1'. J). IIAII .\. 383 



course that lie maintained an interest in the siiljsequent careers 

 of all his old students, and to those who visited him in after 

 years lie was invarial)l\- hos])itality itself. Two incidents 

 illustrate another aspect of the same characteristic. During the 

 McArthur-Forrest case — one (tf South Africa's causes cHchrcs 

 — Hahn was being cross-examined by one of his former students 

 — ^by that time a distinguished barrister, to-day an eminent judge. 

 ■'But, Professor Hahn." urged counsel, "is not ferrocyanide 

 o'f potash a cyanide?" "' ^lr. X,"' replied Hahn. in a tone of 

 re])roach, " I tlid not teach \ou that." On another occasion, 

 Hahn. giving evidence Ijefore a (iovernment Commission, was 

 under cross-examination by another obi student, also a l)arrister, 

 who to-day occupies a seat on the bench. Counsel had re- 

 freshed his memor\- from his old college notes and i)roceeded to 

 ask Hahn whether marsh gas ]>()ssessed an odour like that of 

 coal gas. " IVIr. Y. you omitted the little word ' not ' when 

 you took down these notes," came the instant rejoinder. 



Hahn's whole nature was regular and methodical, and thi? 

 largely ccntributed to !<eei) him fresh and y;;ning in looks until 

 the (fatal malady grii)pe(l him. Once when travelling from the 

 North he met a student of years before, and the two were iix 

 intimate conversation for a lengthy pdriod of the journey, 

 during which a stranger to both entered a compartment. At 

 length the (|Uondam student had to alight; when the train moved 

 on again the stranger, who in silence had been an interested spec- 

 tator of the parting, turned to Hahn and said : " May I ask, 

 v/as that your father?" " No. my impil." was the characteris- 

 tically terse rei)ly. 



Untiring to the last as a worker, he wished, shortly before 

 the end came, and he was too ill to walk, to drive down to^ the 

 College in order to su])erintend the preparations for the session 

 which eventually (jpened on the day after the funeral. He 

 was dissuaded from this, but he succeeded in comi)leting for the 

 Government Scientific and Technical Comiuittee a report wdiich, 

 in view of war conditions, he had been asked to prepare on 

 tartaric acid and the i)ossibility of manuifacturing it locally. This 

 rejxjrt was sent in within a fortnight Ix'fore his death, and will, 

 it is mider.stood. be published >hortly. All who are interested 

 in the new University of Capetown are .ulad to know that the 

 Prince of Wales has consented to he nominated as its first Chan- 

 cellor, but few have hitherto been aware that it was at Prof 

 Hahn's suggestion that His l\o\al Highness had been a])proached. 



( )ne of the most ])romineni features in Hahn's character was 

 an unswer\ing insistence that re\-erence and res])ect should be 

 l>aid wherever clue. The College once employed as janitor an 

 elderly sergeant named Bassett. who had seen service in the 

 Crimea, and on State occasion> wore a (loul)lc row of military 

 medals. One of the severest \erhal castigaiion> ever adminis- 

 tered by Hahn — and he could Ije \ery severe on c)ccasion — fell 

 to the lot of a student w h» jni he had overheard speaking dis- 

 lespectfuUy to the janitor, the student being sternly achuonished 



