THE BREACH BETWEEN LOEW AND SCHINER 
163 
accusation, and took his revenge in vowing against him an intense 
hatred, the trace of which in literature will remain a blot on his 
memory! 
Schiner took Loew’s conduct deeply, perhaps too much, to heart, 
as it seems to have affected him during the rest of his life. In 
1868, he sold his collection to the Imperial Museum in Vienna. 
He wrote me (May 7, 1868) (translation): — 
“ What I shall begin now, I do not know. I have devoted twenty years 
of my life to the dear Diptera, and sacrificed for their sake everything an 
honest inquirer can sacrifice, and have reaped the greatest ingratitude. 
Will it not be better for me to remain silent in future, and to enjoy nature 
and its secrets merely sub camera ? I am weary, not from the work of 
research, but weary of all the struggle, and the attacks that after all had 
no other aim than whether A or B should have the supremacy ! Had not 
some good and faithful friends, like Winnertz, Haliday, and yourself, rny 
dear Sir, sent me from time to time an encouraging message, I should have 
desisted long ago from any further publication.” 
Loew wrote me (December 22, 1868): “Schiner sold his collec¬ 
tion to the Imperial Museum of Vienna for 2000 florins. At pres¬ 
ent he is said to be occupied with spiders.” Schiner died on July 
7, 1873. Loew wrote to me (July 17, 1873) in the following terms: 
“ You may have heard that Schiner died after a prolonged state of 
great suffering. I regret this new loss of a worker in dipterology 
which is so much in need of such, and I deeply deplore that so 
few new recruits are forthcoming.” There is a story of a German 
professor of great ability, who published a crushing criticism of a 
contemporary publication. It so happened that the author of it 
died very soon afterwards. Upon which the Professor observed, 
with great composure : “ Das habe ich nicht gewollt! ” ( That was 
not what I intended !) Loew seems to have felt like making a 
similar remark, upon hearing of the death of poor Schiner. 
Schiner’s merit as a popularizer cannot be appreciated enough; in 
his time he was the good genius of dipterology; without him this 
science, as it stood in 1860, would have very likely undergone, as 
to propagation among the public, a period of standstill. His self- 
denial, his perseverance, reserve, and conscientiousness deserve 
the highest praise. Nevertheless, for some, to me, inexplicable 
