FRANCISCUS CORNELIUS DONDERS. 465 



Royul Society's catalogue gives seventy-seven titles for the years 

 18-J:7-187o. Subsequently twenty-live papers have appeared in the 

 Annalen alone, and about half as many others elsewhere. « 



But such work as that of Clausius is not measured by counting 

 titles or pages. His true monument lies not on the shelves of libra- 

 ries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one 

 science. 



FRANCISCUS CORNELIUS DONDERS. 



In assuming the honorable duty of preparing a biographical notice 

 of Professor Donders, the writer must acknowledge indebtedness, for 

 many details, to accounts of his life and work by his coadjutors and 

 friends, Moleschott, Snellen, Nuel, and Landolt, and to his own speech 

 at the festival in his honor on his seventieth birthday. 



Franciscus Cornelius Donders was born at Tilbury, in Holland, on 

 the 17th of May, 1818; the tenth child and only son of parents in 

 very moderate circumstances. His father's death occurred about a 

 year later. From his seventh to his thirteenth year he was at 

 school in Duizel, where he learned to write his own language, some- 

 thing of French, mathematics, and music. From eleven to thirteen 

 vears he served as submaster at the school, thus defraying his ex- 

 penses. His studies were continued at Liege, in pursuance of his 

 mother's wish that he should become a priest ; but this plan being 

 defeated by the occurrence of the Belgian revolution, he returned to 

 the French school at Tilbury. Becoming fond of study, he was sent 

 to Boxmeer, where he learned to write and speak Latin with great 

 fluency, and a little Greek, but where mathematics, for which he 

 seems to have had special aptitude, was neglected. At the age of 

 seventeen he entered the School of Military Medicine at Utrecht, 

 where he became enthusiastic in the experimental study of chem- 

 istry, the natural sciences, and physiology. After four years of 

 study, desiring to obtain his diploma, he applied for examination ; but 

 a technical objection being made by the Faculty, he was advised to 

 present himself at the University of Leyden. Here, through the 

 merits of his dissertation and an address in Latin in which he con- 

 vinced the Faculty that he was worthy to receive the degree of 

 Doctor, he made such an impression of his capacity that in three days 

 he returned to Utrecht as M. D. Of his " Dissertatio Inauguralis 

 sistens Observationes Anatomico-pathologicas," Professor Moleschott 

 says, " In this trial test I could well discern the future master." 



VOL. XXIV. (n. S. XVI.) 30 



