Biographical Notice 331 



posing a compromise, and even offering honours in case of 

 submission. Old friends and acquaintances tried to influ- 

 ence him, but it was all in vain. He attended neither to 

 cajolement nor menace. The property of the house was 

 eventually distrained upon, but he did not give in. He 

 became also involved in the racial controversies which are 

 often rife in this part of Austria, and it is only too certain 

 that the last ten years of his life were passed in disappoint- 

 ment and bitterness. From being a cheerful, friendly man 

 he became suspicious and misanthropic. During this period 

 he fell into ill-heath, contracting a chronic nephritis, of 

 which he died January 6, 1884. 



As to the propriety of his action in the great quarrel 

 with the Government I have no means of forming an 

 opinion. It is nevertheless interesting to know that a few 

 years after his death the tax was removed without debate 

 or dispute. 



For many years he attended closely to meteorology and 

 published his records annually in the Briinn Abhandlungen. 

 He also took a great interest in sunspots, making such 

 observations on them as he could by simple means ^, drawing 

 them and recording the frequency of their occurrence. He 

 was among those who incline to the view that there is a 

 connection between the appearance of spots on the sun and 

 meteorological events on the earth. His notes on this 

 subject are also lost. He served a term as President of 

 the Naturforscher Verein in Briinn. That he was credited 

 with good faculties for business is shown by the fact that 

 he was chosen to be Chairman of the Moravian Hypo- 

 theken-Bank in that city. He is said also to have attained 

 considerable skill as a chess-player, and he composed a 

 good many problems which however were not published. 

 This faculty reappears in one of his nephews. 



His handwriting is remarkable for its extreme neatness, 

 every letter being formed with meticulous precision. 



In Heinzendorf, his native village, he is remembered 

 as having been the organiser of a fire-brigade. When he 

 eventually became famous, the erection of a new fire-station 

 was used as an opportunity of commemorating him, and a 

 memorial tablet was placed over the building in his honour. 

 * He used one ot Fritsch's ^' brachytelescopes." 



