ARNOLD GUYOT. 523 



tiful picture of his first scientific studies. He subsequently studied 

 theology for tliree years at Neufchatel and Berlin, at the latter place 

 attending the lectures of Neander, Ilengstenberg, and Schleiermacher. 

 His interest in scientific studies was increased by the Professors with 

 whom he now came in contact, and the peculiar opportunities he en- 

 joyed. Unwilling to enter upon the high duties of the Christian min- 

 istry with a divided mind, he turned aside from his theological course 

 and devoted himself to science, a field more congenial to his taste, 

 and, as he conscientiously believed, better adapted to his capacities. 



He passed five years in Berlin in scientific study, attending the 

 lectures upon physics, chemistry, meteorology, geology, mineralogy, 

 physical geography, botany, and zoology, from such men as Dove, 

 Erman, Mitscherlich, Weiss, Hoffman, Lichtenstein, Steffens, Ritter, 

 and others. Portraits of Ritter, Steffens, and Humboldt he always 

 kept upon the walls of his study, in memory of his student days. 

 Upon the especial recommendation of Humboldt, he was granted free 

 access to the Royal Botanical Gardens, and the chief gardener fur- 

 nished him weekly with hundreds of cut specimens of the rarest ex- 

 otics for his herbarium. To Steffens he owed much in philosophy, and 

 a letter of Ritter, which was unfortunately lost some years since, bore 

 testimony, not merely to the ability of the young student, but to the 

 scientific position and attainments of the physical geographer who was 

 second in this department of science only to Ritter himself. In 1835, 

 Mr. Guyot received his degree of Ph.D. from the University of Ber- 

 lin. He had spent five years in the family of Herr Miiller, the Privy 

 Councillor of Kinw Frederick "William IH. He now removed to 

 Paris and became the private instructor of the young sons of Count 

 de Pourtales. B}^ special arrangement, however, he continued his 

 scientific studies, and also devoted himself to history, under Michelet. 

 His summers were spent in scientific excursions in France, Belgium, 

 Holland, Italy, and Switzerland. 



As early as 1838 he discovered, and announced in a paper read be- 

 fore tlie Geological Society of France, most of the important laws 

 concerning the formation, nature, and motion of the glaciers. He first 

 discovered the laminated structure of the ice, and explained the blue 

 and white bands ; showed that the motion of the glacier is due to the 

 displacement of its molecules, which constitute its plasticity and ex- 

 plain its moulding, &c. These discoveries were subsequently illus- 

 trated and confirmed by the investigations of Agassiz and Forbes ; 

 while he, with characteristic modesty, remained silent, and did not 

 even publish his paper until 1883. In 1839, Mr. Guyot was ap- 



