Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/116

 ALTER

patented. A large jar of this then rare substance was exhibited at the World's Fair in New York in 1853, where it ex- cited much wonder. Before the dis- covery of petroleum he had invented a rotating retort for the extraction of oil from cannel coal. This discovery bid fair to become a profitable industry until the discovery of the natural oil rendered the operation superfluous.

The greatest legacy, however, which Dr. Alter left to posterity was the result of his discovery and application of the principles of the prism in spectrum analy- sis. The data regarding this discovery are taken from an article published in the "Pittsburg Dispatch" in January, 1882, by Dr. Frank Cowan. That Dr. Alter's discovery antedates that of Kirchoff is proven by the fact that some five years before the latter published his discovery, Dr. Alter's paper appeared in the "Ameri- can Journal of Sciences and Arts" (Silli- man's Journal), second series, volume xviii, November, 1854. It was entitled, "On Certain Physical Properties of Light, Produced by the Combustion of Different Metals in the Electric Spark Refracted by a Prism."

A second article by Dr. Alter appeared in the same journal, May, 1855, entitled: "On Certain Physical Properties of the Light of the Electric Spark within Gases, as seen through a Prism."

A brief abstract of the first article ap- peared in Europe in the "Chemic Jahres- berichte" in 1845 and the second was reproduced in its entirety in the Paris Journal "LTnstitute" for the year 1S56 and in the "Archives of the Physical and Natural Sciences, of Geneva." It would thus seem proven beyond any doubt that to Dr. Alter belongs the credit of the dis- covery of the principles underlying spect- rum analysis. Dr. Cowan states that the prism with which he made the first experi- ments was obtained by Dr. Alter from a fragment of a large mass of very brilliant glass found in the pot of a glass-house de- stroyed in the great fire of Pittsburg April 10, 1845.

Dr. Alter's early educational oppor-

18 ALTHOF

tunities appear to have been very meager, so much so that he was largely self taught. His medical education was obtained in New York where he graduated at the Reformed Medical College of the United States in 1831, an institution of the eclectic or botanic school. Definite infor- mation regarding his medical education is lacking because of the destruction of the records by fire.

Dr. Cowan says of him: "In his life he was a plain and simple man, gentle and modest in manner, temperate in his habits and careful and patient in his work."

He was twice married: to Laura Row- ley by whom he had three children, and to Amanda B. Rowley who bore him eight children, four sons and four daughters. One son, Myron Hale Alter graduated in medicine at the Baltimore Medical Col- lege and rose to prominence as a practi- tioner of medicine.

Dr. Alter died in Freeport, Pennsyl- vania, September IS, 1SS1, aged seventy- four. The exact cause of death is unknown but appears to have been a gradual weakening of the vital powers incident to old age.

A. K.

Althof, Hermann (1835-1877).

Hermann Althof was born the eighth of August, 1S35, at Horn, in Lippe-Detmold, Germany, and died in New York January 14, 1877, of erysipelas. He was the youngest son of a school teacher in his native town.

In 1847 he accompanied his father on a visit to his elder brother, who had set- tled in New York City. After his return he began to study medicine, first in Wurzburg, later in Zurich, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, where he received his diploma in the year 1S57. Here Prof. A. von Graefe began to interest him- self in the progress of his gifted pupil, with whom he tried to form a closer alliance by offering him a position as one of his assistants. Dr. Althof, however, left Berlin to continue his studies in Paris, where he studied ophthalmology under