Writings of the late Professor Blumenhach, 7 



of commemorating the services of deceased members, and of 

 preparing introductions to our printed volumes. We are all 

 witnesses of the zeal and kindness with which he performed 

 these honourable duties. As he regarded the age of eighty-four 

 as the usual limit of human life, it may be considered as one of 

 the remarkable facts connected with his life, that he reached the 

 age of eighty-eight before he expressed the wish to be re- 

 lieved of his high office. 



There are other official situations to be noticed which 

 brought him into varied communication with others, and into 

 official contact with his colleagues and the authorities, viz. the 

 position he held in relation to the faculty, the library, and the 

 public collections of natural history. Of these different 

 spheres of usefulness it may be said that in them he gave 

 universal satisfaction ; and that in each of them he displayed 

 his knowledge, his experience, his affability, and kindly feel- 

 ings. As member of the faculty for bestowing honours, he 

 was distinguished for the conscientiousness of his decisions, by 

 the originality of the prize questions he suggested, and by his 

 mild but suitable mode of examination. He neither did too 

 much nor too little. During his deanship in the year 1818, he 

 made seventy-six doctors, the greatest number since the foun- 

 dation of the university. He still performed the duties of that 

 office, with nil its obligations, in the year 1835. His jubilee 

 as professor was celebrated on the 26th February 1826. Blu- 

 menbach himself regarded it as a singular circumstance that, 

 in the sixtieth year of his age, he was the senior, not only of 

 the medical faculty, but of the whole university senate. As 

 member of the library-commission, he was always ready to 

 give his advice, as well as influence, for the improvement of 

 an institution so dear to him. In his capacity as director of 

 the Academic Museum, he placed it in proper order,* and 

 superintended the arrangement till he reached a very advanced 

 period of life. His name was the cause of many donations 

 being sent to it from far and near.f 



* Gcitt. Gel. Anz. 1770 ; No. 122, p. 986. 



t See Blumenbach'8 " Nachrichtcn vom Ahademisclien Mhseum" in tke 

 Annahn dcr Braiimchiv. Liincb. Churlande, 1st year, 1787^ No. 3^ jp. &-4->&9) 

 aad 2d ycai-, 1788, No. 2, p. 25-35, . . > 



