334 The American Geologist. November, 1902 
This sad news of the death of one of the greatest of all mineralo- 
gists is particularly so to the writer who made his acquaintance in Frei- 
berg in the early summer of 1866 — 36 years ago. . 
He was recotnmended to me as the special protege of the great Brei- 
thaupt who in that year delivered his last course of lectures at the 
Bergakademie. I was attracted to the delicate, intelligent looking In- 
lander and soon a warm friendship grew up between us which only 
death has dissolved. Frenzel was the son of a Freiberg miner who lived 
and supported a family, as so many others have done and are doing, on 
twenty to twenty-five cents a day- His early experiences were of the 
extremest poverty ; but when he was old enough his father sent August 
to the excellent Bergschule which the Saxon government under Von 
Beust had established to educate the children of the miners. 
Showing unusual ability and docility he rapidly made himself a favor- 
ite, and easily won for himself a scholarship in the Bergakademie itself. 
At a very early period in his course he attracted the attention of the great 
mineralogist, Breithaupt, who called on him frequently for assistance in 
arranging new collections of minerals, and determining their species. 
Following his illustrious master he soon achieved phenomenal success in 
this direction even equalling his preceptor in the latter's opinion. But 
the way was hard, the father died and he must contribute to the support 
of his mother whom he tenderly loved. 
August was unfit for the hard work of a miner. His skin was at this 
time sallow, and his face cadaverous ; a Chinese-like intimation of a de- 
sultory beard, and a very thin and unhealthy nioustache adorned a head 
set upon narrow shoulders and a fiat chest. His hands were cold to the 
touch and he sufifered frequently from headaches and other bodily ail- 
ments- Yet when the exigencies of his favorite science of mineralogy 
required it he would tramp over hill and dale with tireless energy and 
industry, leaving far in the rear those vastly more robust than he. At 
this period, when we were both students, he an Inlander and I an Aus- 
lander at Freiberg, I knew him to determine correctly three well crystal- 
lized minerals behind his back with eyes bandaged, by the sense of touch 
alone. When his course was completed and his final examinations had 
been brilliantly passed, he \\'as offered a subordinate post in the smelting 
laboratory, at a very small salary ; and accepted ruefully because he had 
never cared for chemistry, while devoted to mineralogy. In spite of this 
however, he brought a true scientific mind, and a sense of high honor 
to the task before him. 
He applied himself with the same diligence to metallurgical chemistry 
from a sense of duty, that he had consecrated to mineralogy from pure 
love of that science, and after some set-backs such as the loss of parts 
of his right digits through an explosion, (immediately following which 
accident, he learned to write admirably with the left hand), he attained 
a high standing among his colleagues. He was commended, if my mem- 
ory serve me, for his report on the extent of damage to vegetation 
through the volatile products of the smelting works of the Mulda. He 
even succeeded in discovering what he took to be a new element and 
