Biographical Memoir of the late Dr Turner, 233 



covery in various departments of physical as well as physiolo- 

 gical investigation. The scientific world of Paris still canvassed 

 with eaorerness the discoveries of Mas;endie relative to venous 

 absorption, and at tlie very time was receiving new light from 

 the inquiries of the same philosopher into the functions of the 

 nervous system. It was but recently too that the toxicological 

 researches of Orjila had been fully appreciated, and he was then 

 at the very height of his fame as a physiologist and as a lec- 

 turer. The admirable inquiries oi^ Edwards into the influence 

 of physical agents on lifg were at the time only in the act of 

 being promulgated. The beautiful succession of papers by 

 Ampere, describing the progress of his discoveries in Electro- 

 magnetism, was not yet entirely finished, and occupied a large 

 share of the regard of all followers of the purer physical sciences. 

 And in the department of organic chemistry, the career of Pel- 

 letier and Caventou, and of Robiquet, which opened up the ex- 

 istence of an entirely new and most interesting class of bodies, 

 the active crystalline principles of the vegetable kingdom, Avas 

 but recently begun, and had become the general subject of con- 

 versation as well as imitation among chemists. A great part of 

 these splendid investigations were brought before the Institute, 

 which Dr Turner regularly frequented, and where he had an 

 opportunity of witnessing the deep respect paid in all quarters 

 to the followers of experimental science, and the certainty with 

 which skill and perseverance on the part of its cultivators were 

 crowned with honours and substantial rewards. To these cir- 

 cumstances, united with the remote and doubtful prospect of ad- 

 vancement in the professional sphere which he first selected, it 

 seems reasonable to ascribe his determination to devote himself 

 to the study of natural science, and more especially of chemistry. 



So soon as this resolution was taken, he left Paris in the 

 month of April 1821, for Gottingen ; and on arriving in that 

 city had the good fortune to be received as an experimental 

 pupil by the late Priyfessor Stromeyer. 



The department of chemistry in which this eminent professor 

 had chiefly distinguished himself, was inorganic chemistry and 

 mineral analysis ; and he had acquired a high reputation through- 

 out Europe for the fidelity and precision of his researches. His 

 pupiPs regards were naturally turned in the same direction. 



