Eilhard Mitscherlich - Later Work and Last Years

Later Work and Last Years

In 1833 Mitscherlich made a series of careful determinations of the vapor densities of a large number of volatile substances, confirming the law of Gay-Lussac. He obtained selenic acid in 1827 and showed that its salts are isomorphous with the sulphates, while a few years later he proved that the same thing is true of the manganates and the sulfates, and of the permanganates and the perchlorates. He investigated the relation of benzene to benzoic acid and to other derivatives. In 1829-1830 he published his Lehrbuch der Chemie, which embodied many original observations. His interest in mineralogy led him to study the geology of volcanic regions, and he made frequent visits to the Eifel with a view to the discovery of a theory of volcanic action. He did not, however, publish any papers on the subject, though after his death his notes were arranged and published by Dr. J. L. A. Roth in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy (Ueber die vulkanischen Erscheinungen in der Eifel und über die Metamorphie der Gesteine durch erhöhte Temperatur, Berlin, 1865).

Mitscherlich was an honorary member of almost all the great scientific societies, and received the gold medal from the Royal Society of London for his discovery of the law of isomorphism. He was one of the few foreign associates of the French Institute.

In December 1861 symptoms of heart disease made their appearance, but Mitscherlich was able to carry on his academic work until December 1862. He died at Schöneberg near Berlin in 1863 and was buried in the St Matthäus Kirchhof Cemetery in Schöneberg close to the (eventual) gravesites of Gustav Kirchhoff and Leopold Kronecker.