4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



prominent men of science as well as students, will always remem- 

 ber with pleasure and gratitude delightful trips made with Prof. 

 Hertz to the Siebengebirge or evenings of genial intercourse at 

 his house in the Quantiusstrasse at Bonn. Absolutely devoid of 

 any desire to pose before the public, the professor sometimes 

 astonished students newly entered for his lectures by putting in 

 a bit of humor where they had expected abstract instruction ; but 

 they soon found themselves none the worse for it. Some simple 

 word, a casual remark made as if it were a self -understood thing, 

 from his lips did more toward improving the mind of his audience 

 than a long lecture from another. He was not a scientist incul- 

 cating one special branch of knowledge he was a thinker. To be 

 considered an authority, even by the youngest beginner, was an 

 idea that never entered his mind. In the congenial atmosphere of 

 advanced classes, new ideas and conceptions seemed to rise in him 

 and flow from his lips as though there could be no easier thing in 

 the world. He was at his very best when propounding a problem 

 to this small circle, showing how he would attack it. None, how- 

 ever capable, but could profit by this teaching; genius itself 

 seemed to prompt it. 



With penetrating perspicacity he took hold of his problems. 

 As a veritable disciple of natural science, he strove to accomplish 

 his ideal ends, although by means of theory, which he completely 

 mastered, yet not merely by theory and not for her sake only ; 

 what he aimed at first and last was the most accurate establish- 

 ment of facts. Pervaded as his strong personality was by an 

 absorbing love of his science, the rare harmony of his nature 

 kept him equally from an exaggerated enthusiasm and from pro- 

 saic dullness. An uncommonly great number of valuable re- 

 searches made at the Physical Institute at Bonn during the short 

 time of his leadership prove his rare capacity and untiring eager- 

 ness to incite young talents to the best possible application of 

 their faculties and so pave the way for their success in research. 

 But in a wider sense of the word we may call his disciples all 

 those physicists who are at this moment, and will be for a long 

 time, occupied in exploring the provinces which he was the first 

 to open. In this sense almost one quarter of all living physicists 

 call themselves Prof. Hertz's followers. 



The honors paid at his funeral to the memory of this young 

 and ardent worker were exceptionally great. He was buried in 

 his native city, Hamburg, where the most widespread sympathy 

 for his family and the deepest regret over his loss were shown. 

 From Bonn, Karlsruhe, and Berlin came friends, colleagues, and 

 students, some of them oflficially representing their colleges. 

 Universities and prominent men from all parts of our globe have 

 sent messages of esteem and sympathy to the wife, the parents. 



