OBITUARIES, FOREIGN". 



OCARINA. 



625 



licentious pleasures, and frequent absences in 

 Silesia and Vienna, and complained because he 

 would not marry. He hoped in early life to 

 become the consort of Queen Victoria, and 

 subsequently he negotiated for a marriage sev- 

 eral times, but was circumvented by intrigues 

 in the interest of the Hanoverian Guelphs. 

 For this reason, probably, he never would 

 hold intercourse with any of the princely 

 houses of Germany. The Prussian court also 

 he disdainfully avoided, though in 1866 he fol- 

 lowed the suggestions of his counselors and 

 threw in his lot with the North German Bund. 



Wilson, Sir James Erasmus, a British physician, 

 born in Aberdeen, Scotland, April 28, 1809 ; 

 died at Westgate-on-the-Sea, Aug. 8, 1884. He 

 studied anatomy and medicine in London and 

 at Aberdeen. In 1831 he became a member 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons, ten years 

 later one of the council, and in 1881 president. 

 In 1869 he founded, at his own expense, the 

 Chair and Museum of Dermatology in the 

 College of Surgeons, and was elected the first 

 professor. He also instituted the Chair of Pa- 

 thology in the University of Aberdeen. Wil- 

 son's renown was definitely consummated when 

 he took skin-diseases as his specialty, and pub- 

 lished a popular work on the subject, which has 

 passed through numerous English and American 

 editions since its first appearance in 1842. His 

 volume on " Diseases of the Skin " was followed 

 by many other medical works and contributions 

 to medical journals. He was sincerely religious 

 and charitable, and for his numerous benefac- 

 t ; ons in restoring churches, establishing hospi- 

 tals, and other acts of bounty, was knighted in 

 1881. At that period Sir Erasmus gained na- 

 tional fame of a new kind by transporting at 

 his own cost the Egyptian obelisk that now 

 adorns the city of London. Among the many 

 honors conferred on him was that of LL. D. 

 by the University of Cambridge, Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the Society of Biblical Archseology, 

 and President of the Egyptian Exploration 

 Fund. As residuary legatee, the College of 

 Surgeons, London, of which he was president, 

 will receive, on the death of his widow, the 

 sum of $1,000,000. 



Wnrtz, Charles Adolphe, a French chemist, born 

 in Wolfisheim, near Strasburg, Nov. 26, 1817; 

 died in Paris, May 12, 1884. He was the son 

 of a Protestant clergyman, and received his 

 early education at the Protestant Gymnasium 

 of Strasburg. He then devoted his attention 

 to medicine, and in 1843 received the doctor's 

 degree from the medical school at Strasburg, 

 where he also acted as instructor in chemistry 

 from 1839 to 1844. Removing to Paris, he 

 became associated with Dumas, and in 1846 

 he was placed in charge of the chemical de- 

 partment of the Ecole Central des Arts et Ma- 

 nufactures. In 1851 he was made Professor of 

 Chemistry at the Versailles Agricultural Insti- 

 tute. He was called to the chair of Chemistry 

 in the Faculty of Medicine in 1853, and in 1866 

 was appointed Dean of the Faculty. A chair 

 VOL. xxiv. 40 A 



in Organic Chemistry was specially created for 

 him in 1875 at the Sorbonne. His lectures at 

 this institution continued up to the time of his 

 death. Prof. Wurtz's scientific researches were 

 many and important. No problem that he 

 ever took up remained unsolved. Seventy- 

 three memoirs are credited to him in the cata- 

 logue of the Royal Society in 1864, and after 

 that his industry was certainly not diminished. 

 Three discoveries of his are of special pre-emi- 

 nence : his work on the compound ammonias, 

 on the glycols, and on the aldols make his name 

 prominent in chemistry. He was elected a 

 member of the Academy of Medicine in 1856. 

 In 1867 he succeeded Pelouze in the French 

 Academy of Sciences. For three terms he was 

 President of the Chemical Society of Paris in 

 1864, 1874, and 1878. He was a member of 

 the Royal Society of England, an honorary 

 member of the German Chemical Society, and 

 of other scientific associations. He received 

 in 1865 the biennial prize of 20,000 francs 

 from the Academy of Sciences, for his labors 

 in chemistry, and in 1878 he received the Far- 

 aday medal. The " Repertoire de Chimie 

 pure," founded and edited by him, was after- 

 ward merged into the "Bulletin" of the 

 Chemical Society, his name being retained in 

 the corps of editors. He was also one of the 

 editors of the "Annales de Chimie et de 

 Physique." His great editorial work, how- 

 ever, was the preparation and publication of 

 the " Dictionnaire de Chimie pure et ap- 

 pliquee" (1868, et seq.), in five large octavo 

 volumes, and its supplement, now being pub- 

 lished. His numerous other works include 

 "Traite de Chimie medicale," "Lecons ele- 

 mentaire de Chimie moderne," "Traite de 

 Chimie biologique," "Lecons de Philosophic 

 chimique," "La Theorie Atomique," and 

 " Histoire des Doctrines chimiques depuis 

 Lavoisier jusqu'a nos Jours." Several of his 

 works have appeared in the English language, 

 notably "Chemical Philosophy according to 

 Modern Theories" (1867), "Theory from the 

 Age of Lavoisier " (1869), and, more recently, 

 " Elements of Modern Chemistry " (1880), and, 

 in the "International Scientific Series," "The 

 Atomic Theory " (1880). 



OCARINA. Several musical instruments of 

 curious shape have recently appeared, one of 

 which has enough harmonious sweetness to 

 render it probable that it will find an abiding- 



OCABINA, FIRST FORM. 



place in concert-rooms as well as in musical 

 households. It is called the ocarina, and in its 

 simple form looks like a painted sweet-potato, 



