, 
Marcu 11, 1897] 
NATURE 
443 
KARL WEIERSTRASS. 
HE death of Prof. Karl Weierstrass, on February 19 
in the present year, has taken from science one of 
the greatest pure mathematicians of the century. It is 
now some considerable time since he ceased to deliver 
lectures as professor in the University of Berlin ; the last 
few years of his life were troubled by broken health. As 
is indicated by a pathetic reference in the preface to the 
first volume of his Collected Works, he was obliged to 
obtain assistance, partly in preparing them for publica- 
tion, and partly to secure that his intentions with regard 
to them might be carried out in case of his death. This 
help was loyally given by friends and former pupils during 
his life; it may be expected that the same loyalty will 
now be devoted to completing the series, which will be a 
fitting monument to his genius. And the appearance of 
the successive volumes will be eagerly expected and 
cordially welcomed by pure mathematicians all the world 
over. 
Weierstrass was born at Osterfelde, near Munster, on 
October 31, 1815 ; so that at the time of his death he was 
in his eighty-second year. His first professorship was at 
Deutsch Krone, the appointment dating as far back as 
1842 ; from that chair he passed, in 1848, to Braunsberg ; 
and thence to Berlin. He was made professor extra- 
ordinarius at that University in 1856, and full professor 
in 1864 ; after which date the rest of his life was spent in 
connection with the University. 
The long range of his life finds a parallel in the long 
range of his scientific activity ; a couple of facts may suffice 
in illustration of its now distant beginning. As long ago 
as 1840, he prepared a memoir on elliptic functions, then 
called modular functions (it constitutes that portion of 
his now classical memoir ‘“ Theorie der Abelschen 
Functionen,” which relates to elliptic functions): in 1840, 
Cayley was an undergraduate at Cambridge. Weier- 
strass’s first paper on the higher Abelian transcendental 
functions was published in 1848; the contributions, 
which he then made to the theory, and the analytical 
method, which he then was perfecting, have been of 
significant import in the algebraical development of the 
theory of these functions. In 1848, Riemann was a 
student in Berlin; to the younger generation of mathe- 
maticians Riemann seems to belong to the past, for he 
died more than thirty years ago. 
This is not the occasion to write of Weierstrass’s work 
in detail, or to sketch the magnitude of his influence upon 
science and upon mathematicians. Its appreciation in 
England was marked by the Royal Society in 1881, when 
he was elected a foreign member of that body, and again 
in 1895. when he was awarded the Copley medal—the 
highest honour which the President and Council have the 
power to bestow in recognition of scientific worth. It 
would be idle to surmise what Weierstrass’s precise place 
in the history of his subject may prove to be, and its con- 
sideration may fairly be left to the future: any contem- 
porary estimate would make it high and honourable. He 
has been described as the parent of modern mathematical 
analysis ; his years and his knowledge had made him a 
Nestor among mathematicians ; and those who knew his 
writings, even though they may not have known the 
man, will learn of his death with a sense of personal 
regret. ACERS E. 
NOTES 
M. G. Darpoux, the distinguished professor of higher 
geometry in the University of Paris, has been elected a corre- 
sponding member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. 
THE fifth ‘‘James Forrest ” lecture of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers will be delivered by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead on 
Thursday, March 18, on ‘‘ Bacteriology.” 
NO. 1428, VOL. 55| 
A SPECIAL meeting of the Chemical Society is announced 
for Thursday, March 25, at eight o'clock, when Prof. Percy 
Frankland, F.R.S., will deliver the Pasteur Memorial lecture. 
THE contributions so far sent by members of the General 
Committee of the British Section of the Pasteur International 
Memorial, amount to 425/. (10,625 francs). This sum has been 
forwarded to the Central Fund in Paris. 
Mr. EpGArR THurston, Superintendent of the Madras 
Museum, has just arrived in England on a year’s leave of 
absence. 
Mr. W. Harcourr-Barn, who contributes to the March 
number of Zhe Entomologist a suggestive note on the causes of 
the decadence of the British Rhopalocera, is about to leave 
England upon an entomological expedition to the Himalayas. 
WE regret to announce the deaths of Prof. Georges Ville, 
professor of botanical physics in the Paris Natural History 
Museum, and Geheimrath Wilhelm Dollen, formerly assistant 
in the Observatories of Dorpat and Pulkova, and the author 
of a number of important papers in geodesy and astronomy. 
THE Council of the Society of Arts will proceed to consider 
the award of the Albert Medal for 1897 early in May next, and 
they, therefore, invite members of the Society to forward to the 
Secretary, on or before the 1oth of April, the names of such 
men of high distinction as they may think worthy of this honour. 
The medal was struck to reward ‘‘ distinguished merit for pro- 
moting Arts, Manufactures, or Commerce,” and was last awarded 
to Prof. D. E. Hughes, F.R.S. 
THE Victorian Era Exhibition, to be held this year at Earl’s 
Court, London, S.W., will comprise scientific and economic 
sections. The object of the exhibition is to show the advances 
which have been made during the sixty years of the reign of Her 
Majesty the Queen. In the scientific section it is intended to 
devote particular attention to the discoveries and inventions 
made in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era, and their 
development and application to purposes of general public 
utility. The chairman of the sub-committee of this section is 
Major-General Sir John Donnelly, R.E., K.C.B., and the vice- 
chairman, Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R.S. There are fifteen 
other members of the committee, most of them being Fellows of 
the Royal Society, and all of them known in the scientific 
world. 
Tue Mathematical and Physical Section of the Royal Society 
of Naples announces that the mathematical prize of 1896 is un- 
awarded, and the competition will be postponed till March 31, 
1898. The theme for the prize is as follows :—To expound, 
discuss, and coordinate, possibly in a compendious form, all re- 
searches concerning the totality of prime numbers, introducing 
some noteworthy contribution to the laws according to which 
these numbers are distributed among integers The essays may 
be written in Italian, French, or Latin. 
H.S.H. Prince ALBERT OF Monaco has just published, 
in the Comptes rendus, the usual summary of his work in the 
Atlanticand Mediterranean. The third season’s cruise includes 
82 soundings, with 19 sets of temperature observations ; samples 
of air and water were collected and examined, the former in the 
open sea and at high altitudes on the Azores. The most 
interesting result obtained is the discovery of a new bank, 
christened the Princess Alice Bank, near the Azores, between 
| 31° 28’ and 31° 41 N. lat. and 37° 50’ and 38° W. long, This bank 
lies N.W. to S.E., bottom rock and volcanic sand, at a mean 
depth of 252 metres, and has a rich and abundant fauna. On 
June 4 to 6, between Monaco and Corsica, hundreds of swallows 
alighted on the vessel and showed themselves remarkably tame, 
making their way into the engine-room and stoke-hold, and 
feeding from the sailors’ hands. 
