JUxNE 3, 1909] 



NA TURE 



403 



developed a decided predilection for scientific in- 

 ve.stiiL;alion, and during his career at the Munich 

 University he became intensely interested in the Polar 

 expeditions which were being conducted by Sir James 

 Ross ;uid Sir John Franklin. The German navy and 

 the German overseas trade are subjects which are 

 widely discussed to-day, but few recognise that the vast 

 changes which have taken place originated in the brain 

 •of the youthful N'eumayer. At a time when divided 

 Germany had neither nav'y nor mercantile marine 

 worthy of mention, Neumayer was the first to enter- 

 tain the idea as to the direction in which a united 

 Germany should advance, which was long afterwards 

 crystallised by the present Emperor, when he declared 

 that " L'nsere Zukunft liegt auf dem VVasser." So 

 ■early as 1849 the university student had visions on the 

 subject, and in 1850 we find him departing from 

 Munich to take a subordinate post before the mast on 

 a sailing ship bound for South American ports. This 

 afforded him the opportunity for studying the theory 

 as well as the practice of navigation and nautical 

 astronomy. 



On returning from the southern seas in the following 

 year Neumayer went for a time to Trieste as a teacher 

 of navigation, proceeding thence to Hamburg, where 

 in after life he was destined to become a distinguished 

 citizen. But he could not rest long ashore, the sea 

 had its attractions for him, and in 1852 he again toolc 

 ship for the southern oceans, where he spent a couple 

 of years. In 1856 he went out to Tasmania, and there 

 devoted his time to magnetic work at the observatory 

 which Sir John Ross started at Hobart Town. The 

 following year found him at Melbourne, and here, 

 with the assistance of .Maximilian, King of Bavaria, 

 and .\iexander von Humboldt, he founded the Flagstaff 

 Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory, which 

 was subsequently taken over by the Victorian Govern- 

 ment authorities. .\ great deal of his time in Victoria 

 was given to a magnetic survey of the country, which 

 was carried on right up to the foot of Mount Kos- 

 ciusko, in New South Wales. Having accumulated a 

 mass of magnetical and meteorological information, he 

 left .Melbourne in 1864 by the then celebrated clipper 

 ship Sovereign of the Seas, and returned to Europe. 

 His reception in London on this occasion made a 

 lasting impression upon him, and to the end he never 

 failed to acknowledge the encouragement which he 

 obtained from- prominent members of the Ro3al Society 

 ■ — Sir Roger Murchison, Sir Edward Sabine, and many 

 ■others, with whom a life-long friendship was entered 

 ujxm. Settling down quietly in his native land, the 

 Palatinate, he devoted about six years to the careful 

 discussion of the voluminous records which he had 

 gathered in .Australia. 



Placing a high appreciation on the value of the work 

 thus far done by Neumayer, the recently formed Im- 

 perial Government of Germany in 1S72 ofrered him the 

 appointment of hydrographer to the Imperial Navy, 

 a post which he occupied until 1876, when he was 

 promoted to the directorship of the Deutsche .See- 

 warte, at Hamburg, an institution the establishment 

 of which in 1868, under Wilhelm von Freeden, as the 

 Norddeutsche Seewarte, he had strenuously advocated. 

 In his new post Neumayer was retained as adviser to 

 the .Admiralty at Berlin. The efficiency of the German' 

 navy of to-day is largely due to his unbounded admira- 

 tion for the methods of the English navy. Whether in 

 jiiatters of discipline, surveying, magnetic observations, 

 or any other subject, his aim was to train his country- 

 men to attain at least the English standard of excel- 

 lence. During his directorship of the Seewarte he 

 was indefatigable in his exertions to introduce the best 

 scientific methods into all work performed in the Ger- 

 man naval and mercantile services, and to-day, thanks 

 to his guidance, both may be said to be second to none 

 NO. 2066, VOL. So] 



in the correctness and trustworthiness of their contri- 

 butions to scientific progress. 



While Neumayer was recognised as an authority on 

 meteorological problems, the subject which he made 

 specially his own was magnetism, and to this field of 

 research he devoted the greater part of his lite, down 

 to within the past few months. With the object of 

 furthering our knowledge of this subject he exercised 

 his influence in promoting investigations in all parts 

 of the world — in the international circumpolar expedi- 

 tions of 1882-3; in the fitting out of the German .Ant- 

 arctic expedition on the Gauss ; and in many other 

 ways. Recognising the great international importance 

 of the question, he, in February, 1898, made a special 

 visit to London to join in the appeal which was then 

 being made by the Royal Society for the equipment of 

 an English scientific expedition into the Antarctic 

 Ocean. The special points which he advocated on that 

 occasion were gravity and magnetism. " .A gravity 

 survey," he said, " is, in connection with a thorough 

 geographical survey of the .Antarctic, one of the most 

 urgent requirements of the science of our earth. There 

 are no measurements of the gravity constant w'ithin 

 the .Antarctic region ; indeed, they are very scarce in 

 the southern hemisphere south of the thirtieth parallel, 

 and they are so closely connected with the theory of 

 the figure of our earth that it is hardly possible to 

 arrive at any conclusive results in this all-important 

 matter without observations within the .Antarctic 

 region." 



Magnetic investigations always entered into his ad- 

 vocacy of .Arctic and .Antarctic expeditions in addressing 

 meetings of the German Association, the Geograph- 

 entag, and other scientific bodies. In Germany the rules 

 regulating the retirement of public servants into private 

 life are not so rigidly enforced as they are in England, 

 and this was particularly noticeable in the case of Dr. 

 Neumayer. With advancing years, and when he felt 

 entitled to withdraw from the service, he several times 

 sought permission to give up active work as director 

 of the Seewarte, but such were the high opinions of 

 him entertained by the ruling authorities at Berlin, as 

 well as by his fellow-countrymen generally, that deaf 

 ears were turned to his appeals. It was not until 1903, 

 when he was approaching the close of his seventy- 

 seventh year, that the Emperor paid a personal vis'it 

 to the Seewarte, and at last the aged director was 

 permitted to retire into private life with a pension and 

 the honour of the ennobling title " von." 



During the last six years Neumayer resided at 

 Neustadt, a short distance from his birthplace, his 

 rooms decorated with numerous mementos of his long 

 career in both hemispheres, and to the last maintain- 

 ing his interest in his favourite subject. He was a 

 Privy Councillor of the Empire, and both at home and 

 abroad he was awarded many distinctions. When 

 the German Meteorological Society was founded at 

 Hamburg, in November, 1883, he was unanimously 

 chosen as its first president; in 1899 he was president 

 of the German .Association ; while his services to the 

 great port of Hamburg were recognised in many 

 ways, the city perpetuating his memory by naming one 

 of the new streets near the Seewarte and the Bismarck 

 monument after him. In London he was elected an 

 honorary member of the Royal Meteorological Society 

 so long ago as 1874, and he became a Foreign Member 

 of the Royal Societ)' in 1899. " The world is certainly 

 the poorer for his loss " is the expression of one of his 

 English admirers. He was the author of numerous 

 books and scientific papers, some in English, the results 

 of the Victorian investigations being published in two 

 English volumes. His papers and addresses are to be 

 found in the publications of many scientific societies, 

 and he was also the author of various magnetic and 

 other charts and atlases. Hv. H,\rries. 



