October io, 1895] 



NATURE 



575 



rounded pieces of ice of all sizes mixed in loose ice powder. 

 Friction produces various markings on the rolled ice. 



There is altogether a remarkably small proportion 

 of carried rock-dii\>x\% mixed with the ice. The whole 

 field of ice on the Spital Alp simply portrays a " Staub 

 Lawine,'' or dust avalanche on a large scale. In the 

 course of a few years nature itself will have removed the 

 last signs of a wreckage which at present hundreds of 

 willing hands are doing their best 

 to clear away in part from road 

 and Alp. 



Maria M. Or.ii.vn,. 



•■h 



and tooth, as well as chemical analyses of certain so-called 

 transudations ; to the latter, studies of which the object 

 was to discover the physical principles which underlie 

 many of the phenomena revealed by the percussion and 

 auscultation of the chest in disease. In 1856, Hoppe was 

 appointed Prosector in the University of Greisswald, 

 where he qualified as Privat-docent ; here, however, he 

 only remained until 



THE LATE PROFESSOR 

 HOPPE-SE YLER} 



gRNEST FELIX IMMANUEL 

 HOPPE- was born in Frei- 

 burg on the Umstnit (Sa.xony) on 

 December 26, 1825. At the age 

 of nine he lost his mother, and ai 

 eleven, being left an orphan by the 

 death of his father, he was taken 

 charge of and educated by the 

 governing body of an endowed in- 

 stitution in Halle. After the com- 

 pletion of his school course he 

 commenced in 1846 the study of 

 the natural sciences as a student 

 of the University of Halle. Mi- 

 grating early in his student's career 

 to Leipzig, he had the good for- 

 tune to lay the foundations of his 

 knowledge of anatomy and phy- 

 siology under the three distin- 

 guished brothers Weber (Ernst 

 Heinrich, Wilhelm and Eduard), 

 to study chcniistiy under Erd- 

 inann, and under the eminent 

 physiological chemist Karl Gott- 

 hold Lehinann, medicine under 

 • )ppolzer, surgery under (nintlicr, 

 •md pathological anatomy under 

 Hock. Hoppc spent the last two 

 semesters of his student's course 

 in Berlin, following the courses of 

 Romberg, Langenbeckand Casper. 

 He took the degree of Doctor of 

 Medicine in 1850, presenting a dis- 

 sertation " Dc cartilaginum struc- 

 tura et chondrino nonnulla," which 

 he dedicated to his former master 

 E. H. Weber, and which indicated 

 the impulse he had received 

 towards anatomical as well as 

 ( hemical investigation, on the one 

 hand through the influence of the 

 Wcbers, on the other through tliat 

 i>f K. (".. Lchmann. 



Having settled in inedical prac- 

 tice in Berlin, Hoppe was ap- 

 pointed medical officer to the 

 workhouse, and whilst occupying 

 this post, devoted himself to re- 

 searches, partly chemico-physiological and partly clinical. 

 I o the former class belong investigations on cartilage bone 



' Though some weeks have elapsed since the death of th[s eminent man of 

 science, a brief account of his hfe and an attempt to convey some idea of 

 Ihe part which he pl.ayed m the advancement of physiological chemi.:tr\- 

 may not prove uninteresting to the readers of Nature. In the prepar.i- 

 lion of this paper I have been greatly assisted by the information con- 

 ,'^™'; 'o ■''" ^"" " appeared m the Vossiche Zcilnn^ of August 



- The subject of this notice changed his name from Hoppe to Hopbe-Seyler 

 somewhere about the year 1862. 



Fig. 2. — Return stream covering the Gemmi road at the Stierenbergli corner. 



NO. 1354, VOL. 52] 



Fig. 3. — Ice structure in the avalanche. 



by \'irchow, in order to act as his assistant. Virchow 

 had just been appointed the first ordinary professor oc 

 pathological anatomy in the University, and Hoppe, as 

 his only assistant, was at first called upon to take a part 

 in all the work of the Pathological Institute, whether 

 anatomical or chemical. \'ery soon, however, he 

 was enabled to confine his attention to researches in 

 physiological and pathological chemistry, and to the 

 superintendence of the chemical laboratory of the Insti- 



