414 AUGUST WILHELM VON HOFMANN. 



pations. He was the father of the German Chemical Society, 

 founded in 1867, which under his care has grown to such enor- 

 mous proportions. His services as a juror at the great exhibi- 

 tions were still in frequent demand, and he issued an elaborate 

 report on the chemistry in that of Vienna, which amounted to a 

 full statement of the condition of technical chemistry in the 

 year 1873. In his literary work a large place is filled by his 

 historical accounts of the earlier chemists and the alchemists of 

 Berlin, and also by numerous obituaries of his distinguished 

 contemporaries, many of which toward the end of his life he 

 collected into three large interesting volumes. To these should 

 be added his " Introduction to Modern Chemistry, Experimental 

 and Theoretic," a short text-book brought out at the beginning 

 of his life in Berlin, which gave a remarkably clear account 

 of what were at that time the new theories, illustrated by in- 

 genious and novel lecture experiments. His brilliancy as a 

 lecturer led to his giving many public lectures, notably the 

 Faraday Lecture of the London Chemical Society in 1875, — a 

 life of Liebig, which was afterward published in book form. 



He did not seek for honors, and frequently expressed the 

 slight value he set upon titles, but they came to him unsought. 

 At the beginning of 1875 he received the honorary title of 

 Privy Councillor (^Geheirtirath), and in 1890 he was ennobled. 



In his vacations he was a great traveller. There was hardly 

 a country of Europe which he had not visited, and in the sum- 

 mer of 1883 he travelled over most of the United States, when 

 his eager interest in all that he saw, and his delighted apprecia- 

 tion of American humor, left pleasant memories to those who 

 were fortunate enough to meet him. 



The busy life which I have described, continued with only 

 one serious interruption from sickness (in 1878), until he was 

 seventy -four years old, when the end came suddenly on the 5th 

 of May, 1892. He had just begun to lecture again with his 

 accustomed energy, after his return from a short vacation jour- 

 ney, when on coming home from a facility meeting he began to 

 feel unwell, and in half an hour was dead, — a fortunate end 

 to a happy life. 



My first sight of Hofmann was characteristic of the man; it 

 was in the chemical lecture-room, just after the academic quar- 

 ter of an hour had ended. He came hurrying in, wearing a 

 white knit scarf about his throat, and a tall hat. With what 



