140 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



company with his father, who was an ardent collector of plants, and 

 with Dr. Schnecker, who afterwards married his eldest sister. He 

 paid two other visits to the Hartz, while yet a student, under the 

 charge of Schnecker, who also introduced him to the well-known 

 chemist and mineralogist Von Beroldingen, his intimacy with whom 

 gave a fresh impulse to his studies in the direction of chemistry. In 

 1782 he lost his father, and in 1786 he entered the University of 

 Gottingen, where he devoted himself seriously to the study of medi- 

 cine, but not without frequent deviations towards the natural sciences, 

 his early attachment to which was greatly strengthened by his at- 

 tendance on the lectures of the celebrated Blumenbach. His first 

 published work was a Prize Essay, entitled "Commentatio de Analysi 

 Urinse et Origine Calculi," 1 788, 4to ; which was followed two years 

 afterwards by his Inaugural Dissertation on taking the degree of 

 M.D., " Florae Goettingensis Specimen, sistens Vegetabilia saxo cal- 

 careo propria," 1790, Svo. In the last-named year appeared also his 

 first work of any extent, ' Versuch einer Anleitung zur geologischen 

 Kentniss der Mineralien,' Goettingen, 1790, Svo. As the time for 

 his quitting the University approached, he received an invitation from 

 one of the towns of Southern Germany to settle there as a physician ; 

 but his nomination in 1792 to the Chair of Natural History and 

 Chemistry in the University of Rostock determined the bent of his 

 future life, and attached him thenceforward entirely to natural 

 science. In the following year he married the sister of Professor 

 Josephi of the same University, and here, in the comparative retire- 

 ment of a small town and among a limited circle of scientific and 

 literary friends, he passed nearly twenty years of his active and use- 

 ful life. His next publications were, ' Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte,' 

 Rost. and Leipz. Svo, 1794-1804 ; ' Beitrage zur Physik und Chemie,* 

 Rost. andLeipz. Svo. 1795-1797; ' Grundriss der Physik,' Hamburg, 

 1798; and 'Philosophise Botanicae Novae, seu Institutionum Phy- 

 tographicarum, Prodromus,' Gottingse, Svo, 1798. In 1797 the 

 Grand-Duke of Mecklenburg gave him leave of absence for two years 

 to accompany Count J. C. Von Hoffmansegg in a journey through 

 Portugal, the botanical results of which were published in the ' Flore 

 Portugaise,' Berlin, fol. vol. i. 1809, vol. ii. 1820, one of the most 

 splendidly illustrated botanical works that had then appeared. He 

 also gave a narrative of his journey under the title of ' Bemerkungen 

 auf einer Reise durch Frankreich, Spanien und vorziiglich Portugal,' 

 Kiel, 1801, Svo, two parts, to which a third was added in 1804 from 

 the communications of his friend and fellow-traveller ; and his 

 geognostic and mineralogical observations formed the subject of a 



