376 



NATURE 



[Sept. lo, 1874* 



a Sanscrit authority of the new school ; Prof. Weil and 

 Prof. Windisch, both of Heidelberg, the former noted 

 for Arabic learning, the other for Sanscrit and Celtic 

 studies. 



The programme of meetings is as follows : — 



Sept. 14. — Inaugural Meeting. With Address. 8.30 I'.M , 

 at the Royal Institution, 21, Albemarle Street. The meeting 

 will commence with the election of the Council. 



Sept. 15. — Semitic Section. Piesident, Sir Ilenyy Rawlinson, 

 K.C.B. Secretary, W. S. Vaux, Esq., F.R.S. Silting, 2.30 

 P.M., at the rooms of the Royal Society of Literature, 4, St. 

 Maitin's Place, Charing Cross. 



Sept. 16. — Turanian Section. President, Sir Walter Elliot, 

 K.C.S.I. Secretary, Piof. Douglas. Sitting, 8.30 F.M., at 

 King's College, Strand. 



SepJ. 17. — Aryan Section. President, Piof. Max Miiller. 

 Secretary, Prof. Eggeling. Sitting, 2.30 P.M., at the Royal 

 Institution, 21, Albemarle Street. 



Sept. 17. — Hamitic Section. President, Dr. Birch, LL.D. 

 Secretary, W. R. Cooper, Esq. Sitting, 8.30 p.m., at the 

 tboms of the Society of Biblical Archsaolojjy, 9, Conduit 

 Street. 



Sept. 18. — Arch^ological Section. President, M. Grant Duff, 

 Esq., M.P. Secretary, E. Thomas, Esq., F.R.S. Sitting, 11 

 A.M., at the rocms of the Royal Asiatic Societyj 22, Albemarle 

 Street. 



Sept. 19. — Ethnological Section. President, Prof. Owen, 

 C.B. Secretary, R. Cull, Esq., F.S.A. Sitting, 2.30 P.M , at 

 the rconis of the Royal Asiatic Society, 22, Albemarle Street. 

 At the close of the sitting the members of the Congress will 

 decide in what countiy the next Congress shall be held, and will 

 nominate the president. 



There will be receptions on the following occasions : — 



Sept. 15. — 10 A.M., at the British Museum. 



Sept. 16.— II A.M. The Right Hen. Sir Bartle Frere will 

 give abieaklast to the ir.embers of the Congress, at his residence, 

 Wrtssil Lodge, Wimbledon. 



Sept. 17.- 10 A.M., at the India Office Library. 12 noon, at 

 the Soane Museum. 



Sept. 18. — Mr. Eosanquet will g'.ve an afternoon garden party 

 to the n embers of the Congress, at his residence, Claymoor 

 House, Enfield. 



Sept. 19. — 10 A.M., at the South Kensington Museum. 



During the meeting of (he Congress a Bureau will be opened 

 at the Royal Asiatic Sodtty's Rooms, 22, Albemarle Street, 

 W., where every infcrniation concerning the Congress may be 

 obtained. 



The Committee of tl e Scientific Club have kindly invited the 

 men btrs of the Corgress to make u.'e of their club house, 7, 

 Savile Row, W., duiing the sessim of the Corgiess. The 

 Joreign members of the Congress and their friends f re invited by 

 the Courcil of the Rtyel I'.i tanic Society of London to visit the 

 gardens of the Society, in Regent's I'aik, at any time during 

 their stay in London. Such members will be admitted to the 

 gardens by pi oducing their cards of membeiship. 



ANDERS JONAS ANGSTROM 



ANDERS JONAS ANGSTROM, Professor of Physics 

 in the University of Upsala, after a short illness of 

 less than a fortnight, died, as we have already announced, 

 on June 20, from an attack of inflammation of the btain. 

 The death of Prof. Angstr6m,who has been cut down in 

 the full vigour of his powers and in the midst of a noble 

 and active scientific career, is a loss to the entire world of 

 science. 



Angstrom was born Aug. 13, 1S14, at the Logdo Iron 

 Works Settlement in Medelpad. He was the son of a pastor, 

 who in the early childhood of Anders Jonas, removed to 

 UlUinger, in Angermanlan d, and a few years afterwards to 

 Siittna in the neighbourhood of Sandsvall, where he re- 

 mained till his death in 1847. With no other means than 

 the extremely limited stipend of a Swedish countiy minister, 



supplemented by the proceeds of a small glebe, the elder 

 Angstrom kept his three sons— the present Dr. Johan 

 Angstrom and Prof. Anders Jonas and his young brother 

 Carl Arendt at school, and even assisted them in their 

 subsequent attendance at the University classes at 

 Upsala. In these efforts the father was strenuously sup- 

 ported by his wife, without whose good management such 

 efforts would have been impracticable ; and to advanced 

 age this admirable housewife continued to prosecute her 

 daily task of spinning, without remitting her active super- 

 vision of her household. 



Although circumstances compelled Angstrom to eke 

 out the means necessary for his University course by 

 his own e.\ertions, he passed through all his requisite exa- 

 minations with distinction and within the usual terms. 

 After matriculating in the autumn of 1833, he took the 

 degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1839 ; became a phy- 

 sical tutor in the same year, and assistant in practical 

 astronomy in 1843 ; while in the years 1846 and 1847 he 

 fulfilled the duties of the Chair of Astronomy at the 

 University, during the temporary absence on the conti- 

 nent of the professor. Owing to want of interest he had, 

 however, five years to wait before he obtained any other 

 fixed employment. The Chair of Physics had fallen 

 vacant in 1839, the same year in which Angstidm 

 graduated i but then, and for some time afterwards, his 

 abilities were not fully recognised in the University, while 

 with his natural modesty he abstained from presenting 

 himself as a candidate, although he might then have en- 

 joyed the same good fortune as his friend and fellow- 

 student, Malmsten, who, after having had four years in 

 which to prepare himself, was able on the death of the 

 Professor of Mathematics, in the year 1843, to offer him- 

 self as a successful candidate for the vacant chair. At 

 length, in 1S58, on the public recommendation of the 

 Consistory, Angstidm was nominated to the Chair of 

 Ph) sics, the duties of w hich he had performed for two 

 years in the character of a p7-o timpore professor. This 

 chair he continued to hold for the remaining sixteen years 

 of his life. 



During his occupancy of the chair Angstrom secured 

 for the physical museum of the University an admirable 

 collection of instuimtnts for the deteimination of different 

 exact measuicments in the various departments of physi- 

 cal science ; and as far as the limited resources at his 

 disposal peimitted, he irrproved the physical laboia- 

 tories, and strove to awaken amongst the students an 

 interest in the study of the exact sciences. He also con- 

 tinued for a number of years, in the capacity of Secretary 

 to the Royal Society at Upsala, to conduct its transactions 

 with a zeal and devotion which secured for him the grate- 

 ful recognition of foreigners as well as of his own country- 

 men. 



Although Angstrom published memoirs on almost all 

 branches of physical science, his name will be for ever 

 associated with the history of spectral analysis, for which 

 he obtained from the Royal Society of London in 1870 

 the Rumford gold medal, a distinction which no Swede 

 had ever before enjoyed. 



In order to show Angstrom's place in scientific histoiy 

 in regard to this class of researches, it will be well in this 

 place to briefly recapitulate the capital points.* 



* This rec-ipitiiiatioii is based upon the historical statement in I oekycrV 

 *' Solar riiysits." 



