4 Biographical Mevioir of the late Friedrich Hoffmann. 



cial authorities who had taken refuge in Dijon. Soon after his 

 arrival in Paris, the father requested the discharge of his son 

 from military service, -which was willingly granted, as the war 

 seemed to be ended. Friedrich Hoffmann remained two months 

 with his father in Paris in the enjoyment of manifold instruc- 

 tive and exciting relations, and then hastened back to Berlin to 

 continue his interrupted studies. 



As a student of the first class, but not yet nearly prepared 

 for the University, he had quitted the Gymnasium in May 

 1813 ; but no doubt existed in the minds of his father and 

 teachers that he could not again return to it. The events of the 

 thirteen months that had since passed over his head, had tended 

 so much to the development of his mental faculties, that he had 

 completely outgrown the forms of instruction belonging to a 

 school. The want of a complete Gymnasial education was 

 therefore first of all supplied by private instruction, until there 

 was evidence of his fitness for entering the university. In 

 autumn 1814, he was received as a medical student. The me- 

 dical department was selected, because it is most nearly con- 

 nected with the natural sciences, and because it offered the pos- 

 sibility of procuring a respectable situation in life, should no 

 opportunity occur of obtaining an appointment as a naturalist. 



The war, which recommenced after Napoleon''s return from 

 Elba in 1815, very soon interrupted Friedrich Hoffmann's 

 medical studies. He was appointed officer in a regiment of 

 the Landwehr^ which, however, only advanced as far as the 

 Weser, as the sudden and decisive termination of the hostilities 

 brought about by the battle of Waterloo, rendered its appear- 

 ance on the scene of war unnecessary. Hoffmann was thus 

 able to obtain permission to leave the service before the end of 

 June 1815, and now once more dedicated himself entirely to 

 his studies, which he prosecuted in Berlin until Easter 1818. 



At that time he formed a wish to spend a year at another 

 university, and Gottingen was the one he selected. However 

 accidental and slight might have been the causes in which this 

 wish originated* its fulfilment exercised a very important influ- 

 ence on the direction afterwards taken by Hoffmann's studies. 

 At an early period, botany was the science that attracted him 

 the most; as he advanced in his medical studies a preference 



