Paris - London and back to the desk: activities outside the laboratory

Monumental publishing projects: Fehling and the Handbook of Chemistry

In the view of many of his influential colleagues, Fehling's ailing health, which prevented him from spending long amounts of time in the laboratory, virtually predestined him to take on important and hence time-consuming publishing work. Thus in 1855 Fehling took over editing the "Handbook of Pure and Applied Chemistry" that his mentor Liebig had founded, a monumental reference work drawing together all the chemical knowledge of the time.

After successfully completing this project, Fehling himself took the initiative for a follow-up project, and from 1874 onwards began publishing the "New Handbook of Chemistry". Naturally, however, he did not live to see this work finished - the last volume was published in 1930! The mere scope of the volumes Fehling oversaw as editor is formidable. What's more, Fehling wrote a great deal of the entries himself.