314 M. Pictet on the Writings of Goethe 



midwifery. He returned to Germany with a very decided 

 taste for these sciences, a taste which his abode at Weimar 

 still continued to cherish. Living much in the country in the 

 midst of a society of learned men, making frequent botanical 

 excursions, and availing himself of every opportunity of im- 

 proving and exercising his talent for observation, he made 

 himself acquainted with the principal phenomena of vegeta- 

 tion, and from this epoch is to be dated the origination of his 

 principal ideas of botanical organography. 



He describes himself afterwards as working at Jena with 

 ardour at the collections of comparative anatomy, the import- 

 ance of which for instruction was more and more felt ; the col- 

 lections of that city still contain several preparations from his 

 hands. By this means he acquired an exact and detailed 

 knowledge of animal forms, and laid up for himself important 

 materials for his subsequent labours. " I sawed," said he, 

 (i and cleaved bones and sculls in every direction, in order to 

 obtain foreseen or unforeseen lights on the structure of bones." 

 And indeed osteology was the department of zoology with 

 which afterwards he was principally occupied. At this period 

 he became the rival and friend of the anatomist Loder, and 

 from that time he hardly ever ceased working at comparative 

 anatomy, either to learn what had been done before him, or 

 to extend the boundaries of the science and suggest improved 

 methods. Fourteen memoirs or notices, composed from 1786 

 to 1832, bear witness to his continued interest for this study. 

 His memoirs, however, did not always meet with an encoura- 

 ging reception. Thus, when he had drawn up an account of 

 his discovery of the intermaxillary bone in man, he sent it to 

 Camper, who praised him for the composition, gave him ad- 

 vice about the drawings, but did not admit the results. Blu- 

 menbach also refused to admit its truth. In spite of the 

 formidable disapprobation of two of the most celebrated ana- 

 tomists of Germany, Goethe w r as not discouraged ; but it was 

 not till forty years afterwards that his ideas on the intermax- 

 illary bone were adopted by all naturalists. This is unfortu- 

 nately the history of most of the discoveries which swerve 

 from the track of generally received ideas. 



Goethe was very tenacious of his reputation as a naturalist, 



