BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 121 
store. No, nothing would do but we must needs sift ashes and procure 
quicklime,—the consequence of which was that the lecture hour (11 
o'clock) passed away.  Mishaps of this sort were of frequent occur- 
rence, in which his auditors and my spectators were obliged to amuse 
themselves, as well as they might, with whatever sights were in the im- 
mediate vicinity of the laboratory, the professor in the meanwhile exer- 
cising, and the experimenter demanding, all manner of patience. Two 
racoons which the Aulie-Counsellor Schöpf had brought from America, 
and were kept within a grating in a back-yard, afforded great amusement 
to the students on such occasions. Most of these carried with them a 
sort of bludgeon in those days, called a “ Ziegenhainer" (a cant term), 
even when attending lectures. If the beast perchance stretched out a 
paw, it was sure to be saluted with a blow, when the professor, attracted 
by the roaring of the animal, would approach in breathless haste and 
desire that the “poor little animal might not be intruded upon.” 
Although he had agreed to give me weekly notice of all the apparatus 
and experiments required for the next eight days, I could never make 
him adhere to this arrangement, However, I gained one point, which 
was, to be put in exclusive possession of the laboratory, which he, ac- 
cordingly, had but seldom to visit,—a state of things seemingly not a 
little agreeable to himself; for coals and fire were not among his 
favourites, besides which the short working-frock became very ill his 
tall and emaciated form, and was his peculiar aversion. Both of us 
endeayoured as much as possible to accommodate ourselves to the ex- 
isting state of the chemical science, and succeeded in bringing the 
principal phenomena in the doctrines of Priestley, Scheele, and Lavoisier 
before the students during the annual course. Nor were we deficient 
in the more practical kinds of experiments, although we sometimes 
failed, when they were dictated by some one-sided theory. For in- 
stance, I was to make glass out of the dried common brake, Péeris 
aquilina. The ashes were exposed, in a crucible, to the intense heat 
of a blast-furnace, which served to cake them together in a slight de- 
gree; but, as to glass, none was produced, so that the art of Neri 
gained no addition from our experiments. I was desired once to treat 
a sick dormouse with oxygen gas, which, in those days, was promising 
wonders in the curative art, from its influence on animal life. Unfor- 
tunately, the true panacea had not been administered to the “ poor little - 
creature," which, accordingly, went the way of all flesh. i 
YOL, II. R 
