OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. 



719 



his researches were extensive. He was the 

 author of " The Ballads and Songs of Derby- 

 shire," "Grave-Mounds," and "Half-Hours 

 among some English Antiquities." 



Kennedy, James, an English engineer, born 

 Jan. 13, 1797 ; died in September, 1886. In 

 early life he entered the service of John Steven- 

 son, at Monkland Steel-Works, to construct and 

 erect water-wheels and pumping-engines, de- 

 signing his own patterns. He prepared the 

 plans for the first three locomotives on the 

 Stockton and Darlington 'Railway in 1825, 

 and afterward built the locomotive "Liverpool," 

 the first engine made in England with horizon- 

 tal cylinders applied directly to the crank-shaft 

 or axle. In 1832-'33 the firm of which he was 

 a member sent locomotives and other railway 

 plants to the United States. In 1846 he was 

 elected President of the Institution of Mechan- 

 ical Engineers. 



Kompert, Leopold, an Austrian novelist, born 

 in Mtinchengratz, Bohemia, in 1822; died at 

 Vienna, Nov. 23, 1886. His works dealt ex- 

 clusively with scenes from modern Jewish life. 

 His principal works are : " Tales from the Ghet- 

 to " (1848) ; " The Bohemian Jewess " (1851) ; 

 " At the Plow " (1855). 



Lachat, Eugene, a Swiss prelate, born in Mon- 

 tavan, in the canton of Berne, Oct. 34, 1819; 

 died in Ticino, Nov. 1, 1886. He was an or- 

 phan child, and was befriended by the priest 

 of Grandfontaine, who sent him to Besancon 

 for his education, and in 1836 to the seminary 

 at Albano, where he was ordained a priest in 

 1846. He labored two years in Italy, and was 

 then sent to Col mar, where he was a priest for 

 six years. In 1850 his patron called him to 

 Grandfontaine as vicar, and five years later he 

 was given the cure at Delsberg. He was ac- 

 ceptable to the people of Berne as bishop of the 

 vacant see of Sobothurn and Basel, and was 

 elected on Feb. 26, 1863 ; but after the promul- 

 gation of the dogma of infallibility by the Vat- 

 ican Council he came into conm'ct with the 

 political authorities. When he refused to re- 

 call the excommunication and removal of priests 

 who opposed the doctrine of infallibility and 

 place the theological seminary under the con- 

 trol of the temporal authorities, he was deposed. 

 The diocesan authorities in Lucerne and Zug 

 were faithful to the Church, and in the former 

 place a residence was fitted up from which La- 

 chat governed the clergy in Lucerne and Zug, 

 and directed the Ultramontane movement in 

 the dissident cantons for about eleven years. 

 The Roman Catholic clergy, in spite of prohi- 

 bitions, kept up their relations with the de- 

 posed bishop, and sent the children to him for 

 confirmation. In 1884 the cantonal and Fed- 

 eral authorities made overtures for peace with 

 the Church. The Curia met them half-way, 

 and was even willing to recognize as valid the 

 removal of Lachat, in order to have a regular 

 bishop again in the diocese of Basel. Lachat 

 was advanced to the dignity of Archbishop of 

 Damietta in partibus infidelium, and appointed 



apostolic administrator in Ticino. This canton 

 was separated from the See of Como in 1859. 

 The Ultramontanes have long desired to have 

 it erected into a bishopric, while the Federal 

 Council proposed to incorporate it in some ex- 

 isting Swiss see. The matter was compro- 

 mised by the appointment of Lachat, but his 

 death terminates the arrangement. Lachat in 

 his new field created new commotion, though 

 here the bulk of the laity were on his side, 

 and the cantonal authorities were subservient 

 to his wishes. He secured the enactment by 

 the Grand Council of the canton and the rati- 

 fication by the popular vote of a new ecclesias- 

 tical law which gave him unlimited control 

 over the churches. The execution of this law 

 was resisted by a part of the people, but in the 

 midst of the conflict its author died. 



Landsborongb, William, a British explorer, born 

 in Scotland; died in Brisbane, Australia, in 

 May, 1886. In 1866 he discovered the head 

 of Thompson river, Australia, and in. 1867 

 traced the Gregory and Herbert rivers to their 

 sources. He then traversed the continent from 

 the Gulf of Carpentaria to Melbourne in search 

 of Burke and Wills, the explorers. 



Leblanc, Lonis, a French chemist, born in 

 Florence, Italy, Nov. 15, 1813 ; died in Paris, 

 March 8, 1886. He entered the College Bour- 

 bon in 1830, and in 1837 was graduated at the 

 Ecole des Mines as a civil engineer. After 

 some time spent in foreign travel, he entered 

 the laboratory of Jean B. Dumas, for the pur- 

 pose of studying chemistry. In 1842 he was 

 made assistant at the Ecole Centrale des Arts 

 et Manufactures, chief of the analytical labo- 

 ratory in 1854, was in charge of the course on 

 the analysis of gas in 1865, and Professor of 

 Analytical Chemistry in 1873. Meanwhile he 

 was also assistant in chemistry at the Ecole 

 Polytechnique, and had charge of the entire 

 course during the absence of Edouard Fremy 

 in 1849, 1862, and 1871. His first researches 

 were on the composition of air, and in 1842 his 

 memoir on " Confined Air " was read before 

 the Academy of Sciences. Subsequently his 

 investigations in this direction were most valu- 

 able. The air of the prisons, of the theatres, 

 and of the barracks in Paris, was examined, 

 and his results published. He held official ap- 

 pointments for the purpose of devising im- 

 proved methods of ventilation. The amount 

 of carbon dioxide necessary to vitiate the at- 

 mosphere was carefully studied, and resulted 

 in his statement that an atmosphere of con- 

 fined air was fatal to man when it contained a 

 quantity of carbon dioxide equivalent to that 

 exhaled by the lungs. In 1863 he received the 

 appointment of official gas-inspector of the 

 city of Paris, which office he held for twenty 

 years, and during his administration made re- 

 ports on improved methods of illumination, 

 and recently in matters pertaining to elec- 

 tric lighting. Of his other investigations, the 

 most important were his examination of " the 

 products derived from acetic ether by the 



