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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 980 



material (given her by the Austrian govern- 

 ment on the instigation of Professor Suess), 

 chemically dividing it and retaining always 

 the more radio-active portion, until she ob- 

 tained evidence first of a new element which 

 she christened polonium, in memory of her 

 own country, and then after months of labor 

 succeeded in isolating a few grains of the other 

 and more permanent substance now so famous 

 ■ — a substance which not only exhibits physical 

 energy in a new form, but is likely to be of 

 service to suffering humanity. Of the metallic 

 base of this substance she determined the 

 atomic weight, finding a place for it in Men- 

 deleeff's series; and with the aid of her hus- 

 band, whose lamentable death was so great a 

 blow to science, she proceeded to discover 

 many of its singular properties, some of them 

 so extraordinary as to rivet the attention of the 

 world. Subsequent workers engaged in the 

 determination of numbers belonging to either 

 of her special elements, radium and polonium, 

 have sought her advice, and it has proved of 

 the utmost value. I have now the honor of 

 presenting for our honorary degree the great- 

 est woman of science of all time, Marie 

 Sklodowska Curie. 



Professor Keibel : The professor of anatomy 

 in the University of Freiburg is the leading 

 authority on the development of man and the 

 embryology of vertebrates. He originated the 

 international standards used in estimating 

 embryological data, and through his classical 

 work on comparative development he has re- 

 formed anatomical teaching by the infusion of 

 developmental ideas. His important contribu- 

 tions to anatomical knowledge and method are 

 widely known and highly esteemed, but no- 

 where more heartily and cordially than in the 

 anatomical department of this university. 

 Held in affectionate esteem by his colleagues, 

 and directing one of the largest schools of 

 anatomy in Germany, this eminent embryolo- 

 gist has been invited to receive our honorary 

 degree, and I present to you Franz Karl Julius 

 Keibel. 



Professor H. A. Lorentz: To the great 

 school of mathematical physicists of the last 

 and present centuries we in England have 

 proudly contributed even more than our share; 



but we recognize in the professor of physics in 

 the University of Leyden a contemporary 

 worker worthy to rank with our greatest. Pro- 

 fessor Lorentz has extended the work of Clerk 

 Maxwell into the recently explored region of 

 electrons, and has developed in the molecular 

 direction the Maxwellian theory of electro- 

 dynamics. He is a chief authority on the be- 

 havior of material bodies moving through the 

 ether of space, and he has adopted and reduced 

 to order many of the progeny resulting from 

 the fertile marriage of electricity and light. 

 A specially interesting magneto-optic phenom- 

 enon, experimentally discovered by his country- 

 man, Zeeman, of Amsterdam, received at his 

 hands its brilliant and satisfying interpreta- 

 tion ; an interpretation clinched by predictions 

 of what, on the electric theory of radiation, 

 ought additionally to be observed — predictions 

 which were speedily verified. The Zeeman 

 phenomenon thus interpreted not only gives 

 information as to the intimate structure of 

 various elemental atoms, but, in the hands of 

 the great American astronomers, has shown 

 that sun-spots are electric cyclones of high 

 magnetic power, and is likely further to con- 

 tribute to our knowledge of solar and stellar 

 constitution. As a great authority on electron 

 theory, and one whose name will forever he 

 associated with the now nascent electrical 

 theory of matter, I present to you the distin- 

 guished mathematical physicist, Hendrik 

 Antoon Lorentz. 



Professor E. W. Wood: The professor of 

 experimental physics in the John Hopkins 

 University of Baltimore is a prolific experi- 

 mentalist, and one to whose researches in phys- 

 ical optics modern science is greatly indebted. 

 By ingenious use of little-known properties of 

 light, he has explored the structure of mole- 

 cules, applying the principle of resonance to 

 determine their natural electronic period of 

 vibration. He has, in fact, discovered a new 

 type of spectra in the fluorescent resonance of 

 metallic vapors. What more he has done, in 

 connection with the anomalous absorption of 

 sodium vapor with specially designed diffrac- 

 tion gratings, and with the application of 

 monochromatic photography to the geology of 

 the moon, it were long to tell; among other 



