Alexander von Humboldt in Some of His Relations to Chemistry C. A. BROWNE Bureau ofAgricultura1 and Industrial Chemistry, U . S . Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
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MONG the most valuable sources of information pertalnmg . . to the history of chemistry in the Western Hemisphere are the writings of Alexander von Humboldt. This great traveler and naturalist, although not a chemist by profession, was yet a devotee of chemistry and a great friend of chemists. Gay-Lussac and all those other brilliant stars of the chemical firmament during the Napoleonic era were Humboldt's friends and admirers. He loved particularly the companionship of younger men, and in two conspicuousinstancesthose of Liebig and Dumas-set them while still unknown on the way to fame and success. Liebig ( I ) , in the dedication to Humbolt of his famous work upon "Chemistry in Its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology," tells the delightful story of their first meeting in the following words: "During my stay in Paris, in the summer of 1823, I succeeded in presenting t o the Royal Academy an analytical investigation of Howard's fulminating compounds of silver and mercury, my first inquiry. At the end of the meeting of July 28th I was engaged in packing up my specimens, when a gentleman left the ranks of the Academicians and entered into conversation with me. With the most winning affability he asked me about my studies. occu~ation~. and Dlans. We se~aratedbefore mv * emb a m s m e n t and shyness had allowed mc to aik who had tnken so kind a n interest in me. This conversation became the cornerstone of my futurc I had wined the most amiahle friend. the most powerful patron of my scientific pursuits . . . "Unknown, without introduction in a city where the assemblage of so many men from every quarter of the globe is the greatest hindrance to personal acquaintance with scientific men high in renown. I mixht. like so manv others. have remained unnoticed-perhaps have failed altogether; t i i s danger was now entirely averted. From this day forth I found all doors, all institutes, and laboratories open to me. The lively interest you took in me procured me the affection and intimate friendship of my dear teachers, Gay-Lussac, Dulong, and Thenard. Your confidence paved the way to my present sphere of action, which for sixteen years with unbated zealI have striven worthily t o fill."
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a t the dwr. 'Come in,' said I, without looking up from my work. On turning round I was surprised to find myself face t o face with a gentleman in a bright blue coat with metal buttons, a white waistcoat, nankeen breeches, and top hoots. This costume. which might have been the fashion under the Directory, was then quite out of date. The wearer of it, his head somewhat bent, his eyes dedp set but keen, advanced with a pleasant smile, saying, 'Monsieur Dumas?' 'The same, sir; hut excuse me.' 'Don't disturb yourself. I am M. de Humboldt, and did not wish to pass through Geneva without having had the pleasure of seeing yon.' Throwing on my coat, I hastily reiterated my apologies. I had only one chair; my visitor was pleased to accept it, whilst I resumed my elevated perch on the drawing stool. Baron Humboldt had read the paper published by M. Prevost and myself, on blood, and was anxious to see the preparations I had by me. His wish was s w n gratified. 'I am going t o the Congress a t Verona,' said he, 'and I intend to spend same days a t Geneva, t o see old friends and make new ones, and more especially t o hecome acquainted with young people who are beginning their career. Will you act as my cicerone? I wam you. however, that mv rambles beein earlv and end late. Now. could vou be a t mv disposal, say, from six in the morning rill midnight?' This proposal. whkh was. of COUTSC. W C C ~ I Cmith ~ alacrity, proved to me a source of unexpcrtrd pleawre. Raron Humboldt was fond of talking; he passed from one subject to another without stopping. He obviously liked being listened to, and there was no fear of his being interrupted by a young man who, for the first time, heard Laplace, Berthollet, Gay-Lussac, Arago, Thenard, Cuvier. and many others of the Parisian celebrities, spoken of with familiarity I listened withastrangedelight; new horizons began t o dawn upon me. . "At the end of a few days Baron Humboldt left Geneva. After his departure the town seemed empty t o me. I felt as if spellbound . . I had been more especially impressed with what he told me of Parisian life, of the happy collaboration of men of science, and of the unlimited facilities which the French capital offered to young men wishing to devote themselves t o scientific pursuits. I began to think that Paris was the only place where. under the auspices of the leaders of physical and chemical science, with whom, I had no doubt, I should soon become acquainted. I might hope t o find the advice and assistance which would enable me to carry out the labours over which I had been pondering for some time. My mind was made up. I must go t o Paris."
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The two narratives of Humboldt's acquaintance with Liebig and Dumas are sufficient to reveal the interest of the great naturalist in chemistry. But i t is only when one turns from these reminiscences to Humboldt's books of travels or to that immortal work of his latest years, the "Cosmos," (3),that thedepth and fullsignificance of this interest are realized. His brief scattered remarks on the history of chemistry in Part I1 of the "Cosmos" (the section entitled "The History of the Physical Contemplation of the Universe") call attention "One day," said Dumas. "when I was in my study completing to ihe universal aipects of chemistry in reiation to other some drawings a t the microscope, and, i t must be rather sciences, to world phenomena as a whole, and to the negligently attired to enable me to more freely, someone influence which the contemplation of nature has exermounted my stairs, stopped on my landing, and gently knocked cised upon the developments of chemical science.
Humboldt's assistance to Liebig went even further, for i t was upon his recommendation that Liebig was appointed to the professorship of chemistry a t Giessen where he established the laboratory that became so famous as a center of chemical research. The story of the first meeting of Dumas with Hum.boldt, which happened in the same year as that of Liebig, is equally pleasing. The incident, as narrated by Hofmann (2) in his memorial essay on Dumas, is as follows:
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"Men drew comparisons," he writes, "between that which was accidentally observed in alchemistical laboratories, and that which was found prepared in the great laboratories of nature. especially in the interior of the earth. The working of mines in strata, rich in ores (especially those containing iron pyrites, which became heated by oxidation and contact electricity) led t o conjectures of the chemical relations existing between metals, acids, and the external air having access t o them." ("Cosmos," 11.p. 728.)
Humboldt's studies of the chemical processes that occur "in the great laboratories of nature, especially in the interior of the earth" are summarized chiefly in the three hundred or more pages of his "Cosmos" that relate to volcanoes. He discusses the character of the sublimed salts that are deposited from the vapors that rise from craters and fumaroles and the chemical nature of volcanic ashes, scoriae, lavas, and other mineral . Iormauons. The source of volcanic heat, which is still a live topic of interested Humboldt. .-scientific discussion. - ~ - - - ~ ~ -,- meatlv - ~~~~, -He rejects the various chemical theories that had been proposed to explain the cause of the earth's subterranean fires (such as the occurrence of pyrophoric substances, the oxidation of pyrites, the reaction of moist admixtures of finelv , oulverized sulfur and iron. and Davy's theory of the combination'of the metals of the alkalies and alkaline earths with water) in favor of the view of "that powerful internal heat which our planet owes to its first solidification." Humboldt then indulges in one of those characteristic philosophical reflections that eive so meat a charm to all his writinzs.
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"The enquirinx and active spirit of matt n ~ s be t suffered t o pass from the prrsent to the pa% to conjecture all that cannot yet be known with cnlainty, and still to dwcll with plrsure on the ancient myths of gwgnosy which are presented to us under so many various farms. If we consider volcanoes as irregular intermittent springs, emitting a fluid mixture of oxidized metals, alkalies, and earths, flowing gently and calmy wherever they find a passage, or being upheaved by the powerful expansive force of vapours, we are involuntarily led t o remember the geognostic visions of Plato, according t o which hot springs, as well as all volcanic igneous streams, were eruptions that might he traced back to one generally distributed subterranekn cause, Pyriphlegethon." ("Cosmos." I, p. 235.)
Of the many volcanoes that Humboldt visited in the course of his extensive travels the one that exercised the greatest hold upon his imagination was the stupendous Ecuadorean peak of Chimborazo which he visited in 1802 and from a rocky ridge of whose summit a t an elevation of 19,194 feet he broke off a specimen of trachyte that was later deposited in the Royal Mineralogical Museum of Berlin. Hnmboldt's long interest in Chimborazo is shown by the fact that 52 years later, when a t the age of 85 his mind reverted to this early exploit, he had a fragment of this specimen analyzed by Rammelsberg according to the latest imoroved methods. YCosmos." . V. D. 461.) From the high temperature reactions of inorganic nature Humboldt turned to consider the relationship of the chemical substances thus produced to the development of plant and animal life. .
facts as its basis, has, from the nature and limitations of its sphere, necessarily no connection with the obscure domain embraced by a history of organisms, if we understand the word history in its broadest sense. I t must, however, be remembered, that the inorganic crust of the Earth contains within i t the same elements that enter into the structure of animal and vegetable organs. A physical cosmography would therefore he incomplete, if i t were t o omit a consideration of these forces, and of the suhstances which enter into solid and fluid combinations in organic tissues, under conditions which, from our ignorance of their actual nature, we designate by the vague term of vital forces, and group into various systems, in accordance with more or less perfectly conceived analogies. The natural tendency of the human mind involuntarily prompts us t o follow the physical phenomena of the Earth through all their varied series, until we reach the final stage of the morphological evolution of vegetable forms, and the self-determining powers of motion in animal organisms. And i t is by these Links that the geography of organic beings--of plants and a n i m a l s i s connected with the delineation of the inorganic phenomena of our terrestrial globe." ("Cosmos." I. pp. 348-9.)
It is to Humboldt's "Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America between 1799 and 1804" (4) and to his "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain" (5) that we are particularly indebted for information as to the state of chemistry in Latin America a t the time of his visit. His statement that the principles of Lavoisier's new system of chemistry were more diffused in Mexico than in many parts of Spain is of particular interest. ..A traveller,,2 he writes, but on the very be surprised to meet in the interior of the horderq o f California. with vonne --.----~ ,~" Mexicans who reason on the decomposition of water in the process of amalgamation with free air. The School of Mines possesses a chemical laboratory; a geological collection, arranged according t o the system of Werner; a physical cabinet, in which we not only find the valuable instruments of Ramsden, Adams. LeNoir and Louis Berthoud, but also models executed in the capital even with the greatest precision, and from the finest wwd in the country. The best mineralogical work in the Spanish language was printed a t Mexico, I mean the Manual of Oryctognosy. campwed by del Rio, according to the principles of the ~choolof Freyberg, in which the author was formed. The first Spanish translation of Lavoisier's 'Elements of Chemistry' was also published a t Mexico." ("New Spain," I, pp. 216-7.) ~~
The del Rio mentioned here was none other than the famous Andres del Rio, who in 1801 first called the attention of chemists to the element vanadium which he discovered in the lead ore, vanadinite. He, as in the cases of Liebig and Dumab, is another instance of a deserving young scientist who owed his recognition and advancement to Humboldt. The historical development of the chemical processes for extracting gold and silver in the New World was a subject that greatly interested Humboldt. Of the aboriginal races the art of silver-smelting reached its highest development among the Incas of Peru who made use of small portable furnaces called huayres.
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"A comical history of the universe." he writes. "resting upon
-mesefurnaces," Humboldt states, "were cylindrical tubes of clay, very broad and pierced with a great number of holes. The Indians threw in layers of silver ore, galena and charcoal, and the current of air which entered a t the holes into the interior of the huavre anickened the flame and e w e i t a meat intensity. $,%en tcey k e i v e d that the wind blew too strong and that t i
much fuel was consumed, they carried their furnaces to a lower situation.. . . "The argentiferous masses which came out of the huayres established in the mountains, were resmelted in the cottages of the Indians, by means of the old process of blowing the fire by ten or twelve persons at once, through tubes of copper, of one or two meters in length and pierced a t the lower extremity with a very small hole." ("New Spain," 111, pp. 376-7.)
Notwithstanding the immense losses of silver that resulted from this primitive process of smelting it continued to be used by the Spaniards a t the silver mines of Potosi in Bolivia until the introduction of amalgamation, which was developed about 1551by Bartholomew de Medina a t Pachuca, Mexico. This process, which was destined t o rank as one of the greatest discoveries in metallurgy, soon displaced the crude native method of silver extraction and, for the next three centuries, approximately two-thirds of the total silver ~roductionof the world was made by amalgamation. The description of Medina's amalgamation method, which consisted in first treating the wet pulverized ore with salt, then with the so-called magistral (a powder of roasted copper pyrites), and finally with mercury under the feet of mules, occupies many pages of Humboldt's "Kingdom of New Spain" (Vol. 111, pp. 25480). Humboldt remarked that it was one of those chemical operations which were discovered and worked for centuries before the theory of the procedure was understood. He and Gay-Lussac spent much time together in studying the chemistry of the process. Even now opinions differ as to the series of reactions by which the silver sulfide of the ore is changed to the chloride and the chloride to metallic silver. One of the most thorough chemical economic surveys ever undertaken was Humboldt's statistical study of gold and silver production in Spanish America. According to his caiculations the entire weight of precious metals obtained from the Cordilleras of America be. tween 1492 and 1803 was approximately 2,280,000 kilograms of gold and 118,000,000kilograms of silver ("New Spain," 111, p. 421). Of the precious metal thus obtained he estimated approximately 65 per cent to have been produced by amalgamation, 25 per cent by smelting, and 10 per cent from free-occurring deposits. Humboldt's figures for the amount of gold and silver obtained in Latin America during the first three centnries, although impressive, are not large when compared with the yields obtained by modem processes. The weight of gold produced in the United States alone, for only the first 20 years of the present century, exceeded 2,600,000 ililograms, which is 15 per cent more than the entire production of the New World up to the year 1803. Yet, notwithstanding this, the importations of gold and silver from America during this period multiplied the value of the precious metals existing in Europe at the time of the discovery over 30 times. With the greater quantity of precious metal circulating as coinage there began in all commodities a rapid progressive increase in price which produced a quickening of human activities in every field and a
stimulus was imparted to dl branches of industry such as was never before experienced. Lack of space prevents making more than a bare mention of Humboldt's description of gold and silver refining as performed a t the Mexican mint, of his account of mercury production as camed out a t the mines of Huancavellica, or of his other studies of metallurgical processes as conducted in Spanish America. We must, however, refer briefly to Humboldt's chemical theory of miasms, the fetid exhalations from decaying vegetation, in the relation of which to yellow fever and other tropical diseases the great naturalist went badly astray. Humboldt repeatedly asserts that miasms were probably ternary or quaternaq combinations of nitrogen, phosphorus, hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur. He supposed mangrove trees to be especially productive of miasmatic exhalations. His theory was discussed, together with the erroneous gaseous contagion speculations of Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill and Thomas Paine, by the writer in the JOURNAL OP CHEMICAL EDUCATION for February, 1925 (Vol. 11, pp. 9%100), to which reference is made for further particulars. Another somewhat erroneous opinion of Humboldt relates to his statement regarding the chemical identity of animal and vegetable products. After wrongly defining rubber as "the oily part, the butter of all vegetable milk," he continues: "The mare we study vegetable chemistry in the torrid zone, the more we shall discover, in remote spots, and half-preparedin the organs of plants, products which we believe belong only tb the animal kingdom, or which we obtain by processes which are often tedious and dificult. Already we have found the wax that coats the palm-tree of the Andes of Quindiu, the silk of the palm: tree of Mocoa, the nourishing milk of the polo de "ma,the buttertree of Africa, and the caseous substance obtained from the almost animalized sao of Carica h h v a . These discoveries will be multiplied, wlqen, as the poiitkA state of the world seems now to indicate. European civilization shall flow in a great measure toward the equinoctial regions of the New Continent." ("Travels," 11,p. 369.)
This prediction of Humboldt was not destined to be fulfilled. It was made in the very infancy of modern chemistry when resemblances in the appearance of certain vegetable products to some substances of animal origin were mistaken for identity of chemical composition. As the methods of analytical chemistry became more and more exact it was discovered that vegetable waxes, oils, proteins, cellular tissues, etc., showed wellmarked differences in the nature of their chemical constituents when compared with animal products of the same class. In only comparatively few cases has absolute identity of composition been established between products of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Humboldt's scientific studies of the sugar, cochineal, cocoa, indigo, drug, starch, dye-wood, and other industries of New Spain are invaluable contributions which will always he consulted by the historian of early American chemical technology. A detailed exanlination of this part of his work is not possible, however, within the compass of the present paper. Agricultural chemists will always remember Hum-
their analysis of Humboldt's sample of guano at a meeting of the French Institute in November, 1803 (le 5 Frimaire an 12). They found i t to consist of onefourth uric acid partly combined with ammonia and lime, of oxalic acid partly combined with ammonia and potash, of phosphoric acid combined with the same bases and lime, of small quantities of the sulfates and chlorides of potash and ammonia, of a little fatty substance, and of a mixture of quartzose and ferruginous sand (106 cit.., DD. 258-68). Althoueh *. " this is the first recorded analysis of Peruvian guano, it was not until "Guano occurs very abundantly in the South Sea on the 1810 that experiments were first made with it on potaChincha Isands near Pisco, but is found also on the coasts and toes on the island of St. Helena a t the suggestion of Sir islets farther south a t Ilo, Iza, and Arica. The natives of Chan- Joseph Banks. The first trials in the United States cay, who handle guano commercially, make trips to and from were made in 1824 by John S. Skinner, editor of the the Chincha Islands in twenty days. Each boat carries a load of from 1500 t o 2000 cubic feet. A vanega* is worth a t Chancay 14 American Farmer, in Baltimore, who received two barrels of guano, which he distributed in small parcels and a t Arica 15 limes toumois (i.e., 14 and 15 francs). "It forms layers 50 t o 60 feet thick which is mined in the same for experiments. It was not, however, until after 1840 way as ochrous iron. These same islets are inhabited by a multi- that importations of Peruvian guano into the United tude of hirds, especially urdm and phenicopterus, who roost there a t night, bht their eicreta for the last three centuries have been States and Europe attained commeraal importance. Humboldt's description of the primitive chemical able to form layers of dnly 4 to 5 lines thick (1 French line = 1 , i n ) . Might not guano have heen produced by some up- arts among the aboriginal tribes, which he encountered heaval of the globe in the same way as coal and fossil wood? in his American travels, are also bf great interest. His The fertility of the barren coasts of Peru depends on guano which genial spirit of inquiry, in contact with the natives, is is a main object of commerce. Some fifty small boats, which are called guaneros, are constantly engaged in collecting this fer- well illustrated by his account of the method used by tilizer and bringing it to the coasts. I t can be smelled a t a an old Indian at Esmeralda, near the bifurcation of the quarter of a league distant. The sailors, who are accustomed to Orinoco, for preparing arrow poison, or curare.
boldt for it was he who first brought Peruvian guano to the attention of European scientists. During his visit to Peru he became interested in this product which since the timeof the ancient Incas had played so important a part in the agriculture of that country. He paid a visit to the guano deposits of the Chincha Islands, about 12 miles from the coast of Peru, opposite the town of Pisco, and collecting a sample of the product forwarded it to the French chemists Fourcroy and Vauquelin at Paris for examination. The following translation is made from his letter of transmittal:
its ammoniacal odor, do not notice it, but we sneezed constantly as we drew near. I t is especially for maize that guano makes an excellent fertilizer. The Indians have taught the method of using it to the Spaniards. If too much guano is used on the maize its root is scorched and destroyed. Guano is very easily acidified. I t is a fertilizer containing hydride of nitrogen (i.e., ammonia) whereas other fertilizers contain hydrides of carbon." [Annales de C*imie,Series 1, 56,25940 (1805).] :
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Fourcroy and Vauquelint presented the results of
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* A variant spelling of fanega = 1.60bushels.
t The year 1806 is generally given as the year of publication of Fourcrov and Vauquelin's analysis in the Anmles de Chimie. The titie page of Val. 56 of the first series of this journal hears the republican calendar date 30 Vendemiaire an XIV, which rorresoond to October 22. 1805. The Greeorian calendar went > ,
"We were fortunate enough," he writes, "to find an old Indian more temperate than the rest, who was employed in preparing the curare poison from freshly gathered plants. He was the chemist of the place. We found a t his dwelling large earthen pots for boiling the vegetable juice, shallower vessels to favour the evaporation by a larger surface, and leaves of the plantain-tree rolled up in the shape of our filters, and used to filtrate the liquids, more or less loaded with fibrous matter. The greatest order and neatness prevailed in this hut, which was transformed into a chemical laboratory. The old Indian was known throughout the mission by the name of the poison-master. He had that selfsufficient air and tone of pedantry of which the pharmacopolists of Europe were formerly accused. 'I know,' said he, 'that the whites have the secret of making soap, and manufacturing that black powder which has the defect of making a noise when used ftom father t o in killing animals. The curare. which we DreDare . . son, is s u ~ e r i o rto anvthine vou can make. I t is the iuice of an herb which kills silently, %bout any one knowing whence the stroke comes.' "This chemical operation, t o which the old man attached so much importance, appeared t o us extremely simple. The liana used a t Esmeralda for the preparation of the poison, bears the I t is the hark and same name as in the forests of Javita . a part of the alburnum which contain this terrible poison. Branches . are scraped with a knife, and the hark that comes off is bruised, and reduced into very thin filaments on the stone employed for grinding cassava. The venomous juice being yellow, the whole fibrous mass takes that color. It is thrown into a funnel nine inches high, with a n openidg four inches wide. This funnel was of all the instruments of the Indian laboratory that of which the poison-master seemed to be most proud. He asked us repeatedly if we had ever seen anything to be compared to this funnel. It was a leaf of the plantain-tree rolled up in the form of a cone, and placed within another stronger cone made of the leaves of the palm-tree. The whole of this apparatus mas supported by slight frame-work made of the petioles and ribs of palm-leaves. A cold infusion is first prepared by pouring water on the fibrous matter A yellowish water filters during several hours, drop by drop, through the leafy funnel. This filtered water is the poisonous liquor, but it acquires strength
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From J . H b f f x r r ' s "Srhloii T e d '
GARDEN VIEW OF TH& H ~ B O L DMANSION T AT TEGELNEAR BERLIN
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only when concentrnted by evaporation, like molastrs, i : ~a lnrgc earthen pot. Thc lndinn from time to timr i r ~ i t c dus to t m r the liquid; its taste, more or less hirtrr, derides when the concentratiou by lire h- hem canicd sullirirntly far. l'llcrr i i no dongcr in tnsting it, the < w o r e being delrttriour only when it corms into immediate contact with tllc hlood. The vapouri. therefore, which nre disengaged from the panc arc not hurtful. notnith.tandmg all that has l m n asierted ON thi, point hy thr rnis4onarics of thc Ormoro. . . "The most concentrated juice of the molorttrr is not thick enotlgh to stick to the darts: and thwcfurr, to give a l a d y to the poisot), nmther v~~gc~1:hlr juice, eutremely glutinous. drawn from a trcu with large l a v e < ,called kirurl~gaern,is pourrd iuto thr canccntrated infusion . . . "At tlie instant when the glutinous juice of the kiracaguero-tree is poured into the venomous liquor well concentrated, and kept in a state of ebullition, it blackens, and coagulates into a mass of the consistence of tar. or of a thick svru~. . . This mass is the curarc of commerce. . . "The old Indian . . seemed flattered by the interest we took in his chemical processes. He found us sufficiently idtelligent to lead him to the belief that we knew how to make soap, a n art which, next to the preparation of curare, appeared t o him one of the finest of human inventious. When the liquid poison had been poured into the vessels prepared for its reception, we accompanied the Indian to the festival of the juuias." ("Travels," 11, pp.
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439-48.)
Humboldt discloses in this pleasing account that trait of "winning affability" which was especially mentioned by Liebig. He displayed the same kindly attitude toward people in all walks of life. Although one of the most eminent of European scientists, there was nothing vain or pedantic in his personal relations. He was as much at home in the primitive chemical . quarters of the illiterate Indian in the wilds of the Orinoco as in the splendidly equipped laboratory of his friend Gay-Lussac in Paris. The broad culture of Humboldt was particularly impressed upon the writer during a visit in June, 1930, to his beautiful home a t Schloss Tegel, near Berlin, where he lived in close companionship with the family of his elder brother Wilhelm von Humboldt, the distinguished philologist. This property in 1930 was occupied by Geheimrat von Heinz, a descendant of Wilhelm von Humboldt, who kindly permitted our party to visit the mansion and grounds. While telling him of my interest in his famous kinsman I mentioned that I had one of the great naturalist's letters, written obliquely across the page. Geheimrat von Heinz then explained that this peculiarity, noticeable in so many of Humboldt's letters, was the result of his habit of writing on a pad supported by his knee. Schloss Tegel (7), formerly a hunting lodge of the Elector of Brandenburg, was rebuilt for the Humboldt brothers in 1822-24. Four towers were added at the comers, the outer walls of which bear replicas of the eight gods of the winds as sculptured on the ancient octagonal temple in Athens. Four niches in the back wall contain copies of Greek statues. A number of rooms of the mansion are left exactly as they were in the time of the Humboldts. The library and study contain the books, writing desk, pictures, antiques, and other mementos of the great naturalist. A large paint-
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Pmm J . Heffmr'r "Schlosr T e d "
RunlA~PLACE OP ALEXANDERAND WILHHLM VON H ~ R O L D T IN TAB P R I Y AFAMILY ~E CEMETERY ON THE GROUNDS OF THE HUMBOLDT MANSION AT T F ~ L ing by Karl van Steuben, made at Parts in 1812, shows Humboldt as a young explorer sitting with notebook and pencil upon an outcrop of basaltic rocks, a valley with palms lies below, while in the background rises the lofty snow-capped peak of Chimborazo-the volcano with which his name will always be associated. Back of Schloss Tegel is a park, with a magnificent old oak, at the end of which in a recess of the woods is the little cemetery of the Humboldt family. The graves, marked by simple headstones, are overgrown with ivy. In the center of the enclosure rises a beautiful monolithic column of red granite with an Ionic capital supporting a replica of Thorwaldsen's statue of Hope. The pedestal of the column bean the names of the two brothers and the dates of their births and deaths. Humboldt's relationship to chemistry was in no wise different from his attitude toward other sciences. He was pre-eminently a naturalist-the greatest perhaps of all time, for his "Cosmos" is the most perfect attempt to combine all the scientific knowledge of a period into a harmonious conception of the universe. Disregarding the artificial lines of demarcation with which man for his convenience had circumscribed special fields of scientific investigation, Humboldt viewed and studied nature as a whole. His investigations covered the A g e of all the sciences in their mutual relationships-a point of view that enabled him to explore borderlands of research neglected by the narrow specialist. It is to the great credit of Humboldt that he held aloof from the petty polemics that disturbed the world of science a century and more ago. Yet however bitter were their own personal quarrels, the rival partisans of chemistry, physiology, and medicine (including such adversaries as Liebig and Dumas) regarded Humboldt with an equal degree of affection. It could not be otherwise, for so far as science was concerned Humboldt bestowed encouragement and inspiration upon all, the same helpful hand to the young unknown beginner as (Conlinfced mr gage 258)
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
(Continued from Pogc 215)
rld-wide recognition, with no disto the scient crimination of race, or country, or social position. In closing we can do no better than repeat the tfibute that was once paid to him by Liebig (1) :
"Gesammelte Gedkhtnissreden, zur Erinnerung an VorangegangeneFreunde," Braunschweig, 1888, pp. 234-7. (3) VON H ~ O L D T " C, o s m o s A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe." Translated from the German by E. I P C. S ~Ottb, 5 volumes. George Bell and Sons, London,
"I know well how many there are who like me are indebted
VON HUMBOLDT AND BONPLAND. ''Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America during the Years 1799-1804." Translated from the French and edited bv Thomasina Ross. 3 volumes. George - Bell and Sons, ond don, 1900. VONH ~ B O L D "Political T, Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain." Translated from the French by John Black, 3 volumes. London, 1811. VONH-OLDT, "Letter t o Antaine F. Fourcroy and Louis N. Vauquelin," Annales de Chimie, Series 1, 56, 25940
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t o your favor and goodness for the attainment of their scientific aims. The chemist, the botanist, the physicist, the orientalist, the traveller t o Persia and India, the artist, all enjoyed the same privilege, the same recognition. For you there was no difference among lands and nations. What the sciences owe t o you in this special respect has never come t o the knowledge of the world, it can only be read in all our hearts."
(1805). LITERATURE CITED
(1) LIEBID,"Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologic," Braunschweig, Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1840. Dedication t o Alexander von Humboldt.
(2) Hommm, Essay on Jean-Baptiste-Andd Dumas, Vol. 11.
(7)
"Schloss Tegel." An illustrated descriptive booklet of the home of Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt taken from Velhagen and Klasing's Monatshefla to which credit is due for the illustrations. Publication lent by courtesy of the Edgar F. Smith Memorial Collection.
HORPNER,
From
3. Hoflner's "Scbluas TrpI''
Alexander von Humboldt, 1769-1859 Alexander uon Hunrboldl. ti.
A portrait in the Humbold! mansion at Tegel near Berlin, painled b.y Karl S!mben a1 Paris in 1812. Mount Chimboraro i.s rhotun in !he dislanee. (See p a p 21 1)
