Feeruary 



1 910] 



NA TURE 



413 



Tobolsk was at that time a place of banishment for 

 many political exiles, the so-called Decembrists, one of 

 whom, Bassargin, married Olga, an elder sister of Dmitri. 

 To these Decembrists the boy owed his first interest in 

 natural science. His mother had always cherished the 

 hope that at least one of her children would devote him- 

 self to science, and accordingly, after her husband's death 

 and the destruction of the glass works by fire, and spite 

 of failing health and scanty means, she undertook the long 

 and tedious journey from Tobolsk to Moscow, accompanied 

 by her remaining children, Elizabeth and Dmitri Ivan- 

 ovitsch, with the object of entering the latter, then nearly 

 fifteen years of age, at the university. Disappointed in 

 this object, owing to ofiicial difiiculties, she removed in 

 the spring of 1850 to St. Petersburg, where ultimately, 

 with the assistance of the director, Pletnoff, of the Central 

 Pedagogic Institute, a friend of her late husband, she 

 succeeded in securing for her son admission to the physico- 

 npathematical faculty of the institute, together with much- 

 needed pecuniary assistance from the Government. 



The debt \vhich Dmitri Ivanovitsch owed to his mother 

 he acknowledged later in the introduction to his work on 

 " Solutions," whiiJi he dedicated to her memory. 



In the Pedagogic Institute Dmitri Ivanovitsch was thus 

 able to devote himself to the mathematical and physical 

 sciences under the guidance of Profs. Leng and Kuofer in 

 physics, Woskresensky in chemistry, and Ostragradsky in 

 mathematics. Unfortunately, at the end of his course his 

 health failed, and about this time his mother died. 

 Having been ordered to the south, he fortunately obtained 

 an appointment as chief science master at Simferopol, in 

 the Crimea. The southern climate soon alleviated the 

 serious symptoms of lung disorder, and removal being 

 necessary in consequence of the Crimean War, he was 

 able soon afterwards to undertake a post as teacher of 

 mathematics and . physics at the gymnasium at Odessa. 

 In 1856 he returned to St. Petersburg, and at the early 

 age of twenty-two was appointed privat-docent in the 

 finiversity, having secured his certificate as master in 

 chemistry. 



k\. this time he appears to have passed r.ipidly from 

 one subject to another, but he soon found matter for 

 serious and protracted studv in the physical properties of 

 liquids, especially in their expansion by heat; and when, 

 in 185a, by permission of the Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion, Mendel^eff proceeded to study under Reanault in 

 Paris and afterw.irds in Heidelberg, he devoted himself to 

 this work, communicating his results to I.iebig's Anna\en 

 and the French .Academy of Sciences. Returning two 

 years later to St. Petersburg, he secured his doctorate, and 

 was soon afterwards appointed professor of chemistry in 

 the Technological Institute. In 1S66 he became professor 

 o* general chemistry in the University, Butlerow at the 

 same time occupying the chair of organic chemistry. 



.As a teacher, Mendeleeff seems to have possessed a 

 special talent for rousing n desire for knowledge, and his 

 lecture-room w'as often filled with students from all 

 faculties of the Universitv. Manv of his former students 

 remember gratefully the influence he exercised over them. 



One of MendeMeff's most remarkable personal features 

 was his flowing abundance of hair. The story goes that, 

 before he was presented to the late Emperor, Alexander 

 III., his Majesty was curious to know whether the pro- 

 fessor would have his hair cut. This, however, was not 

 done, and he appeared at Court without passing under the 

 hands of the barber. His habit was to cut his h.air once 

 a year, in spring, before the warm weather set in. His 

 eyes, though rather deeo-set. were bricht blue, and to the 

 end of his life retained their penetrating alance. Tall in 

 stature, though with slightly stooning shoulders, his hands 

 noticeable for their fine form and expressive gestures, the 

 whole figure proclaimed the grand Russian of the province 

 of Tver. 



.At home, Mendeleeff alwavs wore an easv garment of 

 his own design, something like a Norfolk jacket without 

 a belt, of dark grev cloth. He rarely wore uniform or 

 evening coat, and att.ached no imnortance to ribbons and 

 decorations, of which he had many. 



.As to his views on soci.-il and political Questions, manv 

 n"ople thought him a rigid monarchist, but he said of 

 Iiimself that he was an evolutionist of peaceable type, 

 NO. 2IOI. VOL. 82! 



desiring a new religion, of wliich the characteristic should 

 be subordination of the individual to the general good. 

 He alwavs viewed with much sympathy what is called the 

 feminine' question. At the OtBce of Weights and Measures 

 he employed sever.al ladies, and about 1870 he gave lectures 

 on chemistry to classes of ladies. 



Mendeleeff held decided views on the subject of educa- 

 tion, which he set forth in several publications, especially 

 " Remarks on Public Instruction in Russia" (1901). Here 

 he says : — " The fundamental direction of Russian educa- 

 tion 'should be living and real, not based on dead 

 languages, grammatical rules, and dialectical discussions, 

 which, without experimental control, bring self-deceit, 

 illusion, presumption, and selfishness." Believing in the 

 soothing effect of a vital realism in schools, he considered 

 that universal peace and the brotherhood of nations could 

 only be brought about by the operation of this principle. 

 Speaking of the reforms desirable, he says that "for such 

 reforms are required many strong realists ; classicists are 

 only fit to be landowners, capitalists, civil servants, men 

 of letters critics, describing and discussing, but helping only 

 indirectly the cause of popular needs". We could live at 

 the present day without a Plato, but a double number of 

 Newtons is required to discover the secrets of nature, and 

 to bring life into harmony with the laws of nature." 

 MendeWeff w.as evidently a philosopher of the same type 

 as our own Francis Bacon. , ,, a 



In 1863, when twenty-nine years of age, Mendeleeff 

 married his first wife, nie Lestshoff, by whom he had one 

 son, Vladimir,' and a daughter, Olga; but the marriage 

 proved unhappy, and after living apart for some time there 

 was a divorce. In iSSi he married a young lady artist, 

 .Anna Ivanovna Popova, of Cossack origin, and lived first 

 at the Universitv and afterwards in the apartments built 

 for the director 'at the Bureau of Weights and Measures. 

 Here his younger children were born, Lioubov (.Amiee), 

 Ivan (Jean), and the twins, Maria and Vassili (Basile). 



In 1890, in consequence of a difference with the admmis- 

 tration, Mendeleeff retired from the professorship in the 

 University. During the disturbances among the students 

 in that year, he succeeded in pacifying them by promising 

 to present their petition to the Minister of Education. 

 Instead of thanks for this service, however, the professor 

 received a sharp reprimand from the authorities for not 

 minding his own business. The consequence was that 

 Mendeleeff resigned. Independently of the petition, how- 

 ever there were probably deeper reasons for his being out 

 of favour with the Miriistrv. connected with his irrecon- 

 cilable enmitv to the classic'al system of education already 

 referred to. 'Of this he had made no secret, and it had 

 already brought him into conflict with the authorities. 

 In 1893, however, he was appointed by M. Witte to the 

 office of director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, 

 which he retained until his death. 



Such are the chief features of a great personality. It 

 V be admitted that stories are told of his occasional 

 irritability of temper, we can well place on the other side 

 of the account the cordial relations always subsisting 

 between the professor and his assistants, the confidence 

 and respect between the master and his servants, the deep 

 affection between the father and his children, which are 

 known to have persisted throughout his life, and which 

 could be illustrated by many anecdotes. These stories 

 merely serve " to give the world assurance of a man." 



For us who live on the other side of Europe, separated 

 as we are by race, by language, by national and social 

 customs, and bv form of government, it is not easy to 

 understand completely the texture of such a mind, the 

 quality of such genius, and the conditions, social or 

 nolitic'al, which mav have served to encourage or to repress 

 its activity. The Russian language mav be eloquent, ex- 

 pressive, versatile, and harmonious, or it may possess any 

 other good quality that mav be claimed for it by those to 

 whom it is a mother tongue, but the fact remains that it 

 is a barrier to free intercourse between the Russian people 

 and the worid outside the Russian Empire. This alone 

 cieates a condition which must influence the develinment 

 of thought, and must give to Russian science and philo- 

 soohv a colour of its own. Mendeleeff was, like manv 

 educated Russians, a man of very liberal views on such 

 1 Died in 1899, aged thirty-four. 



