New-York tribune., 1901-12-12
TIE NOBEL PRIZES.

The commission which awards the five S4oooO
prizes provided for by the inventor or dynamite
NAV in the future feel obliged to limit ltse1 10
the consideration of the acnlevements OIL the
previous year or two. But in bestoWing tnese
honors and pecuniary benefits for the nrst time
II has enioyed great latitude in this respect
Frederick Fassy who divides with DR.. Henri
Dumant the peace prize, has reacned a ripe
old age and has been conspicuously devoted to
the cause of international amity since ne was
TWENTY-FIVE years old. 1t would have Deen
great pity to ignore the man who presided over
the first congress of nations having that object
in view and who founded the Universal Peace
Union. Still. the impaired health of DR.. Dumant
and the recommendation given him by the
Swedish Rigsdag placed the commission in q
dilemma from which 1t could hardly nave
escapetljn any other way.
Armand Sully-Prudhomme, the French poet
TO whom was accorded the literary prize is ever
sixty wears OF age. One smiles when reading
In the same biographical sketch the statements
that he was a champion Of art for arts sake
and that he enjoyed an independent fortune
Yet the delicate sentiments embodied In his
earlier verse his volumes OF philosophical
poetry aud Expression In the Fine Arts have
wen him q high rank In his profession. Here
again 1t is q career rather than an isolated work
which has been honored-
Van I IoT. R0ntgen and Behring are all
Younger mer. The first two We're natives Of
Holland, but transferred their residence to Ger
many Van t Hoff spent good many years
at Utrecht and Amsterdam college profes-
sor and left the latter city for Berlin only six
years ago. In the suburbs Of the German capl-
tai he has laboratory where he gives himself
up almost exclusively 10 research under gov
ho}h, lit- 10 a,.-ftt larr
ures. His studies for the last few years have
been devoted largely to the composition and
decomposition of double salts and the c!rcum-
stances under which the saline elements Of the
ocean were formed. This inquiry has close
relation to the salt mining industry of Stassfurt.
and possesses much economic importance. When
Harvard conferred degree upon him two
three years ago President Eliot pronounced Van
4 Hoff the greatest living physical chemist.
Possibly more heartburDings viii be excited
by the award to Emil Behring. professor OF
hygiene and medical history at Marburg, than
by any of the other decisions Of the commits
sion. Koch's friends may feel that he has not
been fairly treated. Yet the man who produces
an antitoxin for fighting bacterial disease GER
tainly renders a greater service to his fellows
than one who only finds the germ of it, Koch
really owes much of his inspiration to Pasteur,
VINO mas now gone over 70 the majority. The
truth is, a number of men were working at the
problem of securing immunity at the same time
as Behring He however. seems to have been
the first TO put his system into actual practice
His diphtheria antitoxin not only anticipated
Kochs tuberculin, but has proved a much
greater success One cannot but wonder,
though, how Lister was overlooked. Had he
divided the medical prize with Behring the
author Of antiseptic methods in surgery would
not have been dealt with any too handsomely
R6ntgen, who gets the prize in physics. and
has been associated with the University of
Wurzburg for over a quarter Of a century,
found the Y rags at the close Of 1895 It is
worthy of note that while the form of radiance
which he discovered has proved exceedingly
useful in medicine and surgery, R0ntgen came
upon it by accident. That is to say. he was
making Crookes tube experiments with another
purpose in view No one will begrudge him
either the glory or the money he now receives
but it would be interesting to know Just how
much thought was given by the commission to
Bell Edison Tesla and Marconi