History of Forest Ecology 405 



His most famous contemporaries were Cotta, Hundeshagen, 

 Koenig, Pfeil and K. Heyer. 



Due to this change in personnel more than to any other cause, 

 forestry began to break away from a merely empirical basis and to 

 seek a firmer foundation in the fundamental sciences. Mathe- 

 matics assisted in the development of such fields as forest mensura- 

 tion and forest valuation. The various branches of biology, such 

 as forest botany, plant anatomy and plant physiology, pathology, 

 zoology, and entomology helped to lift forestry out of the shackles 

 of empiricism and to make a scientific treatment of the forest 

 possible. Physics, chemistry and biology put our knowledge of 

 the soil upon a scientific basis and thereby revolutionized many 

 silvicultural practices. In fact, the whole field of forestry experi- 

 enced a great renaissance; forestry was remodeled, as it were, 

 according to modern standards. Thus was born the science of 

 forest ecology (called by modern German foresters. Die Lehre vom 

 forstlichen Verhalten der Waldbdume.) 



The founder of the science of silvics or forest ecology was a French 

 scholar, Duhamel du Monceau. With a great knowledge of botany 

 at his command, Duhamel made many valuable observations and 

 investigations, which like all his work had under consideration the 

 application of scientific results to practical work. Especially 

 famous are his attainments in the field of plant anatomy which he 

 published in his master- work Physique des arbres in 1758. Du- 

 hamel also made exact investigations on silvicultural questions 

 and developed some excellent views. His works are a rich store- 

 house of material for forest historians. His works upon forestry 

 and forest botany have been translated into German. Out of 

 these works the Cameralists obtained a large part of their knowl- 

 edge of forest botany. 



Enderlin was the first German forester who possessed a good 

 schooling in the natural sciences. He built upon the foundations 

 laid by Duhamel but he likewise made use of a considerable 

 amount of botanical literatu're. Enderlin worked especially in 

 the field of plant anatomy and plant physiology, but unfortunately 

 omitted to perform the necessary experiments to give his work 

 permanent value. In 1767, he published a book upon The nature 

 and characteristics of forest trees and their soil together with their 

 nourishment and the causes of growth, which contained little more 

 than ingenious speculations. 



Among German botanists of the eighteenth century, Gleditsch 



