178 MEMOIR OF C. E. P. VON MARTIUS. 



Aztec language in Xortheru Mexico."* The physical condition, dis- 

 eases, physicians, and remedies of the aborigines of Brazil.t On the 

 preparation of the arrow-poison Urari among the Jnri Indians on the 

 liio Yupura, in North Brazil.:): The creation of the Negro : a Brazilian 

 legeud.§ 



The time intervening between Professor Von Martins' retirement from 

 ofiicial dnties in 1854 and his death was to him no period of repose; || 

 on the contrary, having now more leisure at his command, he devoted 

 himself exclusively to scientific labors. Much of liis time was taken up 

 in editing the Flora BrasUiensis, and his position as secretary of the 

 Royal Bavarian Academy demanded his constant care and attention. 

 Only one year before his death, at the age of seventy-four, he puldished 

 the Beitnige, his most important contribution to American ethnology. 



He was one of those few whose merits are dnly acknowledged and 

 appreciated during their life-time. He maintained intimate relations 

 with many of the most distinguished men of our time, and most learned 

 societies of note counted him among their members. jSTumerous works 

 are dedicated to him ; his name is perpetuated in the scientific denomi- 

 nations of plants and animals; even a mountain in New Zealand, Mount 

 Martins, is called after him. Medals were struck in his honor, and 

 crowned heads manifested their esteem by decorating him with the 

 insignia of their orders. 



Martins enjoyed the full possession of his mental faculties to the last 

 moment of his life, and even his physical appearance betokened no con- 

 siderable degree of decline; it Avas only during the years immediately 

 preceding his death that his altered features and somewhat stooping 

 figure indicated the changes which advanced ago will produce upon the 

 strongest constitution. But the lively expression of his eye, his ani- 

 mated conversation, and the interest he took in everything that passed 

 around him, gave evidence of his unimpaired mental vigor. In the fall of 

 1808. being then in his seventy-fifth year, he made a journey to Berlin 

 and Dresden to visit his sou and his old friends. He returned in good 

 Health, and nothing intimated his approaching end. But shortly after- 

 ward, having been exposed to a severe storm, he was attacked by a febrile 

 ndispositiou, which, increasing, developed itself into inflamnmtion of 

 lie lungs. His strength sank rapidly, and on the 13th of December, 

 1808, after an illness of nine days, his earthh' career was closed by an 

 easy death. Fresh palm leaves decorated, significantly, the coffin in 

 which his mortal remains were conveyed to their last jilace of rest. 



* Ueher Buschmann^s Werk : Die Spnren tier Aztclcischen S])raelie im iwrdlichen Mexiko. 

 {Gel. An., 1860, Xos. 41-43.) 



t Das NaturcU, die ErankJtcHcn, das Arztilmm und die Heihnitfd der Uvheivohner Bra- 

 silieiis. {Biichiicrs liqwrtorimn dvr I'Jiannacic, vol. 33, p. 289, &c.) 



t Ueher die Bereitung des rfeihiiftes Urari hex den Iiidiaiterii Juris am Bio Yupura in Xord- 

 hrasilien. (Bucliner's Bep. d. Bkarm., vol. 33, 1830, p. 337, &c.) 



§ Die Erscliaffung des Negcrs, eine Brasilianische Volks-Sage. (Augshurger Allgem. Zeit., 

 18:39.) 



II "Der Euliestand warfiir ihn kcin Stand der Bulie." — Meissuer's Denksclirift, p. 24. 



