OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 237 



heard of the discoveries of Galvani, with which he made himself 

 familiar ; went to Italy and Switzerland, where he became acquainted 

 with the then celebrated Professors Jurine and Pictet, and with the 

 illustrious Scarpa. He also went to Jena, formed an intimate acquaint- 

 ance with Schiller and Goethe, and also with Loder, with whom he 

 studied Anatomy. From that time he began to make investigations of 

 his own, and these investigations were in a line which he has seldom 

 approached since, being experiments in Physiology. He turned his 

 attention to the newly discovered power, by which he tested the activ- 

 ity of organic substances ; and it is plain, ft-om his manner of treating 

 the subject, that he leaned to the idea that the chemical process going 

 on in the living body of animals furnished a clew to the phenomena of 

 life, if it was not life itself. This may be inferred from the title of the 

 book published in 1797, — Ueber die gereizte Muskel- und Nerven-faser, 

 mit Vermuthtmgen iiber den chemise/ten Process des Lehens, in Thieren 

 und Pfianzen. In these explanations of the phenomena we have the 

 sources of the first impulses in a direction which has been so beneficial 

 in advancing the true explanation of the secondary phenomena of life ; 

 but which, at the same time, in its exaggeration as it prevails now, has 

 degenerated into the materialism of modern investigators. In that 

 period of all-embracing activity, he began to study Astronomy. His 

 attention was called to it by Baron von Zach, who was a prominent 

 astronomer, and at that time Avas actively engaged upon astronomical 

 investigations in Germany. He showed Humboldt to what extent 

 Astronomy would be useful for him, in his travels, in determining the 

 position of places, the altitude of mountains, &c. 



" So prepared, Humboldt now broods over his plans of foreign travel. 

 He has published his work on the Muscular and Nervous Fibres at the 

 age of twenty-eight. He has lost his mother ; and his mind is now 

 inflamed with an ungovernable passion for the sight of foreign, and 

 especially tropical lands. He goes to Paris to make preparation by 

 securing the best astronomical, meteorological, and surveying instru- 

 ments. Evidently he does not care where he shall go, for on a propo- 

 sition of Lord Bristol to visit Egypt, he agrees to it. The war prevents 

 the execution of this plan, and he enters into negotiations to accompany 

 the projected expedition of Captain Baudin to Australia; but when 

 Bonaparte, bent on the conquest of Egypt, started with a scientific 

 expedition, Humboldt wishes to join it. He expects to be one of the 

 scientific party, and to reach Egypt by way of Barbary. But all these 



