154 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



allotted a room in the roof which, although otherwise un- 

 attractive, afforded him the opportunity of carrying on his 

 scientific studies in his scanty leisure. Here, for instance, 

 he mastered the Latin Anatomy of Bartholinus. It became 

 more and more imperative however that he should face his 

 position. He left the school (having risen to the upper 

 second form) and wished to go to sea. 



In the meantime Purkynje had been called to Prague. 

 He remembered his son's friend and wrote suggesting that 

 Sachs should come to him as a kind of private assistant. 

 He was to prepare natural science drawings and in return 

 to receive the modest salary of ioo florins a year and his 

 keep. 



After numerous difficulties with his guardians, Sachs 

 left Breslau on 14th February, 185 1, for Prague. He found 

 there shelter, it is true, but no home. Purkynje was 

 a man of high attainments, for whose genius Sachs had 

 great respect. But their peculiar temperaments made it 

 impossible for them to understand each other, and the elder 

 naturalist had no word of recognition, sympathy or en- 

 couragement for the younger. He was of peasant origin 

 and this stuck to him all his life. Sachs, on the other hand, 

 felt himself — as he said with reason, in spite of the reduced 

 circumstances of his family— to be a born aristocrat, and 

 so there could not fail to be friction between them. 



Whilst Sachs was at Prague, the question arose whether 

 he should remain simply an illustrator of scientific writings 

 or should carry on his studies further. Fortunately he 

 decided upon the latter course, and despite the time that 

 had elapsed since he left school, successfully passed his 

 matriculations at Prague in the autumn of 1851 with a view 

 to entering that university. 



The young student was already too independent and 

 critical to be an ardent frequenter of the lecture room, where 

 it would have required a man of exceptional ability to have 

 secured his attendance, and it was evident that there were 

 at that time but very few such men at the University of 

 Prague. Botany was represented by Kosteletzky, who was 

 lecturing upon Schleiden's works. Sachs attended two or 



