640 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



having used the name of Leonhard Fnchs without authority. This 

 theory is very plausible, as the same printer issued anonymously in 

 1538, and again in 1539, a book, which deals also with the eye. The 

 title is as follows : Eyn Newes hochnutzlichs Buechlin/und Anothomi 

 eynes auffgethonen augs audi seiner/erklaerung bewerten purgation 

 Pflaster Colliri/en Siilblin puluern vnnd wassern w^ie/mans machen 

 ^'nd brauchen sol. Getruckt zur Strassburg durch Heinrichen/Vogt- 

 herren. Anno MDXXXIX. (Plate 3.) 



The Surgeon General's library has a copy each of the editions of 

 1538 and 1539, but unfortunately the former lacks the title-page. 

 The edition of 1539 has on the title-page, below the title, an illustra- 

 tion; "Anatomia oculi," which does not dilfer materially from that 

 reprinted in the so-called German edition by Leonhard Fuchs. 



I now^ resume the narrative of Fuchs' life. The time spent by him 

 at Ansbach, which lasted five years, or until 1533, was not entirely 

 consumed by his duties as court physician and by his general practice. 

 A born student, by temperament and habit a scholar, he here 

 laid the foundation of his career as medical writer and man of 

 science. As a complete bibliograph}^ of Fuchs has not yet been com- 

 piled, a want already expressed by Ernst H. F. Meyer,^ the historian 

 of botany, it is not an easy matter to harmonize the many contradic- 

 tory statements in regard to the dates and the number of his numerous 

 writings. Some authors attribute to him, as written in Ansbach, tliree 

 books, some four, and others even more. As I shall give a de- 

 scription of his writings later on, it is here sufficient to state that 

 they gained for him the reputation of a A^ery learned writer, who 

 possessed original ideas, and who had the courage of his convictions. 

 This caused the famous jurist and chancellor of the University 

 of Ingolstadt, Leonhard von Eck, to request Fuchs in 1533 to rejoin 

 the teaching staff of that university by tendering an assistant 

 professorship of medicine, which Fuchs accepted. I have already 

 stated that, while a student in Ingolstadt, Fuchs had familiarized 

 himself with the writings of Luther and had become a strict adherent 

 of his doctrines. In Ansbach, where the margrave and the court 

 were also followers of the new creed, Fuchs found mutual under- 

 standing and was accustomed to express his religious convictions 

 with candor and frankness. In Ingolstadt, however, conditions were 

 different, and especially in the university ; here Fuchs met very 

 strong opposition, particularly as he did not suppress his opinions. 

 Under these circumstances Fuchs' position at the university became 

 untenable, and in August of the same year he left Ingolstadt to 

 return to Ansbach at the invitation of the margrave. But as Ansbach 

 became infested with the plague, he accompanied the margrave to 



1 Meyer, Ernst II. F. Geschichte der Botanik. 4 Bde. Koenigsberg, Gebriider Born- 

 trager, 1854-57. 



