354 Scientific Intelligence. 



his chemical knowledge was acquired by his unaided efforts, and 

 these had been so successful even in his boyhood and youth that 

 at 22 he was appointed Ewing Professor of Chemistry and Min- 

 eralogy in Harvard University, a position which he held till his 

 death. 



His first important chemical paper was on a theoretical sub- 

 ject, as was to be expected from a self-taught man ; it was an 

 attempt at a classification of the elements, in which he approached 

 the periodic system, since so brilliantly developed by Meudelejeff 

 and by Lothar Meyer; but his most important pieces of work, 

 published rather late in his life, the redeterminations of the 

 atomic weight of antimony and of the ratio between oxygen and 

 hydrogen, proved that he had given himself the fullest and best 

 of chemical educations, as they required a profound knowledge 

 of the most delicate and difficult manipulations supplemented by 

 great ingenuity in devising new and more advanced methods. 

 Perhaps, however, these should not be called his most important 

 work, but that title should be given rather to his research on the 

 iodides of antimony, in which he furnished an experimental 

 explanation of the isomerism of these inorganic salts. 



As a teacher he has had a deep and lasting influence on the 

 characters of a multitude of students by means of his elementary 

 lectures given for over forty years to the whole of each class 

 which has passed through Harvard College ; and his advanced 

 students have drawn from him the best instruction and inspira- 

 tion. The chemical department of Harvard College he has 

 raised from the state of entire collapse, in which he found it, to 

 one of the strongest and best equipped departments in the col- 

 lege established in one whole building and part of another, both 

 of which together with the rich mineral cabinet were presented 

 to the college principally through his exertions. 



But his influence was not bounded by the college walls ; his 

 brilliant popular lectures have spread a taste for science and a 

 knowledge of chemistry in the outside world, and his numerous 

 books, ranging from abstruse college text-books to popular exposi- 

 tions of his favorite subject and scientific essays, have reached 

 even a wider audience. 



These labors have met with recognition by his election to 

 numerous learned societies, and especially by the degree of 

 doctor of laws, which he received from the University of Cam- 

 bridge, England, and by his selection as president of the American 

 Academy, a position which he held at the time of his death. 



The eminence of which I have tried to give an outline was 

 due to his complete and loving devotion to his chosen science, 

 his brilliant talents, his remarkable executive ability, and to his 

 ceaseless and unwearied industry. He leaves a gap in Harvard 

 University and the scientific world, which it will be hard to fill. 



c. T. J. 



Baron Herman Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, the 

 eminent German Scientist, died on September 8th, at Berlin. 



