XXXI. Notice of the Late Professor de Koninck, Honorary Member

Abstract

Laurent-Guillaume de Koninck, doctor in medicine, and Professor of the University of Liége, a most distinguished palaeontologist, and an eminent chemist, was born at Louvain in Belgium, on 3rd May, 1809, and, entering the University of his native town, studied for the medical profession. O n the completion of his curriculum, at an early age, he took the degree of doctor in medicine, with honours in other departments of scientific inquiry. In 1834 his eminence as a student attracted the attention of the Government, and, in order that he might travel and acquire a knowledge of chemistry in other countries, he was at its expense sent to travel. At Paris he then studied in the laboratories of Gay-Lussac and Thenard, at Berlin with Mitscherlich, and with Baron de Liebig at Giessen. In 1835 he was elected a fellow of the University of Ghent, and placed in charge of the course of industrial chemistry. His removal to Liége towards the end of the following year was at his own request, and there he taught organic chemistry. In December of the same year the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium elected him a corresponding member, his nomination as member dating from 1842. Though he worked assiduously, both as student and as teacher of chemistry, and made some important discoveries in that department of science, he found time in the intervals between his numerous duties to study the Carboniferous fauna of Belgium. H e was a close observer, a careful collector, and a This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract