BUNSEN MEMORIAL LECTURE. 043 



the Grand Hotel. When I think that next March I enter on mx 

 eightieth year, I must resign myself to the fact that such a state of 

 things IS inevitable. My hearing, too, becomes more and more diffi- 

 cult, and my eyes are worse, so I have to diMiv mvself all sociiij inter- 

 course, and only see now and then one of mv old friends who comes to 

 l^ok me up. But in spite of all this. I can .^till tVel the humor of life 

 i his is, unfortunately, not the case with Kopp. who has just resi.rnod 

 his chair. He suffers constantlv, but with his chronic hypochondri- 

 acal temperament he was unable to fulfil his professional duties, and 

 teels very unhappy. I hope that in time he will resign himself to the 

 inevitable. * * *" 



Few men knew Bunsen so well or admired him so much as Leo 

 Konigsberger, the distinguished professor of mathematics at Heidel- 

 berg. The following appreciative remarks contained in a letter to 

 myself on Bunsen's mental constitution seem to me so true that I make 

 no apology for here quoting them: 



"Bunsen did not possess a mathematical brain in the sense so splen- 

 didly illustrated in the cases of Maxwell and Kelvin. He had. how- 

 ever, a logical mind, enjoying the rational analysis of i-ecognized 

 truths, and was thus able, thanks to the wonderfuf intuitive power of 

 a great scientific man, and thanks also to his avsthetic character, to 

 grasp and to understand rather than to explain phenomena. These, 

 therefore, were rendered evident to him, not s<^ much l)y an exact 

 intellectual process as by the evidence of the senses and by the grati- 

 fication which their perception afforded. Quite otherwise was it with 

 Kirchhoff', as he entered frequently and with zest even into unfruitful 

 mathematical or philosophical speculations. It was always interesting 

 to listen to these two remarkable men dispute about some mathemat- 

 ical, scientific, or philosophical subject. Still more interesting was it. 

 however, to watch, when he was present, the incomparable Ilelmholt/ 

 looking silently on, from his calm Olympian heights, with an appreci- 

 ative but meaning smile as the discussion proceeded." 



But although Bunsen was not a mathematician as coni]>ared with the 

 men mentioned above, he not only possessed great mathematical ability, 

 but, what is more important, the power to apply mathematical treat- 

 ment to chemical problems. He constantly pressed upon all his pupils 

 the necessity for a chemist of a thorough training in math«'matics and 

 ph3^sics; indeed, I have heard him exclaim, "Ein Chemiker der kein 

 Physiker ist, ist gar nichts." 



Bunsen at the time of his death had been for many years our senior 

 foreign member, having been elected on February 1, 1S42. during the 

 first session of our society. It was not until 185S that he became a 

 Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society. In 18(>(>, the (\)pley medal was 

 award^'ed to him, and in 1877 he and Kirchhoff w(M-e presented with 

 the Davy medal, being the first occasion of its award, in recognition 

 of their researches and discoveries in spectrum analysis. 



With respect to the award of the Davy nKMJal, Bunsen writes to 

 me, on November 10, 1877, as follows: "My best thanks for your 



