JULIUS SACHS. 153 



the practical knowledge of plants was wholly distasteful to 

 him, as the following remark in one of his letters shows. 

 "I strongly disapprove of the so-called 'physiologists,' to 

 whom the commonest meadow and garden flowers are un- 

 known, especially as such people generally have but little 

 knowledge of physics." And if he complained many a time 

 in joke of the foolishly unnecessary and tedious multiplication 

 of phanerogamic varieties he was far from undervaluing the 

 knowledge and study of them. Indeed we shall come across 

 instances of the keen interest in the common problems of 

 systematic botany which constantly appears in his writings. 



It was his mother who conceived the thought of allowing 

 him to attend the gymnasium, a privilege accorded to none 

 of his brothers, for this considering the family poverty 

 involved no slight risk. 



The years he spent at the Elizabeth Gymnasium formed 

 a bright picture in Sachs' life. The school work was con- 

 genial to him, it lifted him out of the petty surroundings 

 of his home-life into a higher sphere. He attended the 

 gymnasium from 1845 to 1850. Of the masters only one 

 — Dr. Rumpelt — came at all into personal contact with 

 him. He recognised Sachs' exceptional talents and the 

 two became good friends. On the other hand the natural 

 science master, the lichenologist Korber, only repelled him. 

 Korber could not instruct and had no conception how to 

 impart anything worth knowing about his subject. Sachs 

 therefore worked on at his scientific pursuits unaided and 

 undirected. He read eagerly, without its doing him any 

 harm, Oken's Philosophy of Nature which he had bought 

 at a sale for a few pence, began to make a collection of 

 skulls, and wrote a monograph on the crayfish. Korber's 

 attention was drawn to this work by Dr. Rumpelt ; he sent 

 for Sachs and solemnly warned him against devoting him- 

 self to natural science, on the ground that it would not bring 

 him in a half-penny ! One cannot but rejoice that this 

 advice was not acted upon. 



In the year 1848 Sachs lost his father, and, in the 

 following year, his mother. Thus orphaned, he lived at 

 first with his brother, where, to his great joy, he was 



