Abstract
GOETHE'S interest in natural science is an out standing characteristic of his all-embracing genius. His writings often display a detailed knowledge of the processes of Nature; and his intuitions in many instances are almost prophetic. When he was twenty years of age, he made experiments with the “Liquor Silicium”(1769) which led him to the view that a great deal can be discovered about the nature of the elements by paying attention to the geometrical arrangement of their particles. In 1795 he wrote to Humboldt, “you enquire into the mysteries of nature through its elements, whereas I do by watching their con figuration”. Indeed, this is the fundamental principle of the colloidal theory which developed later with such remarkable results. Already in 1786, Goethe had noticed that the crystals of common salt take various forms—an indication, he wrote, that they are not pure. So great was his faith in natural configuration that he pro claimed, in the same year, that mineralogy without chemistry cannot progress one inch. His interest in the science of matter remained with him throughout his life. In 1819, he was much puzzled by the constitution of coffee; and when he made the acquaintance of young Runge, who was later to discover aniline, Goethe gave him some coffee beans suggesting that their analysis might interest him. One year later, in 1820, Runge communicated to Goethe his discovery of cafein.
(1)Goethe als Chemiker und Techniker.
Von Paul Walden. Pp. 87. (Berlin: Verlag Chemie G.m.b.H., 1932.) 2 gold marks.
(2) Gothes naturwissenschaftliches Denken und Wirken: drei Aufsätze herausgegeben von der Schriftleitung der Zeitschrift "Die Naturwissen-schaften".
Pp. iii + 99. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1932.) 3.60 gold marks.
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G., T. Miscellany. Nature 133, 370 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133370c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133370c0