THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



Memoir of the Life and Writings of the late Professor Blu- 

 menbach of Gbttingen. By Professor K. F. H. Marx.* 



However lively and indelible may be our recollection of 

 the individual who has been so lately taken from amongst us, 

 it will, I hope, be allowed me to sketch an outline of his life 

 and writings, and thus, as it were, to cast a flower on the 

 grave of one who was honoured by us all, but who was pecu- 

 liarly beloved by me. 



It was granted to him to perform his public duties for a 

 longer period than the usual span of human life, and to con- 

 duct the affairs of our society longer than any now present can 

 carry back their recollections. With his memory and with his 

 name are linked the most weighty events of this university for 

 more than the last half century, nay, the progress of develop- 

 ment of one of the most extensive and important branches of 

 science is most closely interwoven with what he has under- 

 taken, contributed, and promoted. 



Of the whole series of those who laboured and investigated 

 in the same path with himself, he stood at last like a solitary 

 pillar, like a pyramid of antiquity, to servo as an exciting 

 example to us, affording an instance of the course sometimes 

 followed by Nature in impressing on mental power the seal of 

 perfection, by means of the strength and duration of its ex- 

 ternal form. 



John Frederick Blumenbach was born at Gotha on the 11th 



* Read to the Royal Society of Sciences of Cottingcn, Uth February 1840. 

 VOL. XXX. NO. LX. — APRIL 1841. p 



