CURTIS. 678 CUETIXJS. Lectures on Botaii;/ (3 vols., 1805; 2cl ed., 1S07). In 1781 he established, and for many years thei-e- after edited, the ISotanical ilayazine. CURTIS, William Eleroy (1850—). An American journalist. He was born in Akron, Ohio, and graduated at Western Reserve Uni- versity in 1871. From 1872 to 1887 he was on the staff of the Chicago Inler-Ocedii, and by his great enterjirise — notably in .securing interviews with the James brothers during their contest with Pinkcrton's detectives, and in investigating the Ku-Klux Klans of tfie South — gained a na- tional reputation. In 1887 he became the Wash- ington correspondent of the Chicago Record. He Aas a commissioner of the United States to the Central and South American republics in 1885, was the executive officer of the International American Conference of 1889-90, and was di- rector of the Bureau of American Republics from 1890 to 1893. He has traveled extensively and is the author of several books, the most impor- tant of which are: The Life of Zachariah Chand- ler (1879) ; Capitals of Houth America (1880) : The Land of the Nihilist (1887): The United States and Foreign Powers (1892; 2d ed. 1899), a concise and generally accurate summary of the foreign relations of the United States; The Yankees of the East (1890), an account of the manners and customs of the Japanese ; Between the Andes and the Orean (1900); and The True Thomas Jefferson ( 1901 ) . CUR'TISS, SAMtJEL I-ES (1844 — ). An Ameri- can Congregational clergyman, born at Union, Conn. He was educated at Amherst College, at Union Theological Seminary, and at the uni- versities of Leipzig and Berlin. From 1874 to 1878 he was pastor of the American Chapel at licipzig, Germany, and ujjon his return to Amer- ica was appointed. pi'ofessor of biblical literature at the Chicago Theological Seminary. He was president of the City Missionary Society of Chicago from 1888 to 1898. In addition to sev- eral translations of important works from the German, his writings inchide: A Plea for a More Thorough Study of .the Semitic Languages in America (1879); Moses and Ingersoll (1881); Franz Delitzsoh; Ezekiel and Bis Times (in The Bible as Literature, 187G). CURTIUS, kunr'tse-oos, Er:>jst (1814-96). A distinguished German areh^ologist and his- torian, born at Liibeck. He studied philology at the universities of Bonn, Gottingen, and Berlin, traveled in Gircece and Italy, and in 1844 was ap- pointed a professor at Berlin and preceptor of the Crown Prince Frederick William, afterwards Frederick III. From 185(> to 1803 he was pro- fessor of classical archseology and philology at Gottingen, whence he returned to Berlin as pro- fessor of ancient history. Since 1853 Curtius was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and from 1871 to 1893 he was continuously secre- tary of the philologico-historical section of that institution. Under imperial commission in 1874 he negotiated with the Greek Government in regard to the German excavations at Olympia, begun by him in the following year. With Schijne he edited the Archiiologische Zeitung, in which he published many important contribu- tions. He must be reckoned among the great scholars of modem Ciermany, a thinker of im- periovis influence alike in his academic instruc- tion and in his published works. These latter in- clude: Peloponnc.ios (2 vols., 1851-52), a study of the Greek peninsula with special reference to- ils raythologj', history, and monuments of art; Griechische Oeschichte (3 vols., 1857-07; 6th ed. 1889), in which he endeavored to present in popular form the results of expert research; At- tische Studien (1863-04) ; and three volumes of collected lectures and addresses, entitled Alter- turn iind Gegenicart. Consult: Broicher, Erin- ncrungen an Ernst Curtius (Berlin, 1896) ; also, for a brief but most appreciative study of hi& personalit}-, Grimm, "Ernst Curtius: Ein Brief an seine Freunde," in the Deutsche Rundschau, vol. Ixxxviii. (Berlin, 1896). CURTIUS, GJeoeg (1820-85). An eminent German comparative philologist. He was the brother of Ernst Curtius, and was born at Lii- beck. He studied at the imiversities of Bonn! and Berlin; in 1849 became professor extraor- dinarius, and in 1851 full professor of phil- ology in Prague. In 1854 he was called to Kiel and in 1862 to Leipzig, where he remained. Cur- tius was the teacher of many of the most emi- nent comparative philologists of the present day. His most important works are his Griechische Schulgrammatik (1852; many editions since); Grundziige der griechischen Etymologic (5th ed. 1879) ; Das Verhum der griechischen Sprache (2d ed. 1877-80). In his Studirn zur griechi- schen iind lateinischen Grammatik (1868-78), he published not only his own studies, but those of his pupils and others. In 1878, with Lange, Lipsius. and Ribbeck, he founded the Leipzigcr Studien zur klassischen Philologie. CURTIUS, kflr'shi-us, Metxus. In Roman legend, the leader of the Sabines who occu- pied the Capitoline Hill, in the battle with the Romans of the Palatine, during the reign of Romulus. To escape death he plunged with his horse into a morass, from which he extricated himself with difficulty, and the morass was thenceforth called Lacus Curtius. CURTIUS, Q^^^•Tu.s (Quintus Cuktius Rlt- FUs). A Roman historian. He was the author of the work Dc Rehus Gestis Alcvandri Magni, in ten bookSj of which the first two have been lost, and the text of the remainder has come down to us in a damaged condition. Great differences of opinion have existed with regard to the time in which Curtius wrote. Some critics have supposed that Curtius lived in the reign of Augustus; others that he wrote in the second century, or under Constantine or Theodo- sius ; but the most probable opinion is that he flourished in the time of Claudius. The value of the work is as dubious as its author- ship. Curtius had a very inaccurate knowledge of geography, chronology, military tactics, astronomy, and historic criticism; hence his work is far from being reliable as a whole. The style, though declamatory, is in general pure and elegant. The first edition of Cur- tius's history was published at Venice about 1471. Jlodern editions are bv Vogel (Leipziar, 1884), and Dosson (Paris, 1887). It is trans- lated into English by Crosbj' (New York and London. 1858). CURTIUS, koor'tse-oos. TnEODOR (1857—). A German chemist. He studied at several Ger- man universities, and after the publication of a series of original researches, became professor of chemistry at Kiel in 1889; in 1897 he went to
