not explain but which with a careful attention as usual to my Diet has wonderfully improved my general Health – I remain even more than usual on this very account in-doors, & consequently (confound it) am weaker in body though better in bowels and clearer in head, consequently more capable of working. I will fetch up all loss of strength I hope in Switzerland in September. Good gracious this Semester has flown past.– And seen sadly too little done; although one has the satisfaction of knowing that we have been pretty constantly doing

But Good-Bye for a season to thee, John – We are often together I know & feel, although our interviews are no longer bodily ones –

T A Hirst

Post the enclosed¹⁸ for me, it is of some importance so dont let it happen any misfortune or be forgotten:

RI MS JT/1/H/159

RI MS JT/1/HTYP/149–151