LEONHARD rUCHS NEUMANN. 647 



circulation than any similar scientific work of its da}'. There exist 

 in all, including translations and abridgments, 35 editions. It was 

 Fuchs' intention to continue and to reissue the work in three volumes. 

 From 1556 he had been collecting material and had assembled 1,500 

 plates, but he could not find a publisher on account of the heavy ex- 

 pense. He petitioned several princes, amongst others Duke Albrecht 

 of Prussia, for support, but without avail. It is uncertain what be- 

 came of the manuscript; the plates unfortunately becam_e scattered. 

 Part of them remained in Tiibingen, and part of them found their 

 way into the Gessner collection in Zurich. ^ 



There remain to be added a fevr facts about the later j^ears of 

 Fuchs' life. Three years before his death he had the misfortune 

 to lose his wife, with whom he had lived in the happiest union. 

 As he was obliged to support a large family, and as the care of 

 his domestic affairs absorbed much of the time so greatl}^ needed 

 for his studies and lectures, he married again, this time the widow 

 of minister Graeter of Schwabisch-Hall. But he only had a few 

 years more to live, for, although he had previously enjoj'ed good 

 health, his continuous application to work brought on insomnia, and 

 he died May 10, 1566. But even while confined to his room Fuchs' 

 interest in his studies continued. 



Hizler, in the panegyric style of his time, compares him to Socrates, 

 but those of more sober judgment will hardly go so far. Fuchs' 

 modesty, Avhich prevented him from assuming the rank of nobility 

 which Charles V bestowed upon him in recognition of his services to 

 mankind as ph3^sician and scientist, would have protested against 

 such comparison. 



I myself would compare him with Nicola Leoniceno, who was 

 born in 1428 in Vincenza and died in 1521 in Ferrara. Both v.'ere 

 humanists; one in Italy, the other in Germany. Each was a reformer 

 of medicine in his country, with the same aim and purpose — the 

 study of the Greek writers of medicine in their own language: and 

 the liberation of medicine and natural science from the influence of 

 the Arabic writers. 



1 Sprengel, Kurt. Geschichle der Botanib. Neu Bearbeitet. 2 Teile. Altenburg unci 

 Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1817-18. — Mcj'cr, Ernst II. F. Geschichte tier Botanik. 

 4 Bcle. Koenigsberg, Gebriider Borntriiger, 18.54-.'37. — Sachs, Julius. Geschichte tier 

 Botauik vom IG. Jahrhundert bis 18G0. Miinchon, R. OUlenbourg, 1875. — Roth, F. W. E. 

 Lconhard Fuchs, ein deutscher BotaDiker, 1501-15G8. In Beihefte zum Botnnischon 

 Centralblatt, Bd. VIII, Heft 3, p. 161-191. Cassel, Gebriider Gotthclft, 1898. — GrcoiK-, 

 Edvrnrd Lee. Landmarks of botanical histoiT. Part 1 — prior to 1562. Washington, 

 Smithsonian Institution, 1909. 



