692 FOUNDINCI OF THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY. 



motiiij;' tlie general spread of new diseoveries, and especially in com- 

 pelling tln> esteem of (lovernnient circles. The circumstance that 

 Frederick William III himself ai)peared at a social reunion of the 

 scientists was an evidence of telling success. 



Humboldt was at that period busily urging the erection of a new 

 observatory nt Berlin. The old tower in Dorotheenstrasse, which had 

 long served for astronomical observations, was inadequate for the 

 subtler problems of science, now that astronomy had aims beyond the 

 computation of the calendar. Frederick William Til, who had had the 

 new observatory at Konigsberg built in days of most grievous distress, 

 and had been made cognizant by Bessel of the importance of the celes- 

 tial science, yielded to the solicitations of his experienced counselor. 

 He granted funds for more perfect instruments, and soon afterwards for 

 the building of the new observatory. 



Tliis grant inaugurated the new period of royal activity, which since 

 then has made addition after addition to the scientific institutes at the 

 ca])ital. Some institutions of the kind had existed before. The need of 

 a better corps for the medical care of soldiers had led to the establish- 

 ment of an anatomical amphitheater in 1713; the Academy of Sciences 

 had fitted up a chemical laboratory in its house on Dorotheenstrasse 

 under Frederick the Great; the flower and vegetable gardens laid out 

 in Dutch fashion by the Great Elector had gradually developed into the 

 Botanical Gardens, so meanly furnished, to be sure, that Frederick 

 William 111 had to be at great expense to remodel them comi^letely in 

 1801. 



On all sides the conviction was evidently taking root that the natural 

 sciences can be understood only by the observation of nature herself, 

 and that the effective combination of science and tangible objects 

 requires provisions on a large scale, such as can be afforded by museums, 

 collections, laboratories, institutes. This conviction became particularly 

 strong when it was realized that experimentation is the most important 

 means of forcing nature to reveal the essence, causes, and development 

 of a phenomenon. From the closet of the philosophers no valid expla- 

 nation of the facts of nature had proceeded. Since belief in magic 

 formulas survived only in the lowest strata of the people, tlie formulas 

 of "nature philosophers" found as little contidence. 



Frederick William III and his ministers, to a great extent from finan- 

 cial reasons, confined their assistance in the transformation of scu'utific 

 institutes to individual cases and to the sporadic betterment of the 

 worst abuses. A definite attitude, assumed under the guidance of fixed 

 principles, was never reached. Also, Frederick William IV gave more 

 attention to the art academies than to the scientific institutions, and it 

 was only a chain of fortunate circumstances that brought about in 185G, 

 the latter ])art of his reign, the erection of the new Pathologic Institute, 

 the first of its kind in the world. 



Luckily it was not long before similar institutions for other branches 



