Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/360

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342
SCHLOSSER—SCHLÖZER

and sodium hydroxide in water, or by fusing sodium sulphate (16 parts), antimony sulphide (13 parts) and charcoal (4.5 parts), dissolving the melt in water and boiling the solution with 2½ parts of sulphur. The liquid is then filtered and evaporated. The salt crystallizes in large tetrahedra, which are easily soluble in water, and have a specific gravity 1.806. The anhydrous salt melts easily on heating, and in the hydrated condition, on exposure to moist air becomes coated with a red film. It combines with sodium thiosulphate to form Na3SbS4·Na2S2O3·2OH2O.


SCHLOSSER, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH (1776-1861), German historian, was born at lever in East Friesland on the 17th of November 1776. He took up the study of theology, mainly at Gottingen, and began life as a private tutor. Turning to the study of history, he carried with him the tendency to construct his syntheses upon the scanty basis of 18th-century generalizations; yet in spite of the growing scientific school he became and remained for a quarter of a century the most popular German historian. In 1807, inspired by his study of Dante, he published his first work Abdlard und Dnlcin, a defence of scholasticism and medieval thought. Two years later biographical studies of Theodore Beza and Peter Martyr Vermili (Leben des Theodor de Beza und des Peter Martyr Vermili, Heidelberg, 1809) revealed more genuine scholarship. In 1812 appeared his History of the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East (Geschichte der bildersturmenden Kaiser des ostriirnischen Reic/is), in which he controverted some points in Gibbon and sought to avoid painting the past in present-day colours. His own strong predispositions prevented him from accomplishing this, however, and the history remains open to grave scientific criticism. But it won for him the favour of Archbishop Karl Theodor Dalberg, and secured for him a professorship in the Frankfort Lyceum. He left Frankfort in 1819 to become professor of history at Heidelberg, where he resided until his death on the 23rd of September 1861.,

In 1815 appeared the first volume of his World History (Weltgeschichte in znsammenhdngender Erzzihlung). This work, though never completed, was extended through many volumes, bespeaking an inexhaustible energy and a vast erudition. But it lacks both accuracy of fact and charm of style, and is to-day deservedly quite forgotten. On the other hand a translation of the pedagogical handbook of Vincent of Beauvais and the accompanying monograph are still of value. The next noteworthy wo1k was a history of antiquity and its culture (U niversalhistorische Ubersicht der Geschichte der alten Welt und ihrer Kultur, 1st part, 1826; 2nd part, 1834), which, while revealing little knowledge of the new criticism of sources inaugurated by F. A. Wolf and B. G. Niebuhr, won its way by its unique handling of the subject and its grand style. In 1823 he published in two volumes a Geschichte des 18ten Jahrhnnderts; then, enlarged and improved, this work appeared in six volumes as Geschichte des 18ten J ahrhunderts und des Igten bis zum Stnrz des franzosischen Kaiserreiohs (1836-1848). The history had a most extraordinary success, especially among the common people, owing, not to its scientific qualities, but to the fact that the author boldly and sternly sat in judgment upon men and events, and in his judgments voiced the feelings of the German nation in his day. For this very reason it is no longer read. It has been translated into English by D. Davison (8 vols., 1843-1852). Finally, Schlosser undertook a popular World History for the German People (Weltgcsohichte f12r das deutsche Volk, 1844-18 57), which also enjoyed the favour of those for whom it was written. Schlosser stands apart from the movement towards scientific history in Germany in the 19th century. Refusing to limit himself to political history, as did Ranke, he never learned to handle his literary sources with the care of the scientific historian. History was to him, as it had been to Cicero, a school for morals; but he had perhaps a juster conception than Ranke of the breadth and scope of the historian's field.

See G. G. Gervinus (Schlosser's pupil), F. C. Schlosser, ein Nekrolog (1861); G. Weber, F. C. Schlosser, der Historiker, Erinnernngsbldtter (Leipzig, 1876); and O. Lorenz, F. C. Schlosser (Vienna, 1878).


SCHLOTHEIM, ERNST FRIEDRICH, BARON VON (1764-183 2), German palaeontologist, was born in Grafschaft Schwarzburg on the 2nd of April 1764. He was Privy Councillor and President of the Chamber at the court of Gotha. Becoming interested in geology he gathered together a very extensive collection of fossils. In 1804 he published descriptions and illustrations of remarkable remains of (Carboniferous) plants, Ein Beitrag zur Flora der Vorwelt. His more important Work was entitled Die Petrefactenkunde (1820). In this he incorporated the plates used in his previous memoir and supplemented it by a folio atlas (1822), in which he illustrated his collection “ of petrified and fossil remains of the animal and vegetable kingdom of a former world.” For the first time in Germany the fossils were named according to the binomial system. The specimens are preserved in the Berlin Museum. He died at Gotha on the 28th of March 1832.


SCHLÖZER, AUGUST LUDWIG VON (1735-1809), German historian, was born at Gaggstedt, in the county of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg, on the 5th of July 173 5., Having studied theology and oriental languages at the universities of Wittenberg and Gottingen, he went in 1755 as a tutor to Stockholm, and afterwards to Upsala; and while in Sweden he wrote in Swedish an Essay on the General History of Trade and of Seafaring in the most Ancient Times (1758). In 1759 he returned to Gottingen, where he began the study of medicine. In 1761 he went to St Petersburg with Gerhardt Friedrich Muller, the Russian historiographer, as Müller's literary assistant and as tutor in his family. Here Schlozer learned Russian and devoted himself to the study of Russian history. In 1762 a quarrel with Muller placed him in a position of some difficulty from which he was delivered by an introduction to Count Rasumovski, who procured his appointment as adjunct to the Academy. In 1765 he was appointed by the empress Catherine an ordinary member of the Academy and professor of Russian history. In 1767 he left Russia on leave and did not return. He settled at Gottingen, where in 1764 he had been made professor extraordinaries, and doctor honoris cansa in 1766, and in 1769 he was promoted to an ordinary professorship. In 1804 he was ennobled by the emperor Alexander I. of Russia and made a privy councillor. He retired from active work in 1805 and died on the 9th of September 1809. Schl6zer's activity was enormous, and he exercised great influence by his lectures as well as by his books, bringing historical study into touch with political science generally, and using his vast erudition in an attempt to solve practical questions in the state and in society. He was “ a journalist before the days of journalism, a traveller before that of travelling, a critic of authorities before that of political oppositions.” His most important works were his Allgemeine nordische Geschichte, 2 vols. (Halle, 1772) and his translation of the Russian chronicler Nestor to the year 980, 5 vols. (Gottingen, 1802-1809). He awoke much intelligent interest in universal history by his Weltgesehichte im Ansznge und Zusammenhange, 2 vols. (2nd ed., Gottingen, I7Q2-ISOI); and in several works he helped to lay the foundations of statistical science. He also produced a strong impression by his political writings, the Briefwechsel, IO vols. (1776-1782) and the Staatsanzeigen, 18 vols. (1782-1793). Schlozer, who in 1769 married Caroline Roederer, daughter of ]ohann Georg Roederer (1726-1763), professor of medicine at Gottingen and body physician to the king of England, left five children. His daughter Dorothea, born on the 10th of August 1770, was one of the most beautiful and learned women of her time, and received in 1787 the degree of doctor. She was recognized as an authority on several subjects, especially on Russian coinage. After her marriage with Rodde, the burgomaster of Lübeck, she devoted herself to domestic duties. She died on the 12th of July 1825 (see Reuter, Dorothea Schliizer, Gottingen, 1887). Schl6zer's son Christian (1774-1831) was a professor at Bonn, and published Anfangsgritnde der Staatswirthschaft (1804-1806) and his father's Gjentliches und Privat-Leben aus Originalurkunden (1828). The youngest son, Karl von Schlozer, a merchant and Russian consul-general at Lübeck, was the father of Kurd von Schlozer (1822-1894), the historian