SKETCH OF JACOB MOLESCHOTT. 399. 



SKETCH OF JACOB MOLESCHOTT. 



By Prof. E. P. EVANS. 



THE distinguislied physiologist, Jacob Moleschott, was born 

 August 9, 1822, in Hertogenbusli,* the capital city and chief 

 commercial and industrial center of North Brabant in Holland. 

 His father was a physician of some note, and his paternal grand- 

 father a reputable apothecary ; on his mother's side he was the 

 grandchild of the celebrated Dr. Van der Monde. His mother 

 was a woman of superior culture and refinement, and she and her 

 more sedate and scientific husband devoted themselves with con- 

 scientious care and excellent discretion to the early education of 

 their child. 



The Moleschotts were originally Catholics. In 1797 the grand- 

 father's dwelling, together with his large apothecary shop and 

 storehouse, which contained a hundred thousand florins' worth 

 of Peruvian bark and other medicaments of great value, was' 

 burned to the ground, thus reducing him at once from a state of 

 afiluence to extreme poverty. Not one of the many priests, who 

 had constantly enjoyed his generous hospitality, lifted a finger to 

 help him in his distress. A few prominent Protestant citizens 

 came to his aid, and by their timely efforts enabled him to resume 

 his business, which he carried on with such success as partially to 

 retrieve his fortune, so that when he died in 1838 he was a com- 

 paratively wealthy man. The unsympathetic conduct of his co- 

 religionists made a deep impression upon him as well as upon his 

 son, who was then a child, and instead of pursuing his studies at 

 the Catholic seminary at Warmond, he entered the University of 

 Leyden, to which he was especially attracted by the eminent hu- 

 manist, Prof. Daniel Wyttenbach, a man as conspicuous for learn- 

 ing as for breadth and freedom of thought. The influence ex- 

 erted by this liberal thinker and scholar was wholesome and 

 permanent, and decisive in determining the future intellectual 

 character of the Moleschott family. 



In his fifteenth year Jacob Moleschott was sent to the Prus- 

 sian gymnasium at Cleves, not far from the Netherlands frontier, 

 where he remained five years. He was then matriculated as a 

 student of medicine and natural science in the University of 

 Heidelberg. 



At the solicitation of Nagele, Moleschott prepared a disserta- 

 tion on a pathological problem which had been already discussed 

 by the professor, but which could be definitely solved only by the 



* ['S Hertogenbosch (the Duke's Bush) was originally a hunting seat of the Dukes of 

 Brabant ; hence the nanae.] 



