1850 TO 1865 303 



jovial and kind. Very few men can laugh more heartily. One of his 

 great beauties is his thoughtfulness for his pupils, he is always trying 

 to find out something which may interest or help them. He was once 

 in my room and saw a canary bird. When I returned from a journey 

 afterwards, he asked if that bird had not starved in my absence. His 

 quickness of perception in matters chemical and his memory are 

 won'derful. I was amused at him this afternoon. We had an award of 

 prizes for essays in Theology, Law, Medicine, and Philosophy. The 

 professors came to the academical hall (Aula) in full costume, with 

 black velvet gowns trimmed with purple and scarlet and flat tile caps. 

 I saw Wohler puckering up his mouth and looking as if he wanted to 

 say "What a humbug." At last when he came in sight of me he 

 laughed in the most comical way. I think he is unquestionably the 

 most useful chemist in the world. He is sacrificing his fame to his use- 

 fulness. He says he furnishes subjects and his pupils get the credit of 

 them, and it is literally true. Haussman is a fine old man. A digni- 

 fied impressive man with large features and a calm steady light in his 

 eye which tells of the broad thinker. He is the best lecturer I ever 

 heard except Knight of New Haven. In his treatment of geology he 

 is microscopically minute and systematic, a most endless division and 

 sub-division. He has been lecturing 6 times a week on Petrography 

 for six weeks and is not near through yet. His distinctions and divi- 

 sions are drawn with almost mathematical exactness, and if he is at 

 times prolix, he is never obscure. The old man has a spice of vanity 

 about him, and talks a good deal about "Meine Methode." He likes 

 very much to tell as good jokes the mistakes which distinguished 

 geologists have made in regard to rocks and strata. He is very kind 

 and affable and takes a good deal of trouble to serve young men. Of 

 old Gauss, I know nothing but what I see. He is what we call at home 

 a rum-looking old fellow. I see him very often in the reading room. 

 He is very fond of newspapers. He comes into the room, takes an old 

 comical velvet cap out of his pocket, puts it on his head, hunts up all 

 the newspapers he wants till he has an armful, and then carries them 

 off to digest at his leisure. He is thought here to be a more agreeable 

 man than Humboldt. He speaks English very well and is said to be a 

 fineRussian scholar, having taken up that language in his old age as a 

 relaxation! Weber, the great physicist, is a little slender timid looking 

 man who goes about like a paralytic grasshopper. His body is utterly 



