A C T A U N I V E R S 1 T A T 1 S L O D Z I E N S I S
FOLIA CHI MICA 13, 2004
LIEBIG’S POLISH PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS
by Roman Mierzecki
P olish C h em ica l Society, S ection o f C hem istry H istory, 16 F reta Sir. 0 0 -2 2 7 W arsaw, P oland
The ideas o f every scientist are based on his observations and experim ents, but also on those o f his predecessors. Liebig developed many new ideas that were continued by his scientific sons, grandsons, etc. He had, of course, also som e predecessors, although only few o f them are m entioned in L iebig’s papers. In XIX c. it was rather not popular to refer to o n e’s predecessors. H ow ever, com paring the texts o f different naturalists som e traces can be found. One o f such physicians, naturalists and chem ists, nonm entioned by Liebig, is a Pole, Jędrzej Śniadecki. Śniadecki was born in 1768 in Żnin (Poznań District), studied m edicine at University o f C racow , then w orked with A. V olta in Italy and J. Black in Scotland. In 1797 after returning hom e, he has been appointed professor o f chem istry at the m edicine faculty of the Vilna University: He occupied this chair till 1822, being at the sam e time one o f the most known Polish physicians. At that time Poland was occupied by three neighbourhood states and Vilna was a part o f Russian Em pire. At the beginning o f XIX c. in the old Polish University in Vilna it was lectured m ainly in Latin but m ost o f lecturers and students w ere Poles. The Ś niadecki’s predecessor at the chair in Vilna, Sartorius, lectured the chemistry based on the old phlogiston theory in Latin. Śniadecki began the L avoisier’s chem istry course in Polish. In 1800 he published the first Polish handbook o f chem istry The Principles o f Chem istry reedited in 1806 and 1816 [ 1], Thus Śniadecki is one o f principal founders o f the actual Polish chemical term inology. His term inology influenced also the C zech term inology form ed by J. S. Presla [2] in 1827. In 1825 he has been appointed the head o f the Therapeutical C linic o f the V ilna University. Śniadecki died in V ilna 1838.
The other im portant Śniadecki’s publication was a handbook of Physiology The Theory o f O rganic Beings [3]. The first volum e was published in
1804, the second in 1811 in Polish, (the planned third volum e was not written). This work was translated into Germ an, published twice (1810 and 1821) and used as a handbook in som e G erm an universities. It was also published in 1825 in French. Many L iebig’s theses are com patible with those o f Śniadecki. I will give only som e exam ples:
In § 41 and 42 o f his Theory, Śniadecki relates that all organic beings contain several inorganic elem ents: hydrogen, oxygen and carbon in the first line, but also nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus [4], Sim ilar theses can be also found in L iebig’s writings published som e years later. M ore significant are the conceptions concerning the natural forces acting in living organism s. In § 154 of his physiology handbook Śniadecki writes: “ We have show n that all organic processes depend on exerting o f organising forces and their preponderance over antiorganising ones, so as on preponderance o f the disorganising processes on the prevalence of affinities. It follow s that in the first part o f life the organising forces are predom inant and give a direction to all the life, so in the other part of life, they decline step-by-step and in this way they let to play a greater role to the affinities, and at the end retreating com pletely to affinities they give an end to all organic processes and to the life itself.” [5], So, in accordance with Ś niadecki’s views, the organising, it is the vitalic force and the chem ical force, it is the affinity, they are both acting in the organic beings from their birth to their death, but with the lapse o f time the role of the first one decreases and the role o f the other — increases. This is a very interesting approach, as we know today that at the beginning the organic beings were very far from therm odynam ic equilibrium . T he chem ical reactions are much nearer to this equilibrium , but the equilibrium itself m eans the lack o f any reactions, that is the death o f organic beings.
W hat are the L iebig’s views o f these problem s? W e can find them in his Letters on Chem istry published 1851 in London [6 ] and com pare with the Śniadecki’s view. The problem which elem ents are present in organic com pounds is at that tim e out o f discussion. About the role o f vital and chem ical forces we read in the letter XIV [7]: “N either heat, electricity, nor the vital force are capable of connecting the particles of two dissim ilar elem ents into a group— of uniting them into a com pound; — this, the chem ical force alone is able to accom plish.
...The substance of brain, of m uscle, the constituents o f blood, of milk, of bile &c., are com pound atoms, the form ation and duration o f which depend upon the affinity which acts between their ultim ate particles, — their com ponent elem ents. It is affinity, and no other power, which causes their aggregation. Separated from the living body, withdraw n from the influence o f vital force, it is chem ical force alone which determ ine the condition o f their ulterior existence.”
But according to the XXV letter 18]: “ Universal experience teaches us that all organised beings gradually vanish from the surface o f the earth... The anim al m atters lose their cohesion; they are dissipated into air, leaving only the mineral elem ents which they had derived from the soil.
“T his grand natural process o f dissolution o f all com pounds form ed in living organism s, begins im m ediately after death, when m anifold causes no longer act, under influence o f which they were produced. The com pounds form ed in the bodies o f anim als and o f plants undergo, in the air, and with the aid o f m oisture, a series o f changes, the last of which are the conversions o f their carbon to carbonic acid, o f their hydrogen into water, o f their nitrogen into am m onia, o f their sulphur into sulphuric acid. Thus, their elem ents resum e the form in which they can again serve as food to a new generation o f plants and anim als.”
T he L iebig’s formulation is, o f course more modern than that of
Śniadecki but some coincidence can be found. The problem o f influence o f Sniadecki’s ideas on Liebig still waits analysis.
W hat concerns the Polish L iebig’s successors. In 1845 Mikołaj (N icholas) Laskow ski (born in 1816) worked in L iebig’s laboratory in Giessen and in 1846 he published an article on the protein theory [9J. Laskow ski studied also in G iessen the acids o f cheese with P. lljenko [10]. Laskow ski later worked in Russia. No other Pole, as we know, worked in the L iebig’s laboratory, but many Polish chem ists visited laboratories o f L ieb ig ’s scientific sons and ^ » g ra n d s o n s .
• B ronisław Radziszewski (1838-1914), graduated from the M oscow ^**HJniversity, after the fall o f the Polish uprising against R ussia in 1863, when he * —Was a m em ber o f the Polish governm ent, was obliged to leave R ussian territory J**^*and w ent to Gent, w here in the August K ekule’s laboratory he perform ed in 1867 his Ph.D. thesis. In 1872 he was appointed the chief o f the chem istry chair at the Lwów Polish U niversity, at that time under A ustrian occupation. There he founded the Polish organic chem istry school 111]. He observed as first one, the lum inescence originated by chemical reactions and considered (before other naturalists) the organic origins o f the crude oil. In 1867 he w orked in Gent with a young Pole, Stanisław Szuch (1849-1910) [12], with whom K ekule published an article [13].
Later in K ekule’s laboratory in Bonn w orked Poles W iktor Richter (1 841-189 2) in 1874 and in 1875 Ernest Tytus B androw ski (1 8 53 -19 20 ), since 1879 a professor at the Technical Academy of Kraków and since 1896 chem istry professor at the Jagiellonian University o f Kraków. And also Jan Siem ieński (1 8 5 5 -?) w ho began in Bonn in 1880 his Ph.D. thesis that was finished in
W ilhelm Ostw ald studied in Riga by Carl Schm idt, L iebig’s pupil. With Ostw ald collaborated 5 Polish chemists: M ieczysław C entnerszw er (187 4-1 94 4) fulfilled in 1898 his Ph. D. thesis on the catalytic influence o f gases in the oxidation o f phosphorus. C entnerszw er was after 1898 the founder o f the Baltic school o f chem istry and since 1929 a professor o f physical chem istry o f W arsaw University. A nother O stw ald’s collaborator, Jan Zaw idzki (18 6 6 -1 9 2 8 ) fulfilled in 1900 in Leipzig his Ph.D. thesis “Ueber die D am pfdrucke bintiren Flussigkeitgem isclien .cited in many handbooks. In 1918-1928 Jan Zaw idzki was a professor o f inorganic chem istry at the Technical U niversity o f W arszawa. T adeusz M iłobędzki (1 873-1959 ) after 1915 professor o f the Technical U niversity o f W arszaw a w orked in 1905 som e m onths in the O stw ald’s laboratory. T w o future professors o f physical chem istry at the Jagiellonian U niversity o f Kraków, Ludw ik B runer (1871-1913) and Bohdan Szyszkow ski w orked for som e m onths in the O stw ald’s laboratory.
In 1896 Stanisław Tolloczko (1868-193 5) graduated from the Russian W arsaw U niversity com m enced his Ph.D by O stw ald’s pupil, W alther Nernst. In 1905-1935 he was the head o f the departm ent o f Inorganic and Physical C hem istry at the University o f Lwów. He played an im portant role in the developm ent o f Polish chem istry and educated som e Polish em inent chem ists. In
1904 Tolloczko w orked also with Fritz Haber.
Fritz Haber was a student of Carl Lieberm ann, a pupil o f A dolf v. B aeyer who in turn studied by A ugust v. Kekule. W ith H aber w orked 2 Polish scientists. T he first one was in 1909 Zygm unt K lem ensiew icz (18 8 6 -1 9 6 3 ) who invented in the H aber’s Laboratory in Karlsruhe the glass-electrode. K lem ensiew icz took in 1920-1940 the chair o f physics at the Technical U niversity o f Lwów, in 1947-1951 at the Polish Technical U niversity of London, and since 1956 at the Silesian Technical U niversity o f G liwice.
A nother Polish chem ist, Józef Zawadzki (1 88 6-1 951 ), graduated from the Jagiellonian U niversity o f Kraków spend two years (191 1-1913) in the H aber’s laboratory in Karlsruhe. In 1923 he was appointed the head o f the departm ent o f Chem ical Technology at the Technical U niversity o f W arszawa. D uring the Nazi occupation he was the dean o f the clandestine Chem ical D epartm ent o f W arsaw Universities.
Thus, Liebig influenced to some extend the developm ent o f some branches o f Polish chem istry by m eans o f his pupils and pupils o f his pupils.
REFERENCES
[1] Jędrzej Śniadecki, P o czą tki Chem ii, W ilno, 1800.
[3] Jędrzej Śniadecki, Teorya J este stw O rganicznych, Warszawa, 1804. 14] v.p.2, §§ 41,42.
[5] v.p.2 § 154.
[6] J. Licbig, L eiters o n C hem istry, London 1 8 5 1. 17J v.p.5, p. 166.
18 J v.p.5, p. 180.
[9] N. Laskowski, U eb er die P roteintheorie, Ann.Chem.Pharm. 1846, 58 , 129-166, acc. to I. Z, Siem ion, B ro n isła w R adziszew ski i lw ow ska szkolą ch em ii organicznej, W rocław, 1999, p.15. [10] P.IIjenko, N. Laskow ski, U eb er die flü c h tig e n Säuren d e r Käse, Ann. Chem . Pharm,. 1845,
55. 7 8 -9 5 . acc. to 1. Z .Siem ion loc. cit. p. 15.
[ 1 1] 1. Z. Siem ion, B ro n isła w R ad ziszew sk i i lw ow ska szkoła ch em ii o rg anicznej, W roclaw, 1999, 2 18 pp, 2 1 fig.
112] I. Z. Siem ion ,O ch em ika ch p o lskich do b y zaborów , W rocław 1995,.216 pp.
113] A. Kektile, S. Szuch, U eb er einige schw e fe lh a ltig e A b ko m lin g e des B en zo ls m u l des Phenols, Z. f. Chem. N. F 1867, 3, 193-196; v .p .l 1, p. 58.
[14] J. v. Sicm ieński, U eb er e in ig e P henantrenderivate. Iiiaugural-dissertation, Dresden 1881, 37 pp.
