SKETCH OF DR, PETERMANN. 231 



mation in our view of things, which, as I have said, is without a par- 

 allel in the history of thought, and which it has been the great, the in- 

 dividual glory of this age and nation to achieve. — Nineteenth Century. 



SKETCH OF DR. PETERMxV^^X. 



AUGUST HEINRICH PETERMANN, the world-renowned geog- 

 rapher, whose death under peculiarly painful circumstances was 

 announced a few weeks ago, was born April 18, 1822, at Bleicherode, a 

 small town in the Prussian province of Saxony. His parents destined 

 him for the ministry of the church, and to this end sent him at an early 

 ao-e to the gymnasium or college of Nordhausen, one of the principal 

 towns of his native province. Here he pursued the usual course of 

 study in preparation for the university ; but having in the mean time 

 evinced a special liking and aptitude for geographical research, and 

 especially for cartography, he abandoned the idea of entering the min- 

 istry, and gained admission to the Royal School of Geographical Art, 

 founded three years previously at Potsdam by the well-known geogra- 

 pher Heinricli. Berghaus, who was himself principal of the institution. 

 Here Petermann remained for six years, first as a student, later as 

 Berghaus's secretary and librarian, assisting him also in constructing 

 and designing his great " Physical Atlas." Through this association 

 with Berghaus, Petermann was brought into relations of friendship and 

 intimacy with many of the great travelers and savants of the time in 

 Germany, and in particular was so fortunate as to attract the favorable 

 notice of Alexander von Humboldt, who in 1841 employed him to draw 

 a map illustrating his great Avork, " Asie Centrale." 



In 1845, on the completion of Berghaus's " Physical Atlas," Peter- 

 mann went to Edinburgh, where for two years he assisted the late 

 Alexander Keith Johnston in adapting that work for the use of English 

 readers. From Edinburgh he went to London, whither the fame of his 

 meritorious services to the science of geography had preceded him.. 

 He was elected to the Royal Geographical Society, and became one of 

 its most active members. During the seven years which he passed in 

 the British metropolis he weekly contributed to the Athenceum notices; 

 of geographical progress, reviews of books, and the like. He also wrote 

 geographical articles for the " Encyclopcedia Britannica " and for the- 

 " English Cyclopoedia." In association with the Rev. Thomas Milner 

 he prepared a popular " Atlas of Physical Geography ; " he also pub- 

 lished many separate maps. He was in no mean degree instrumental 

 in promoting the Richardson-Bartli-Overweg expedition sent out in 

 1849 by the British Government to explore Central Africa. Richard- 

 son having died at Unguratua in the spring of 1851, Barth succeeded 

 to the leadership, and on liis return to England published in three vol- 



