33* 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



CARL LUDWIG AND CARL THIERSCH.* 



By Prof. WILHELM HIS. 



GENTLEMEN : Our medical faculty, as well as the whole Uni- 

 versity of Leipsic, were plunged in deep sorrow at the begin- 

 ning of the term. In the course of a few days we lost Carl Ludwig 

 and Carl Thiersch, two members of our academic association who for 

 years past have been accounted among its ablest supporters. The 

 death of these two eminent men brings to its close a period prosperous 

 and brilliant for our faculty, during which a circle of talented and 

 congenial companions worked harmoniously together. One after 

 another during the past eleven years has left us — Radius, Cohnheim, 

 Wagner, Coccius, and Braune — the younger men in some cases before 



the older; and now two have fol- 

 lowed whom we have always held 

 in the highest honor, and with- 

 out whom we could never have 

 imagined our faculty as existing. 

 An academic memorial service 

 on such an occasion needs no 

 further justification. 



In the life of our universities, 

 in spite of all seemingly uninter- 

 rupted activity and the continual 

 substitution of failing powers by 

 new and vigorous ones, a de- 

 cided periodicity of development 

 makes itself felt. In the whole 

 university and in all the faculties, 

 periods of rest and retrogression 

 follow those of intellectual prog- 

 ress. External and internal con- 

 ditions combine in producing 

 this result, and it is not always 

 easy to understand the influences 

 at work. One fundamental condition, however, must necessarily be 

 fulfilled in order that a corporate body may flourish : the body must 

 have strong and clear-sighted leaders, who can direct its activity in 

 definite channels, and insure a unity of purpose in all the depart- 

 ments. 



Our faculty has had one of these leading spirits for several dec- 



Cael Ludwig, Professor of Physiology, Uni- 

 versity of Leipsic. Born, December 29, 

 1816 ; died, April 23, 1895. 



* Memorial Address. Translated by Ethel Bowditch. 



