THE AUTHOR

Boston, Âpril 19. 1868.

I had had no word firom Rosing during several years iintil last Jaly, in Paris, when Tisserand informed me of his untimely death. — It woald hâve gratified you, as it did myself, to hear men like Barreswil, and Lieben, of Palermo, express a degree of esteem for Rosing which harmonizes perfectly with the feelings of those of us Yfho hâve known end loved him so well.

Looking calmly at Rosing's career, as a man of science, it is that wonderfnl power of attracting his fellow men that stands bodily before me. He was a sort of Kern- or germinal crystal to which, — no matter where placed, — the surroanding atoms of humanity gravitated always, to build up forms of beaaty and worth.

When confined to a province or a state, snch men found schools or charches or sects, or they inaagurate lines of „policy". But in the great world they establish orders, such as that of St. Francis, or binding the disjointed links of the chain scientific (as Rosing knew how

to do so well), — they foreshadow the day when in the Repablic of Letters the carse of Babel shall be cornposed, space and distance set at naaght, and allegiance to literatic anthority shall take precedence, throaghoat the world, of obligations political or ecclesiastic.^

Boston, July 27. 1868.

I enclose a copy of a short notice of our beloved Rosing, which I sent to Sillimans American Journal of Science a month since. I send also a copy of the Journal, in which a portion of the notice has appeared. But the Editor has omitted so much of my article, and the printers hâve made so many mistakes with the rest, that I send you this copy of the original document, in order that my intention may be made ptain. (') —

Anton Rosing, of Christiania, was born in 1827. A sketch of his life has just been published in the „Norsk Landmanâsbog for 1868" by P. C. Asbj0rnsen, well known in English literature through translations of his Norse popular Taies, and to American Naturalists through the citations of Mr. Marsh, (a)

(1) Cette UvraiBon ne m^est jamais parvenue, et la Bibliothèque de PUni- Yersité, seule abonnée, à ma connaissance, à Christiania, de ^Sillimans American Journal**, n*a pas encore reçu non plus la lirraison en question, ce qui m^a engagé à faire imprimer ici l'article d'après le manuscrit originid de M. le professeur Storer.

(2) Man è, Nature; or Fhysical Geog^aphy as modifled by Human Action, by George Marsh, American Ambassador to the Italian Court. London 1864. New York 1867.

Rosing studied in Copenhagen and was afterwards for several years chemical manager of the Gas Works at Christiania and Editor of the Polytechnic Journal of that city. In 1855 he was appointed hy the Norwegian Government to a new chair of Agricultural Chemistry, with liberty to travel daring several years. He crossed at once to Germany and studied there assiduously, as well as in several Parisian laboratories.

As a scientific investigator, Rosing has done good work, and he has also written largely. Those whp hâve known him well, however, will remember him less for thèse things, than for the high aims he cherished and for his remarkable power of influencing his fellow men.

So many Scandinavians hâve been noted for the possession of abundant stores of précise and accurate knowledge in many departments that Rosing's marked proficiency in the several branches of science to which he was devoted, seemed but natural. The scientists of most of the outlying European States, destitute of political power or scientific centralization, are for that matter often characterized by a faculty of assimilating knowledge such as is rarely accorded to the more bigoted inhabitants of powerfnl lands. It would perhaps be hard to détermine whether this characteristic dépends in part upon some peculiar facility of appréhension or spécial aptitude for sélection; or whether, as seems probable^ it may not be whoUy due to a simple habit of drawing* correct inferences from the statements of foreigners such as would be but natural to a truly unprejudiced mind* Of Rosing, at ail event, it may be said that, though an

«arnest student, his great fund of information and his proficiency in ail tbings pertaining to chemistry seemed to be less intimately connected witb laborious study tban witb bis cordial sympatby for tbe labors of otbers, bis kindliness, and tbe liberality of bis views — by wbicb trait be was endeared to a multitude of cbemists. He was a welcome guest in every laboratory, and a leading «pirit wberever bis lot was cast. As a speaker be was «ingularly éloquent, wbile be sbared witb many of bis -countrymen tbat power over foreign tongues wbicb set Babel at défiance.

In Paris, a poor foreign student, supported by no patronage eitber of University, Cburcb or Service, bis influence was felt to a remarkable degree. One pf tbe founders of tbe Cbemical Society of tbat city and its first président, to Bosing more tban to any otber man is doubtless to be attributed tbe tone and ebaracter of tbe earlier publications of tbis now distinguisbed Society. In tbat distant future wben Cosmopolitan journalism sball be an accomplisbed fact, tbe Répertoire de Chimie pure et appliquée will be remembered as a bold and, ail tbings considered, a remarkably successful attempt to associate in a purely scientific enterprize tbe men of many lands. Torn by internai dissentions of tbe bome management in wbicb, let it bere be said, tbe foreign coUaborators bad bappily no part, tbe Répertoire was merged, after five or six years, in tbe existing Bulletin of tbe Society, and tbe distinctive cosmopolitan ebaracter wbicb Rosing bad imparted to it, was lost. As i^ well known, tbe Bulletin is still conducted witb a

hîgh degree of excellence, but there are chemists not a few, and the Rédacteur en chef (') is of them who lament tbe day when its now purely gallic style and savor was tempered, if not improved by an infusion of outer barbarism. From Paris, Rosing passed into England and Scotland, studying cbemistry and agriculture, in the interest of bis chair, until stricken with palsy in 1859. He died at Christiania on the 29*^ of March 1867. Few chemists — no matter how bighly placed — hâve succeeded in exerting a stronger personal influence, or in attaching to themselves so large a circle of intimate and devoted friends. Not only in the Scandinavian capitals, in St. Petersburg, and in many a German town, but in Paris, Edinburgh, Yienna, Palermo, Milan and in more than one American city, the memory of Rosing will be cherished and bis untimely death deplored.

(1) BarreswU.