OTTO WILHELM HERMANN VON ABICH (1806-1886), German mineralogist and geologist, was born at Berlin on the 11th of December 1806, and educated at the university in that city. His earliest scientific work related to spinels and other minerals, and later he made special studies of fumaroles, of the mineral deposits around volcanic vents and of the structure of volcanoes. In 1842 he was appointed professor of mineralogy in the university of Dorpat, and henceforth gave attention to the geology and mineralogy of Russia. Residing for some time at Tiflis he investigated the geology of the Caucasus. Ultimately he retired to Vienna, where he died on the 1st of July 1886. The mineral Abichite was named after him.
Publications .- Vues illustratives de quelques phenomPnes geologiques, prises sur le Vesuve et l'Etna, pendant les annees 1833 et 1834 (Berlin, 1836); Ueber die Natur and den Zusammenhang der vulcanischen Bildungen (Brunswick, 1841); Geologische Forschungen in den Kaukasischen Lc ndern (3 vols., Vienna, 1878, 1882, and 1887).