SKETCH OF CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED EHRENBERG. 669 



important discoveries in his dissertation entitled " Silvee mycologiege 

 berolinenses " (1818), and in other essays. To the former he prefixed 

 the motto, which became, as it were, the key-note of all his later labors 

 and works : 



Der Welten Kleines auch ist wunderbar und gross, 

 Und aus dem Kleiiien bauen sich die Welten.' 



While still a student, the novelty and exactness of his observations 

 and researches, and the high order of his deductions, at once established 

 their author's reputation ; and many of the eminent scholars and pro- 

 fessors of the Prussian capital encouraged and aided the rising inves- 

 tigator, among them Lichtenstein, Alexander von Humboldt, Rudolphi, 

 Link, Klug, Von Schlechtendal, Adelbert von Chamisso, Carl Ritter, 

 Kunze, E. Mitscherlich, and others. After having passed the state 

 medical examinati9n, he was proposed for a professorship at the Uni- 

 versity of Konigsberg, and also by the Berlin Academy of Sciences as 

 a scientific attache to an archasological expedition to the Nile countries, 

 instituted by the Prussian General von Minutoli. He accepted the 

 latter offer, together with his friend Dr. Hemprich, of Berlin. The 

 expedition started from Alexandria in Egypt, in September, 1820, went 

 through the Cyrenaica to the oasis of Jupiter Ammon, back to Cairo ; 

 in 1821 to Fajum, the pyramids of Sakhara, to Dongola in Nubia ; in 

 1823 to the Sinai peninsula, to Syria, the Lebanon ranges, to Balbek 

 and return by the way of Tripoli to Damietta. These expeditions were 

 followed by others into Abyssinia, sailing down the Red Sea, stopping 

 at and making trips to Tor, Djedda, Mecca, the islands of Gumfude, 

 Ketumbul, Dalac, Farsan, etc. At Massauna the joint expedition came 

 to an untimely end by the death of Dr. Hemprich in 1823. Ehrenberg 

 then accomplished the plan of their mission alone. 



To wdiat hardships and dangers Ehrenberg was exposed for 3'ears 

 while traveling through and exploring arid deserts, amid hostile tribes 

 of marauding Arabs, during the prevalence of an epidemic of the 

 plague, and unprovided with any of the comforts and conveniences of 

 later expeditions, may be seen from the simple fact that the expedi- 

 tion lost seven of its members by death, and that of its scientific at- 

 taches Ehrenberg alone survived. He returned to Berlin in 1826, with 

 magnificent collections of botanical, zoological, and geological speci- 

 mens, embracing all departments of natural science, and an immense 

 number of microscopical preparations until then unknown, and which 

 remain for verification and ready inspection to this day. The extent 

 and importance of these rare collections may be estimated by the mere 

 statement that they included 46,000 botanical specimens, representing 

 3,000 species of plants ; about 34,000 specimens from the animal king- 

 dom, representing 4,000 species ; while no less comprehensive were the 



' The small too in the universe is wondrous and great, 

 And worlds are constituted out of that which is little. 



