November 18, 1922] 



NA TURE 



673 



Obit 



Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S. 



A LEXANDER CRUM BROWN was born at Edin- 



-i*- burgh on March 26, 1838. His father was 

 Dr. John Brown, minister of B rough ton Place United 

 Presbyterian Church ; his mother was a sister of 

 Walter Crum, a chemist of distinction. Educated at 

 the Royal High School and at the University of 

 Edinburgh, he graduated as M.A. in 1858 and as M.D. 

 in 1861. In the following year he was awarded the 

 D.Sc. degree of London, and thereafter studied in 

 Germany under Bunsen and Kolbe. Returning to 

 Scotland in 1863, he began his career in Edinburgh 

 as an extra-mural lecturer in chemistry. For six 

 years he taught small classes of medical students and 

 busied himself with research. On the election of 

 Prof. Lyon Playfair in 1869 to represent the University 

 in Parliament. Crum Brown was appointed to succeed 

 him in the chair of chemistry. The department 

 placed under his charge was at first purely medical, 

 but during his tenure it gradually changed its character, 

 and at his retirement in 1908 had become one of the 

 chief departments in the Faculty of Science. 



Crum Brown was a man of extraordinary mental 

 activity. The mention of a new subject sent his mind 

 darting and exploring in all directions. In a few 

 moments some pithy saying, some apt suggestion, or 

 perhaps some awkwardly pointed question would be 

 the outcome, showing his instantaneous grasp of the 

 problem and his insight into its implications. That 

 he was a pioneer far in advance of his contemporaries 

 may be seen in the thesis which he presented at the 

 age of twenty-three for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 

 It was entitled " On the Theory of Chemical Com- 

 bination.'' and displayed such originality of thought 

 as earned it a most discouraging reception, so that 

 the author was deterred from publishing it at the time, 

 and only printed it for circulation among his friends 

 eighteen years later. Even to-day this thesis of 

 1861 bears a modern aspect, polarity and interatomic 

 forces being at the basis of the presentation, and 

 graphic formulae being freely used. A pioneering 

 research on the function of the semicircular canals in 

 regard to the sense of balance and rotation, and 

 another (in conjunction with Fraser) on the relation- 

 ship between physiological activity and chemical con- 

 stitution, illustrate his fertility of mind. Essentially 

 of a speculative and philosophical turn, he yet invented 

 many practical devices and supervised many practical 

 researches. His name will always be associated with 

 the rule for position isomers in benzene compounds 

 and with the electrosynthesis of dibasic acids. He 

 became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1879, an d 

 was an honorary graduate of all the Scottish Uni- 

 versities. During the years 1892 and 1893 ne was 

 president of the Chemical Society. 



Apart from his chemistry, Crum Brown was of the 

 widest general culture, and his master}' of languages 

 assumed in Edinburgh circles almost legendary form. 

 His business ability was utilised by his University, his 

 church, and by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of 

 which he acted as secretary for a quarter of a century. 

 In social gatherings he shone by reason of his wit 

 and his gifts as a raconteur. 



NO. 2768, VOL. I IO] 



u ary. 



Two years after his retirement from University 

 duties, his life was shadowed by the loss of his wife, a 

 daughter of the Rev. James Porter, of Drumlee, Co. 

 Down. Gradually failing bodily health confined him 

 to the house for the past six years, but his mental 

 ability remained unimpaired." His friends could 

 always enjoy the refreshment of a talk with him — a 

 calk sure to abound with quaintly apt stories and 

 interesting reminiscences. After a 'few weeks' illness 

 he died peacefully on October 28, the last representative 

 of an academic period of singular brilliance. 



Prof. J. P. Kuenen. 



The unexpected death of Dr. Johannes Petrus 

 Kuenen on September 25, having taken away from 

 the University of Leyden in the full vigour of life a 

 beloved professor, who only a few days before was 

 invested with the dignity of Rector Magnificus, means 

 a heavy blow to his many friends and in particular to 

 myself. Kuenen returned to Leyden sixteen years 

 ago, and since that time I shared with him the labora- 

 tory where he was one of my first pupils. He was 

 born in 1866 and matriculated in 1884 in Leyden, 

 where his father, the celebrated critic of the Old 

 Testament, was then professor. By a life of idealism 

 according to a tradition handed down from father to 

 son he fulfilled the expectations which he then awakened. 



As early as 1889 Kuenen became assistant in my 

 laboratory. In 1892 he took his degree on a gold 

 medal prize paper, and in 1893 he lectured as a privat 

 docent. His brilliant experimental researches opened 

 to him a career in Great Britain. After having worked 

 for a time in Ramsay's laboratory, he was appointed 

 professor in Dundee. In a touching letter Sir James 

 Walker tells me how he was struck by the tall and 

 handsome young Dutchman, the first meeting being 

 the beginning of a friendship for life. When we read 

 in Leyden that Kuenen was from the first a success 

 in Dundee, both with his students and his colleagues, 

 that he contrived to do in very adverse circumstances 

 a considerable amount of research work, and that 

 Sir James Walker admired the simple way in which 

 Kuenen overcame experimental difficulties, we see that 

 his friends both at Dundee and Leyden have the same 

 vivid recollection of him. And when Sir James Walker 

 reminds us of Kuenen's genial manner, of his quiet 

 humour in conversation, and of his singing Schubert's 

 songs, it is as if we hear Kuenen here in the laboratory, 

 and with deep mourning we recall the ennobling in- 

 fluence of his presence and the happiness he spread 

 around him everywhere he went by his kind and 

 sunny heart. 



Having declined different calls from Holland he 

 accepted that from Leyden in 1906. where he took 

 upon himself the teaching of one of the courses to 

 which Lorentz had consecrated a good deal of his 

 precious powers. Welcomed here with the greatest joy, 

 he immediately exerted a great influence on our 

 scientific life. He earned the profound gratitude of his 

 pupils and general admiration for his love for science, 

 his deep learning and insight, modesty, and unselfish- 

 ness. To his unlimited helpfulness we have all been 



