352 DEATH OF WILLIAM. 



employed in it, gave to the great ship of 5000 tons 

 a degree of mobility hitherto unattained, which made 

 it possible to carry out cable -laying and repairing 

 work in every season and even in unfavourable weather. 

 Brother Charles had already returned in the year 

 1880 to St. Petersburg, after the London firm had 

 at his instigation been transformed into a private 

 limited liability company. In the year 1883 brother 

 William was, alas, torn from us and his untiring ac- 

 tivity by a quite unexpected and sudden death. Herr 

 Loffler, an official of many years standing, was in- 

 stalled as managing director of the London firm, and 

 has been recently succeeded by a younger member 

 of the family, Mr. Alexander Siemens. 



My appointment as ordinary member of the Berlin 

 Academy of Sciences was not only very honourable in 

 itself for the favoured individual, who did not belong 

 to the class of professional savans, it also had a pro- 

 found influence on my later life. As my friend du Bois- 

 Reymond, who acknowledged my inaugural address as 

 presiding secretary of the Academy, rightly pointed out, 

 I belonged by natural endowment and inclination in 

 a far higher degree to science than to practice. 

 Scientific research was my first, my early love, and 

 it has retained my affection to the advanced age, 

 which I now - - I can hardly say - - enjoy. At the 

 same time I have certainly always felt the impulse to 

 make scientific attainments useful for practical life. 



