JOHANN VON

LAMONT (1805–1879)  , Scottish-German astronomer and magnetician, was born at Braemar, Aberdeen-shire, on the 13th of December 1805 . He was sent at the age of twelve to be educated at the Scottish monastery in Regensburg, and apparently never afterwards returned to his native country . His strong bent for scientific studies was recognized by the head of the monastery, P . Deasson, on whose recommendation he was admitted in 1827 to the then new observatory of Bogenhausen (near Munich), where he worked under J . Soldner . After the death of his chief in 1835 he was, on H . C . Schumacher's recommendation, appointed to succeed him as director of the observatory . In 1852 he became professor of astronomy at the university of Munich, and held both these posts till his death, which took place on the 6th of August 1879 . Lamont was a member of the academies of Brussels, Upsala and Prague, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and of many other learned corporations . Among his contributions to astronomy may be noted his eleven zone-catalogues of 34,674 stars, his measurements, in 1836-1837, of nebulae and clusters, and his determination of the mass of Uranus from observations of its satellites (Mem . Astron .

Soc. xi . 51, 1838) . A magnetic observatory was equipped at Bogen- Atlas range the food of this bird is said to consist chiefly of the Testudo mauritanica, which " it carries to some height in the air, and lets fall on a stone to break the shell " (Ibis, 1859, p . 177) . It was the Apra and 44v,1 of Greek classical writers . hausen in 1840 through his initiative; he executed comprehensive magnetic surveys 1849–1858; announced the magnetic decennial period in 185o, and his discovery of earth-currents in 1862 . His Handbuch des Erdmagnetismus (Berlin, 1849) is a standard work on the subject . See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (S . Gunther); V . J . Schrift, Astr . Gesellschaft, xv .

6o; Monthly Notices

Roy . Astr . Society, xl . 203; Nature, xx . 425; Quart . Journal Meteor . Society, vi . 72; Proceedings Roy . Society of Edinburgh, x . 358; The Times (12 Aug., 1879); Sir F . Ronalds's Cat. of Books relating to Electricity and Magnetism, pp . 281-283; Royal Society's Cat, of Scientific Papers, vols. iii. vii .