LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. ci 
individual to perform satisfactorily, and of which, at any rate, he 
lived to complete but a small part in three volumes. He had also 
been associated with M. Brongniart and other naturalists in an 
‘Account of the Natural History of the Voyage of the ‘ Vénus,’ 
under the command of Dupetit Thouars. 
Friedrich Tiedemann, one of the oldest and most illustrious of 
European anatomists and physiologists, was born at Cassel, on the 
23rd of August, 1781. 
His father was a literary man of considerable eminence, who at 
that time occupied the post of tutor in the Carolinian College, and, 
when his son was five years old, was appointed to the chair of Phi- 
losophy in the University of Marburg. Under his father’s teaching, 
Tiedemann’s education rapidly advanced, and he acquired more par- 
ticularly an excellent knowledge of the classical languages, which he 
retained, and from which he derived vivid enjoyment, throughout his 
life. 
He very soon, however, exhibited a strong taste for natural-his- 
tory studies, in which he was much encouraged by Dr. Ménch, the 
Professor of Botany and Chemistry. At a very early period of his 
life he began to dissect small animals ; and he was often in the habit 
of relating the joy he experienced, when eight years old, on discover- 
ing the relations of the esophagus and trachea to the stomach and 
lungs respectively. This taste continuing to animate him as years 
went on, he had, at 15, made a considerable collection of the skulls 
and skeletons of animals; and at the end of his preliminary studies 
he devoted himself finally to zoology and medicine. Of these 
sciences, however, there were at that time no efficient teachers in 
Marburg, and Tiedemann was driven to depend upon books and his 
own researches for all the knowledge he could there acquire. But 
in 1802 he proceeded to Bamberg, in order to study Medicine more 
methodically under Professor Marcus, and afterwards to Wirzburg, 
where he attended the practice of Thomann and Casper v. Siebold in 
the Julius Hospital. 
Returning to Marburg in the spring of 1803, he had the misfortune 
to lose his father; and it would appear that the disappointment he 
experienced on finding that his professional cares were all in vain in 
his father’s case caused him to take a distaste to the practice of 
medicine, and consequently to devote himself exclusively to the 
pursuit of zoology and physiology. 
In the same year, at the instigation of Professor Brihl, he began 
to give private instruction in anatomy, physiology, and zoology to 
