Catalogus : Recensies
Recensies
|
R. Stefan Roß (Hg.) Carl Schmidt (1822-1894) Tagebuchaufzeichnungen, Briefe und wissenschaftliche Reiseberichte des Dorpater Chemikers Carl Schmidt aus den Jahren 1842 bis 1881 Volume 7 ISBN: 978-3-8322-0883-7 Prijs: 49,80 € / 99,60 SFR |
|---|---|
| The University of Tartu/Dorpat was founded in 1632, closed in 1710, and reopened in 1802. It was a German-language university, working in the nineteenth-century Russia; chemistry was one of its most outstanding fields of research and teaching, represented by such names as Friedemann Goebel, Carl Claus, Carl Schmidt, Wilhelm Ostwald and Gustav Tammann. Schmidt was a long-time professor of chemistry at the University of Tartu (1852-1892). He received excellent training at the University of Berlin, supervised by Heinrich Rose, in Giessen, supervised by Justus Liebig, and in Göttingen, supervised by the chemist Friedrich Wöhler and the physiologist Rudolf Wagner. On the basis of the monograph "Die Verdauungssäfte und der Stoffwechsel", written together with a professor of the University of Tartu Friedrich Bidder in 1852, Schmidt is considered to be one of the founders of physiological chemistry. Later, Schmidt concentrated on the chemical analysis of different objects (soils, water, clay, turf, minerals, fertilisers, mineral waters, curative mud, and meteorites). This book, compiled by Stefan Roß, is an annotated source publication together with appendices (an overview of C. Schmidt´s manuscripts, a summary of his life and work, and an extensive list of publications), bringing the whole bulk of Schmidt´s preserved manuscripts to readers and researchers. The book was published as the seventh volume of the series Deutsch-russische Beziehungen in Medizin und Naturwissenschaften. It contains Schmidt´s diary entries from 1842, his correspondence and his travel reports. The correspondence includes his letters to Liebig, Wöhler, Max von Pettenkoffer, Karl Ernst von Baer and others, and also some letters sent to him by, among others, his students Hermann Benrath and V. Lieven. All his letters are concerned with scientific subjects and problems. They give information about his research work and his discussions of scientific problems with his colleagues. The letters are interesting to read, not only because they reflect their era and historical events, but also because they are written in a colourful personal style. The most valuable part of the book contains Schmidt´s voluminous and precise reports of his visits to Germany, France and Great Britain. Two longer visits are documented here — a three-month trip starting in May 1857, and another trip of about the same length, starting in June 1864. Unfortunately, there are no records of Schmidt´s other numerous travels. During his trips, he met with many renowned chemists and studied the work Organisation of different universities. He was interested in laboratory equipment and in the achievements of the chemical industry in different countries, describing in great detail all he saw. When observing the work Organisation of his colleagues, he was, naturally, keen on the aspects that could have been applied in Tartu as well. Travelling in western Europe, he acquired apparatus and other equipment for the University of Tartu. Other professors of the University of Tartu only rarely wrote similarly detailed and interesting travel reports. The work done by Stefan Roß is even more valuable, since the handwriting of Schmidt is extremely difficult to read. Since an extensive overview of Schmidt´s biography is still lacking, this new publication is a valuable addition to fill this gap. | |
| Bron: Hain Tankler, Ambix, Vol. 53, No. 3, November 2006, S.289-290 | |
| verder naar publicatie ... | |