218 ON THE KELATIOX OF THE 



moirs, correspoudouces, and biographies, and the deciphering of the 

 hieroglyphics and cuueiforiu iuscriptious ; add again to these the coutiu- 

 ually and rapidly augmenting catalogues oi minerals^ plants, and animals, 

 living and antediluvian, and there will be unfolded before our eyes a 

 mass of scientific material sufficient to make us giddy. In all these 

 sciences, researches are pushed forward constantly in proi^ortiou to the 

 improvement of our means of observation, and there is no perceptible 

 limit. The zoologist of the last century was generally satisfied with de- 

 scribing the teeth, fur, formation of the feet and other external charac- 

 teristics of an animal. The anatomist, on the other hand, described the 

 anatomy of man alone, as far as he could gain a knowledge of it by 

 means of the knife, the saw, the chisel, or, i)erhaps, of injections into 

 the tissues. The study of human anatomy was even then considered 

 au extremely extensive and difficult branch of science. To-day we are no 

 longer content with what is so-called descriptive liuman anatomy, which, 

 although incorrectly, is considered as exhausted, but comparatire anat- 

 omy, i. c, the anatomy of all animals, and miscroscopic anatomy, both 

 sciences of unlimited scope, have been added and absorb the interest of 

 the oi)server. 



The four elements of antiquity and of mediaeval alchemy have swelled 

 to sixty-four* in our modern chemistry ; the last three have been discov- 

 ered according to a method originating in our university, which leads us 

 to expect other similar discoveries. Not only, however, has the number 

 of the elements increased extraordinarilj', but the methods for producing 

 complex compounds have been so greatly improved, that what is so-called 

 onianic chemistry, which cominises only the combinations of carbon with 

 hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and a few other elements, has already be- 

 come a separate science. 



" As many as the stars in heaven," used to be the natural expression 

 for a number which exceeds all limits of our comprehension. Pliny 

 considered it an undertaking bordering on arrogance when Hipparchus 

 comnu^nced to number the stars and determine their positions. Never- 

 theless, the catalogues of stars up to the seventeenth century, which 

 were made out without the use of telescopes, contained only from 1,000 

 to 1,500 stars of the first to the third magnitude. At i)resent they are 

 engaged at the different observatories in extending these catalogues 

 down to the tenth magnitude, which will make a sum total of more than 

 200,000 fixed stars in the whole heavens; and these are all to be noted 

 down, measured, and their places determined. The immediate conse- 

 quence of these observations has been the discovery of many new planets. 

 Of these only six were known in 1781, while at present we know seventy- 

 five.t When we pass in review^ this gigantic activity in all branches of 



* With Indium, recently discovered, sixty-live. 



t lu the latter jiart of November, 18()4, the eighty-second of tlie asteroids, Alcineue, 

 ■was discovered. Add to this the eight large planets, and the whole number of jiluuets 

 known will amount to ninety. [1871, I'JO.] • 



