Scientific Worthies

Abstract

XVII.—ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN THE value of a life devoted to original scientific work is measured by the new paths and new fields which such work opens out. In this respect the labours of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen stand second to those of no chemist of his time. Outwardly the existence of such a man, attached, as Bunsen has been from the first, exclusively to his science, seems to glide silently on without causes for excitement or stirring incident. His inward life however is on the contrary full of interests and of incidents of even a striking and exciting kind. The discovery of a fact which overthrows or remodels our ideas on a whole branch of science; the experimental proof of a general law hitherto unrecognised; the employment of a new and happy combination of known facts to effect an invention of general applicability and utility; these are the peaceful victories of the man of science which may well be thought to outweigh the high-sounding achievements of the more public professions.