June 14, 1894] 



NATURE 



Do 



of metallic films obtained by disintegration of cathodes 

 and of certain liquids in motion, and investigated the 

 optical properties of electrified quartz. With Rontgen 

 he was able to show a si ght magneto-optic rotation in 

 several vapours and compressed gases, which even 

 Faraday had not been able to detect, and, on 

 the other hand, its enormous value in iron, cobalt, 

 and nickel. The latter will be known to coming 

 generations as " Kundt's phenomenon." Last, but not 

 least, he succeeded in determining the refractive 

 indices of metals, which he was able to obtain in the 

 shape of extremely thin prisms. 



His experimental work, of which the above gives but 

 an incomplete summary, is throughout characterised by 

 the greatest ingenuity in the selection of means to attain 

 definite ends, by the rare quality of ever-watchful self- 

 criticism, which prevented his running away with him- 

 self. He possessed that instinctive and immediate 

 power of discriminating the broad way of progress into 

 the unknown from the stray paths leading into tangled 

 wilderness, a faculty which he used to call the pioneering 

 scent of the experimenter. 



Space forbids an adequate account of what Kundt per- 

 sonally was to his family, his friends, and his pupils. 

 The latter, a great number of whom are scattered 

 throughout the civilised world, were attached to him by 

 the strongest ties of a scientific and private character, 

 and lost no chance of showing the high esteem they 

 felt for him. They owe a life-long debt of gratitude to the 

 great experimenter, who to most of them was not only a 

 teacher but also a personal friend, ever ready to render 

 help and advice based on his varied experience of 

 scientific life. H. DU Bois. 



NOTES. 



The annual meeting for the election of Fellows into the 

 Royal Society was held on Thursday last, when the following 

 gentlemen were elected : — Mr. William Bateson, Mr. G. A. 

 Boulenger, Dr. J. It. Bradford, Prof. H. L. Callendar, Prof. 

 \V. W. Cheyne, Mr. R. E. Froude, Prof. M. J. M. Hill, Prof. 

 J. V. Jones, Mr. E. H. Love, Mr. Richard Lydekker, Mr. F. 

 C. Penrose, Mr. D. H. Scott, Rev. F. J. Smith, Mr. J. \V. 

 Swan, Mr. V. H. Veley. 



Prof. Percy Frankland, F. R. S., has been elected to 

 the chair of chemistry and metallurgy in Mason s College, 

 Birmingham, rendered vacant by the resignation of Dr. 

 Tilden. 



We regret to announce the death, at the age of sixty-seven, of 

 Prof. W. D. Whitney, well known for his philological researches. 



We are requested to state that a British Committee, of which 

 Sir Douglas Gallon, K.C.B., F.R.S., is the chairman, and Prof. 

 W. H. Corfield is the treasurer, has-been formed to further the 

 inlerests in this country of the Eighth International Congress of 

 Hygiene and Demography, which is to be held in Budapest, 

 from September i to 8 of this year. .Vny information may 

 be obtained al)out the Congress from the Hon. Secretary, Dr. 

 Paul F. Moline, 42 Walton Street, Chelsea, S.W. 



The University of Halle will celebrate its second centenary 

 on August 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of this year. 



Sir SrENiKR Weli.s has been elected a Fellow of the Hun- 

 garian Academy of Sciences. 



M. d'Arso.nval has been elected a member of the Section 

 de Medecine et Chirurgie of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 in succession to the late Dr. Brown-Sequard. 



The death is announced of Dr. E. Sperk, Director of the 

 Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine, St. Petersburg, 

 and of Prof. Fischer, Chief of the Royal Prussian Geodetic 

 Institute. 



NO. 1285, VOL. 50] 



Dr. H. Molisch has been appointed Director of the 

 Institute of Vegetable Physiology at Prague, in the place of the 

 late Prof. G. A. Weiss. 



M. P. SiNTEiNS has just started on a journey of botanical 

 exploration in Eastern Armenia. 



Dr. C. V. Riley has resigned the post of entomologist to 

 the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on account of failing 

 health. 



It is reported by the Eastern Extension, Australasia and 

 China Telegraph Company, that a plague has broken out at 

 Hong Kong. No particulars as to the epidemic have been 

 received, but its serious nature may be gathered from the report 

 that fifteen hundred deaths have already occurred, and that this 

 list is increased by nearly one hundred every day. It is said 

 I that half the native population, numbering about one hundred 

 thousand, have left the colony, and thousands are following 

 them daily. 



A vioLE.NT hailstorm visited Vienna on Thursday last, shortly 

 before seven o'clock in the morning. The hail was preceded by 

 a heavy fall of rain, and accompanied by slight displays of sheet 

 lightning. In the course of a few minutes the streets were 

 covered with a thickness of several inches of hailstones. It is 

 said that upwards of one hundred thousand windows were 

 smashed by the hail ; numerous trees were entirely stripped of 

 their foliage, and most outdoor plants within the area of fall 

 were destroyed. The hailstones were, on the average, about 

 the size of hazel-nuts. During the storm the temperature 

 dropped to 10' Reaumur (54' Fahr.), but shortly afterwards the 

 thermometer rose a few degrees. Similar storms are reported 

 from various districts in Hungary and Croatia. 



The New York members of the London Society of Chemical 

 Industry have drawn up a petition requesting permission from 

 the Council to form a local section. This is a step towards the 

 realisation of the scheme suggested by Dr. Armstrong in his 

 recent address to the Chemical Society. 



The Iron and Steel Institute has issued its provisional pro- 

 gramme for the Brussels meeting, which is to be held August 20 

 to 24. There will be a reception by the Local Committee on 

 the 20lh, reading and discussion of papers on the mornings o( 

 2ist and 22nd, a visit to the .\ntwerp International Exhibition 

 on the afternoon of 21st, a visit to the Mariemont Collieries and 

 Couillet Steel-works at Charleroi on the 23rd, and a visit to the 

 works of the Cockerill Company, at Seraing, and the .\ngleur 

 Steel-works, at Liege, on the 24th. 



I.v connection willi the recent foundation of a Research 

 Fellowship in Chemical Pharmacology by the Court of the 

 S.alters' Company, the Research Committee of the Pharma- 

 ceutical Society announces that the selection of the Salters' 

 Company's Research Fellow will take place on July 3 next. 

 Written applications for the Fellowship must be received by 

 the Director of the Research Laboratory, 17, Bloomsbury 

 Square, before June 30. 



At the meeting of the American Academy, on .May 8, the 

 following officers were elected to serve during the coming year : 

 President, Prof. Josiah P. Cooke ; Vice-President, .Mr. Augustus 

 Lowell ; Corresponding Secretary, Prof. Charles L. Jackson ; 

 Recording Secretary, Mr. William Watson ; Treasurer, Mr. Eliot 

 C. Clarke; Librarian, Mr. Henry W. Ilaynes ; Councillors, 

 Messrs. William R. Livermore, Benjamin O. Peirce, Benjamin 

 A. Gould, Henry P. Walcott, Benjamin L. Robinson, Henry 

 W. Williams, J. R. Thayer, T. W. Iligginson, and .Vndrew M. 

 Davis. 



