373 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



BIOGRAPHIES OF EMINENT 

 CHEMISTS. 



Besides the individual works named 

 in recent numbers of The Popular 

 Science Monthly, the collected works, 

 or dictionaries, of biography, particu- 

 larly those treating specially of scien- 

 tific men, contain valuable information 

 of the lives and labors of the chemists. 

 So far as known to the writer there is 

 only one book devoted to chemists ex- 

 clusively, and that one is so full of 

 mistakes and so weak through its 

 omissions of conspicuous men of all 

 nationalities, especially Americans, 

 that it could only be named for the 

 purpose of condemning it. Suffice it 

 to say the book is of German origin, 

 yet it does not include all the honor- 

 ary members of the German Chemical 

 Society. The fact that it is of recent 

 origin and is issued by a prominent 

 publisher does but strengthen its 

 weakness. 



The most valuable of all biographical 

 dictionaries dealing solely with men of 

 science is also of German origin, and 

 owing to its unwieldly title is usually 

 designated by the words : ' Poggen- 

 dorff's Dictionary.' The ' Biographisch- 

 literarisches Handworterbuch zur Ge- 

 schichte der exakten Wissenschaften,' 

 begun in 1858 by J. C. Poggendorff, 

 and continued to 1900 by Feddersen 

 and von Oettingen, now comprises 

 three large volumes, and another is 

 promised; it is most comprehensive, in- 

 cluding all nationalities, all epochs of 

 history and all branches of exact sci- 

 ence. Under the last heading, how- 

 ever, as interpreted by its originator, 

 the dictionary does not include biol- 

 ogy, so that with few exceptions, bot- 

 anists and zoologists, as well as 

 physicians, are omitted; otherwise for 



mathematicians, astronomers, geolo- 

 gists, physicists and chemists it is 

 most valuable. This dictionary not 

 only gives very brief outlines of the 

 lives of those catalogued, but in addi- 

 tion, fairly full lists of their scientific 

 publications both in independent books 

 and in periodicals. To the historian, 

 and the student of the literature of 

 sciences within the categories named, 

 these volumes are indispensable; to- 

 gether with ' Who's Who in America ' 

 they form a vade mecum with reference 

 to the dead and the living actors in 

 science. If a personal remark may be 

 here permitted, the writer will venture 

 to add that his copy of ' Poggendorff's 

 Dictionary ' has been enhanced in value 

 by the insertion of more than six hun- 

 dred engraved portraits of savants, 

 each one adjoining the appropriate 

 biography, thereby doubling the num- 

 ber of volumes and increasing the in- 

 terest of the reader. 



Several works are particularly ad- 

 mirable for the abundance of the por- 

 traits of scientists within their covers; 

 among these may be mentioned the 

 four volumes published in 1833-40 by 

 the Philanthropic Society, ' Montyon et 

 Franklin,' containing likenesses not 

 easily found elsewhere, and Figuier's 

 ' Vie des savants ' in five volumes, 

 containing many portraits and illus- 

 trations in which imagination has been 

 of great assistance to the artist. Hof- 

 mann's ' Erinnerungen an vorange- 

 gangene Freunde ' (three volumes, 

 1889) embraces sketches of the lives 

 of chemists only, illustrated by por- 

 traits, which unfortunately are not 

 well engraved, though the text is that 

 of a master as well as a sympathetic 

 friend appreciative of the scientific 

 work of those he portrays. The biog- 



