JULIUS SACHS. 155 



three lectures and then stayed away ; the truth was that he 

 needed no teaching on this subject. He paid special 

 attention to chemistry, physics and mathematics. But the 

 only man who attracted and helped him on was Robert 

 Zimmermann, 1 who invited him to his house. " I went to 

 him with an inclination towards philosophy but he directed 

 me into the right way," Sachs says, speaking of Zimmer- 

 mann ; " he and any earlier teacher Rumpelt are the only 

 two who gave me any real help, apart from their aid I am 

 self-taught ". He read a good deal of philosophy after 

 he had become acquainted with Zimmermann,- — Herbart, 

 Leibnitz, Kant, Locke, Hume and even the Schoolmen. 

 At the same time he was privately working at zoology and 

 botany, and for several years paid special attention to 

 physics and mathematics. In 1856 he was made Doctor 

 of Philosophy, a degree which at that time was hard to 

 obtain at Prague. His outward circumstances, since he had 

 separated from Purkynje, remained precarious ; he earned 

 small sums by literary work, drawings of fossils, etc., and 

 at this time made his first experiments in the physiology 

 of plants. In 1857 he was made Privat-docent in Plant 

 Physiology. Up to that time this had not been a recognised 

 subject and there were various difficulties to overcome. 

 " Two lectures are ample for all there is to say upon the 

 physiology of plants " said Rochleder, the chemist, and at 

 that time he was not so very far wrong. 



Sachs, who later was certainly the best teacher that the 

 new botany has produced, was by no means a success as 

 Privat-docent. One reason of this may be that he took 

 but slight interest in the art .of teaching. He lived wholly 

 for science and was beyond measure studious, " it engrossed 

 my thoughts even when I was out walking," he says. This 

 being so, it came to him, according to his own account, 

 more or less as a revelation that what he had to do was not 

 only to acquire as much knowledge as possible but also to 

 produce some original work. From that time he only 



1 Robert A. Zimmermann, born at Prague, in 1824, studied philosophy, 

 mathematics and natural science, became Professor of Philosophy at Prague 

 in 1852 and since 1861 has held the same chair at Vienna. 



