“ In 1894 he retired from active work, and on the 10th of February 1901 he shot himself in a fit of depression at his home on the Starnberger See, near Munich. In his earlier years he devoted himself to chemistry, both theoretical and applied, publishing papers on the preparation of gold and platinum, numerical relations between the atomic weights of analogous elements, the formation of aventurine glass, the manufacture of illuminating gas from wood, the preservation of oil-paintings, &c. ”