Animal Chemistry, or Organic Chemistry in its Application to Physiology and Pathology
Justus Liebig
Abstract
By the application to Chemistry of the methods which had for centuries been followed by philosophers in ascertaining the causes of natural phenomena in physics—by the observation of weight and measure—Lavoisier laid the foundation of a new science, which, having been cultivated by a host of distinguished men, has, in a singularly short period, reached a high degree of perfection. After mineral chemistry had gradually attained its present state of development, the labors of chemists took a new direction. From the study of the constituent parts of vegetables and animals, new and altered views have arisen; and the present work is an attempt to apply these views to physiology and pathology. Physiology took no share in the advancement of chemistry, because for a long period she received from the latter science no assistance in her own development. This state of matters has been entirely changed within five-and-twenty years.