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OBITUARY. 



Siegfried Czapski. 



Born, May 28, 1861. Died, June 29, 1907. 



By the sudden death of Dr. Siegfried Czapski, at the early age of 

 forty -six, optical science has lost one of its greatest masters, and the 

 Eoyal Microscopical Society one of its most distinguished Fellows. 



Dr. Czapski was born at Obra, in Posen, in 1861, and after a 

 school education at Breslau, he studied physics, mathematics, and 

 chemistry at Gottingen, Berlin, and Breslau, under Helmholtz and 

 Kirchoff amongst others. At the age of twenty-three he took his 

 degree with a thesis on a thermo-electrical subject suggested by 

 Helmholtz, and very soon after, on the latter's advice, went to 

 Jena. Here Professor Abbe, who at the Carl Zeiss Optical Works 

 was deeply engaged in the scientific and social problems which 

 formed his life's work, very quickly recognised the exceptional 

 ability, energy, and versatility which were characteristic of Dr. 

 Czapski, and made him his confidant and assistant. 



Master and disciple worked hand in hand. Abbe's ideal was 

 that of consolidating science, industry, education, and social reform 

 into one harmonious system — the experiment was to be made in 

 the domain of optics, in which, thanks to his discoveries, he had 

 a successful and growing industrial establishment. 



The magnitude and diversity of the problems incident on so 

 herculean a task may be imagined ; how his ideas led him to the 

 foundation of the Carl Zeiss Stiftung is a matter of common 

 knowledge, but what concerns us here is that in the whole of this 

 work Czapski was a most trusted counsellor, and many of the pro- 

 visions in connection with the statutes of that unique institution are 

 the dii'ect outcome of his labour. In 1891 he was made a member 

 of the board of management of the Carl Zeiss works ; he was like- 

 wise on the board of the optical glass works of Schott and Genossen. 

 The two works at that time employed together about 300 people ; 

 to-day they employ 2500, Abbe's onerous and multifarious duties 

 were telling more and more on his health, and as time proceeded 

 these consequently devolved more and more on Dr. Czapski, until 

 four years ago, when Abbe retu-ed from the boards of management, 



