58o 



NATURE 



[October 15, 1891 



metallurgical science. In such cases as this we think it would 

 be wise to read the paper and then postpone discussion until the 

 next meeting ; or, by preference, to have the paper printed in 

 the Journal of Proceedings, and at a meeting subsequent to its 

 appearance call for discussion. It would appear evident that 

 the interior of the pieces of scrap had a lower melting-point 

 than the exterior parts which formed the shells obtained, and the 

 explanation of the variation in melting-point was the point 

 requiring consideration. Liquation of the elements is naturally 

 the first suggestion, but this only shifts the uncertainty, for 

 liquation is itself an obscure matter. Mr, Snelus would explain 

 the matter by decarbonization at the surfnce, which would 

 render the interior parts more easily fusible. He had, in raking 

 out a furnace, found pigs of which only the outer skin remained 

 as metal, the case thus formed being filled with graphitic carbon. 

 Mr. Galbraith attributed the phenomenon to the surface of the 

 metal pieces having absorbed an infusible oxide when at a high 

 temperature. There was, however, more in the circumstances 

 described than the meeting was prepared to explain off hand, 

 and it would be well if the discussion could be reopened at the 

 spring meeting or brought on again by another paper. 



The contribution of Mr. Massenez was in many respects the 

 most valuable of the meeting. It is a pleasing thing to see a 

 foreign steelmaker putting his experience so unreservedly at the 

 disposal of his English fellow-workers, and the thanks of the 

 Institute are doubly due to the author for his valuable and 

 practical paper. There is also an economic lesson in this 

 matter, for the apparatus described owed its introduction to the 

 German colliers' great strike of two years ago. Since then there 

 has not only been a diminution in the amount of coal wrought, 

 but the quality has also fallen off, so that the proportion of 

 sulphur in the coal has much increased. This necessitated a 

 desulphurization process, the method of which forms the subject 

 of the paper. Manganiferous molten pig, poor in sulphur, is 

 added to sulphuretted pig iron, poor in manganese ; the result 

 being that the metal is desulphurized, and a manganese sulphide 

 slag is formed. The mixer in which the process is carried on is 

 a large vessel in appearance, to judge by the drawings shown, 

 like a converter. The apparatus in use at Hoerde will hold 

 seventy tons of molten pig, but it has been shown that a vessel 

 of about twice the size would be advisable. Details of the 

 working are given by the author, and will be of great use to 

 steelmakers working with phosphoric pig. In the discussion 

 which followed several speakers bore testimony to the value of 

 the invention. Sir Lowthian Bell intimating that a saving of 

 2J-. ^d. per ton could be made by this method over the process 

 of re-melting pig in the cupola ; a step which has to be taken 

 when it is desirable to combine the product of different blast 

 furnaces. In the large mixer, metal from two or more furnaces 

 can be brought together. 



The only remaining paper was a contribution by Mr, B, 

 Thwaite, in which particulars were given of the metallurgical 

 department of the Sheffield Technical School, which was read 

 in brief abstract by one of the clerical staff; after which the 

 meeting was brought to a conclusion by the usual votes of thanks. 



CARL WILHELM VON NAGELL 



'T'HE death of Carl Wilhelm von Nageli, on May 10, 1891, 

 removes the last survivor of that distinguished group of 

 botanists who, side by side with zoologists such as Schwann and 

 KoUiker, laid, half a century ago, the foundations of modern 

 histology. The career of Nageli is of special interest for the 

 history of botany. During a period of fifty years he held a 

 leading position in the advance of the science ; and, while his 

 activity began in the early days of Schleiden's predominance, his 

 most recent work is in touch with those latest developments of 

 biology which are connected with the name of Weismann. His 

 work reached every side of the science. Systematic botany, 

 morphology, anatomy, chemical and physical physiology, the 

 theory of heredity and descent, as well as histology, all bear 

 lasting traces of his influence, 



Nageli was born on March 27, 181 7, at Kilchberg, near 

 Zurich, and was the son of a country doctor. As a child he 

 was devoted to books, but he soon showed a taste for natural 

 history, which appears to have been in some degree inspired by 

 his sister. His education as a boy was begun at a private 

 school, of which his father was one of the founders, and was 

 completed at the Zurich Gymnasium, where he did well. He 



NO. I 146, VOL. 44] 



then matriculated at the recently-established University of 

 Zurich, with the view of studying medicine. As a student,"he 

 is said to have been strongly influenced by the "Natur- 

 philosophie," as taught by Oken. He soon lost his taste for 

 medical studies, and, owing to his mother's influence, was 

 allowed to migrate to Geneva, where he devoted himself to the 

 study of botany under De Candolle. 



Nageli took his doctor's degree at Ziirich in 1840: his dis- 

 sertation on the Swiss species of Cirsium was dedicated to 

 Oswald Heer, and was his first contribution to that minute 

 investigation of species which formed so characteristic a part of 

 his life's work. 



Subsequently Nageli spent a short time at Berlin, studying, 

 among other things, the philosophy of Hegel. A metaphysical 

 tendency marks his writings all through life, and indeed 

 favourably distinguishe-i his work from that of many less culti- 

 vated scientific writers ; but Nageli, in one of his later paper?, 

 expressly denies that he was ever himself an Hegelian. 



Nageli's next migration was to Jena, and here he came under 

 the influence of Schleiden, by whom he was initiated into micro- 

 scopic work. It was not long before the association of these 

 two great men bore fruit. In 1844 appeared the first number of 

 the Zeitschrift fiir Wissenschaftliche Botanik under the editor- 

 ship of Schleiden and Nageli. The connection of the former 

 with the new venture was only a nominal one, and, indeed, all 

 the papers but two are the work of Nageli himself. The 

 influence of Schleiden however, is manifest throughout, some- 

 times in an injurious degree, though the independence of Nageli 

 gradually asserted itselK To this brilliant, though short-lived 

 publication we shall return presently. In 1845 Nageli married, 

 and on his wedding tour be spent a long time on the south-west 

 coast of England, and there collected much material for his 

 important work on "Die neueren Algen-systeme," published in 

 1847. 



On his return to the Continent he became a Privatdocent at 

 Ziirich and lecturer at the veterinary school, and soon afterwards 

 he was appointed Professor Extraordinarius. In 1850 his associa- 

 tion with Cramer, so fruitful of good work, began. His colleague 

 says of this time : " Es war eine schone zeit ! da wurden nicht 

 bloss Staubfaden geziihlt und Blattformen beschrieben ; es ging 

 in die Tiefe, ans Mark des Lebens !" It was the microscopic 

 practical work with Nageli which made the deepest impression 

 on his distinguished pupil ; his lectures, though clear and full of 

 matter, do not appear to have been specially brilliant, but he 

 possessed the highest qualification of a teacher in being himself 

 a great maker of knowledge. 



After declining a "call "to Giessen, Nageli in 1852 became 

 Professor at Freiburg im Breisgau, where most of the work was 

 done for the ' ' Pflanzenphysiologische Untersuchungen , " published 

 in conjunction with Cramer in 1855-58. In 1855 Nageli 

 accepted the post of Professor of General Botany in the new 

 Polytechnic at Ziirich ; his work at this time was hindered 

 by the temporary failure of his eyesight, owing to too much 

 microscopic work. 



In 1857 Nageli was summoned to the Professorship of Botany 

 at Miinich, where King Maximilian II. was striving to render 

 his capital as distinguished in science as it already was in art. 

 This post Nageli continued to hold to the time of his death. 

 At first somewhat distracted from his original work by practical 

 duties in connection with the organization of the institute and 

 gardens, Nageli soon resumed his proper activity, and continued 

 for thirty years more to pro'duce a magnificent series of researches 

 on the most varied subjects. Unfortunately, Nageli's work was 

 excessive, and from the age of sixty onwards, his h ealth began 

 to suffer, so that he was ultimately compelled to give up teach- 

 ing. An attack of influenza during the epidemic of 1889-90 

 seriously shattered his already failing strength, and from the 

 effects of this he never completely recovered. He lived 

 long enough to celebrate in great honour the jubilee of his 

 doctor's degree, and thus to look back on half a century of 

 continuous work for the advancement of science, a retrospect 

 such as few savants can have enjoyed.^ 



Without attempting to give an adequate account of Nageli's 

 scientific work, a task which would far exceed both the limits of 

 this article and the powers of the writer, some idea may be 

 given of the salient points in his career as an investigator, 



Nageli's first histological paper, so far as we are aware, is on 

 the development of pollen (1841). This already marks a de- 



' The details of Nageli's life are taken from the funeral address delivered 

 by his colleague. Prof. Cramer, and published in the Neue Ziirclur Zeitnng 

 for May 16, 1891. 



