DOVE, HEINRICH W., one of the ablest recent physicists of the continent, was b. in 1803, at Liegnitz, in Silesia, where his father was a merchant. He studied at Breslau and at Berlin, at the latter of which he took the degree of doctor in 1826. He was sue .
cessively " privatdocent" and assistant professor of natural philosophy in KOnigsberg. Having been transferred to a similar post in Berlin, he subsequently became full pro fessor, and was elected to a seat in the royal academy of sciences. His writings, which are very numerous, are to be found in the memoirs of that academy, and in Poggen dorff's Annalen, besides several published separately. The most celebrated of these refer to meteorology, climatology, induced electricity, and circularly polarized light. We' may mention among his works Ueber 314.4s and Hessen (2d edition, Berlin, 1835), a trea tise on the art of measuring, and the origin and comparison of the metrical standards of different nations; Meteorologische Untersuehugen (Berlin, 1837), a remarkable treatise , Ueber die nicht periodischen Aenderungen der Temperaturvertheilung auf der Oberflache der Erde (4 vols., Berlin, 1840-47); Untersuchungen in Gebiete der Inductionselectricititt (Berlin, 1843). In conjunction with other distinguished German philosophers, D. commenced,
in 1837, the publication of tin extensive series of treatises on different branches of natural philosophy. This work, called 1?epertorium der Physik, remains unfinished. In his capacity of director of all the Prussian observatories, be published annually an account of their labors. To him is due, amongst a great variety of optical discoveries, the application of the stereoscope to the detection of forged bank-notes—an ingenious and useful idea. To English readers, D. is best known by his treatise on the Distri bution of Heat on the Surface of the Globe, which was published in 1853, by the British association. In this work he enters fully into the causes of periodic variations of tem perature at different parts of the globe, and lays down in admirable charts the monthly and annual isothermal and isabnormal lines—thus tracing the variations in form and position of the different isothermals throughout the year. Das Gesetz der Starme ,4th ed., 1874) has also been translated (The Law of Storms). Other works are Ueber Elec tricita t (1848); Optische Studien (1859); Eiszeit, Fain, u. Sirocco (1867); Klimatologle von Norddeutschland (1871). D. died 6th April, 1879.