Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/717

Rh and in May of the same year was honored in like manner by the Natural History Society of Weterau. In 1861 the Academy of Sciences of Havana signified the high esteem in which it held him by conferring on him the title of Member of Merit. In January, 1864, he was made a corresponding member of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia; in July of the same year an honorary member of the Society of Naturalists of Berlin; and in the following year a member of the scientific department of the Matanzas Lyceum, and a member of the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais of Havana. In 1867 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In 1872 the distinction was conferred upon him of election to membership in the Spanish Society of Natural History, Madrid. In 1878 the Farmers' Circle of the Island of Cuba (Circido de Hacendados) made him a Member of Merit.

Besides his untiring devotion to science, which has been evident in nearly every line of this sketch, Gundlach was distinguished by unaffected modesty and plainness and a charming geniality in his companionship. Simon de Cardenas says, in the tribute from which we have already quoted: "He sympathizes with all persons he sees, and when one has had an hour with him it is a pain to part from him. He is an entertaining converser, no matter what the subject may be. He can soar in the heights of science, talk of history, literature, and philosophy, or engage in the private, intimate, and affectionate conversation of the family circle. If we were required to point out among his many virtues others equally conspicuous, we should certainly mention his honesty and disinterestedness." Juan Clemente Zena said that "in speaking of him we must needs pay him homage or not mention him at all. His face is like a transparent crystal, in which all moral perfections are reflected."

their investigations of the electrical and magnetic properties of matter at very low temperatures, Profs. Dewar and Fleming have, according to a summary given in the London Times, completed an examination of the electrical conductivity of many pure metals, notably bismuth and mercury, and shown that their electrical resistance vanishes as the temperature approaches the absolute zero; also that at very low temperatures the electrical resistance of bismuth may be increased many hundred times by transverse magnetism. They have analyzed the effect of low temperature on magnets, and studied the magnetic qualities of iron and steel at the temperature of liquid air. They have measured the magnetic permeability of liquid oxygen and its dielectric constant, and shown that this complies with Maxwell's law. They have proved that liquid oxygen is extremely magnetizable, while its insulating and dielectric powers give it a unique position among known liquids and salts.