Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/321

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

OSLER


OSWALD


scientific expedition to Zanzibar. In 1894 he migrated to the United States, and was appointed Curator of invertebrate palaeon tology at Princeton. Since 1903 he has been Curator of invertebrate zoology at the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg. He became instructor in geological geography in 1909, and has been professor of physical geo graphy since 1910 at Pittsburg University. Ortmann was a member of the Princeton Arctic Exhibition in 1899, and is associate editor of The American Naturalist. His scientific works are numerous, and he belongs to many American and foreign learned societies. In Was Wir Ernst Haeckel Verdanken (i, 336-38) Professor Ortmann tells us that he has never departed from the teaching of his old master at Jena.

OSLER, Sir William, first baronet, M.D., D.Sc., LL.D., D.C.L., F.E.S., F.R.C.P., physician. B. (Canada) July 12, 1849. Ed. Trinity College School and Trinity College, Toronto ; and Toronto, M Gill, London, Berlin, and Vienna Uni versities. He was professor of the Insti tutes of Medicine at M Gill University from 1874 to 1884, professor of clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania from 1884 to 1889, and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University from 1889 to 1904. Since 1904 he has been Eegius Professor of medicine at Oxford University. He was created baronet in 1911. Sir William has received honorary degrees from no less than fourteen universities. He has been President of the Biblio graphical Society (1913-18) and of the Classical Association (1918-19), and is a Corresponding Member of the Paris Academy of Medicine. Besides his scien tific works he has written several of a humanitarian character (^quanimitas and Other Addresses, 1904 ; Counsels and Ideals, 1905 ; and Michael Servetus, 1909). In his Ingersoll Lecture, Science and Immor tality (1904), he puts the case of science against the belief very powerfully ; but he is not disposed entirely to ignore the appeal 569


of the emotions. He would " rather be mistaken with Plato than be in the right with those who deny altogether the life after death " (p. 81). In effect he is Agnostic, and he says : " It may be ques tioned whether more comfort or sorrow has come to the race since man peopled the unseen world with spirits to bless and demons to damn him " (p. 52).

OSSOLI, the Marchioness. See FULLER,

MARGARET.

S T W A L D , Professor Wilhelm,

M.D., Sc.D., LL.D., German chemist. B. Sep. 2, 1853. Ed. Kiga and Dorpat Uni versities. In 1882 he was appointed professor at the Baltic Polytechnic at Riga, and in 1887 professor of physical chemistry at Leipzig University. He was Visiting Professor at Harvard and Columbia in 1905, and he retired in 1906. Ostwald is one of the most distinguished physical chemists in Europe. He is a Privy Councillor, has honorary degrees from Cambridge, Liverpool, Aberdeen, and other universities, and is a member of the Danish, Russian, Austrian, Dutch, Prus sian, Hungarian, Norwegian, American, and other Academies of Science. In 1910 he joined Professor Haeckel in the Presi dency of the Monist League, and worked zealously for Rationalism in that form. He has published three volumes of Monistic Sunday Sermons (1911-13). He pays a high tribute to Haeckel in Was Wir Ernst Haeckel Verdanken (i, 195-200), but in his philosophy energy alone is the fundamental reality (see Die Energie, 1908).

OSWALD, Eugene, M.A., Ph.D., writer. Ed. Heidelberg and Gottingen Universities. Born and educated in Germany, Oswald entered the Civil Service of the Grand Duchy of Baden, but he was compelled to leave his country on account of his share in the revolutionary movement of 1848. For a time he did journalistic work at Paris, contributing to the Rationalist Libert6 de Penser. He came to England,

570