182 
cooperation of J. Wislicenus for estimating the amount 
of albumin expended in physical work such as mountain 
climbing. The result, that the material used in muscular 
work must be free from nitrogen, was at once generally 
accepted. The results of investigations on the peptones, 
upon what becomes of them in the circulation of the 
blood, on the action of pepsin, and on the value of 
various nutritive substances, were made public from time 
to time in lectures for which Fick prepared and demon- 
strated very numerous and laborious experiments. 
The students’ manuals which Fick wrote are distin- 
guished by their lucid exposition, clear style and critical 
discussion. His first book, entitled ‘‘ Die medicinische 
Physik,” was written when he was in his twenty-seventh 
year, and passed through three editions. This book at 
once secured for the young author a place in the front 
rank of the physiologists of the day. Of the ‘‘ Kom- 
pendium der Physiologie” four editions appeared, the 
last in the year 1892. 
As early as 1862 he published a “Lehrbuch der 
Anatomie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane” as part 
of a larger compilation. To Hermann’s “ Handbuch,” 
already mentioned, he furnished two elaborate articles 
on physiological optics. 
From the physiological laboratory at Ziirich in the 
year 1869, and from the Wiirzburg Institute in the years 
1873 to 1878, there appeared the “ Physiologische Unter- 
suchungen” (four issues). From 1852 and onwards for 
fourteen years he was one of the contributors to Canstatt’s 
“ Jahres bericht” on the literature of physiology. 
Of the remarkable talents and training that enabled 
him, for instance, to deliver experimental lectures on 
physics during the vacancy of the chair of physics, he 
also gave evidence by his own productions as investigator | 
and writer in this branch of science. Best known is his 
work on hydro-diffusion in Poggendorff's Anma/s. The 
fundamental conceptions of mechanics, and the insight 
gained into these by means of the mechanical theory of 
heat, were favourite subjects of his speculation. A_ brief 
enumeration must suffice here of the titles of the most 
characteristic of the treatises that fall under this head, 
and many of which lie in the borderland between physics 
and pure philosophy :— 
“Ueber die der Mechanik zu Grunde liegenden 
Anschauungen,” “ Ueber die Zerstreuung der Energie,” 
“Versuch einer physischen Deutung der kritischen 
Geschwindigkeit in Weber’s Gesetz,” “‘Ueber Druck im 
innern von Flissigkeiten.” The following treatises belong 
more to the philosophical side :—“ Die Naturkrafte in 
ihrer Wechselwirkung,” “Die Welt als Vorstellung,” 
“ Philosophischer Versuch ueber die Wahrscheinlichkeit,” 
“Die stetige Raumerfiilling durch Masse,” &c. 
Even this slight sketch of Fick’s literary activity will 
show how comprehensively he mapped out for himself 
the sphere of his work and how exhaustively he laboured 
in it. But he was also unusually well equipped in all 
other departments of human knowledge. He was extra- 
ordinarily learned and well read. In accordance with 
his own definition of an educated man as one who 1s 
capable of taking a comprehensive view of the most 
characteristic results furnished by the intellectual work of 
the whole of mankind, Fick studied and mastered a very 
widely embracing province of knowledge. He was 
assisted in his efforts by a particularly accurate memory, 
which he retained unimpaired to the last. 
Conspicuous among Fick’s talents was his critical 
faculty. He dealt with the first principles of the science 
of mechanics in an unusually clear and distinct way, and 
when a series of novel conceptions was put before him 
he was able to correctly analyse and estimate them. He 
was recognised by those who knew him as a scientific 
critic by vocation. He was aided in his experimental 
work by great manual dexterity. He prided himself upon 
belonging to the school of Bunsen, and in the construction 
NO. 1703, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[JUNE 19, 1902 
of the various instruments which he introduced followed 
Bunsen’s method by himself putting together out of 
simple materials the first models of new scientific ap- 
paratus. It is an interesting fact that Fick warmly 
espoused the cause of total abstinence, and was himself 
for the last decade of his life a total abstainer. 
NOTES. 
M. AMaGar has been elected a member of the section of 
physics of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in succession to the 
late Prof. Cornu. 
Mr. Marconi brought forward two interesting pieces of 
information in his lecture at the Royal Institution last Friday. 
The first relates to the new form of magnetic detector which he 
has been employing in place of the coherer. The instrument 
is found to be more sensitive and trustworthy than the coherer, 
and gives promise of a great increase in the speed of working. 
Already a speed of thirty words a minute has been attained, 
and this may possibly be increased to several hundred. The 
second point relates to the recent Transatlantic signalling. It 
seems that on the occasion of Mr. Marconi’s journey across the 
Atlantic in the Phzlade/phia, the signals transmitted during the 
day failed entirely at a distance of 700 miles, although a message 
was successfully sent at night more than 1550 miles, and a signal 
more than 2000 miles. This effect Mr. Marconi suggests may be 
due to the diselectrification of the aérial wires by the daylight. The 
difficulty can, however, be got over by the use of greater trans- 
mitting power—as is evidenced partly by the fact that the signal 
received at Newfoundland was transmitted during the daytime. 
The Canadian station, for the erection of which Mr. Marconi 
was liberally subsidised by the Canadian Government, will be 
open shortly for experiments. The rest of the lecture gave an 
interesting 7észmé of the work already accomplished, but con- 
tained nothing which will be new to those who have followed its 
progress. 
THE eighty-third meeting of the Société Helvétique des 
Sciences Naturelles will be held at Geneva on September 7-10. 
M. E. Sarasin is the president of the society, M. Mare Micheli 
and Prof. R. Chodat vice-presidents, M. Maurice Gauthier and 
M. A. de Candolle secretaries, and M. A. Pictet treasurer. 
Correspondence referring to the forthcoming meeting should be 
addressed to M. de Candolle, Cour de St. Pierre, 3, Geneva. 
In accordance with previous announcements, the autumn 
meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be held at 
Diisseldorf on September 3-4. The directors of the Nord- 
deutscher Lloyd have generously offered to the members 
attending the meeting complimentary first-class passages, 
including table, to the number of 250, by the s.s. Avon- 
prinz Wilhelm, upon that ship’s homeward voyage (from 
New York) to Bremen, on September 1, from Plymouth. The 
provisional programme of the meeting is as follows :—On 
Tuesday, September 2, the members will arrive at Diisseldorf, 
On September 3 the president, coungil and members will be 
received by the civic authorities and by the reception com- 
mittee in the Municipal Concert Hall (Stadtische Tonhalle). A 
selection of papers will subsequently be read and discussed. In 
the afternoon a visit will be paid to the Diisseldorf Exhibition, 
for the purpose of examining the various sections of mining, 
metallurgy and machinery. In the evening the members and 
ladies accompanying them will be invited by the Mayor and 
Corporation of Diisseldorf to a conyersazione and concert. On 
September 4 the morning will be devoted to the reading and 
discussion of papers, and the afternoon to visits to the exhibi- 
tion and to works in the immediate vicinity. In the evening 
the reception committee will entertain the visitors at a banquet. 
