222 Prof. K. F. H. Marx's Memoir of the Life and 



May 1752. His father, himself a zealous friend of geography 

 and natural history, at an early period awakened a love for 

 these subjects in his son. A manuscript note by Blumenbach 

 will best convey an idea of some of the influences which ope- 

 rated on him under the paternal roof, and at his first entrance 

 into the world. He says, — " My father was born in Leipsic, 

 and died in 1787, protector and professor in the Gymnasium 

 of Gotha ; and to the acquirement of his philosophical attain- 

 ments two individuals chiefly contributed, and thus directly 

 influenced my education; these were the two professors of 

 philosophy in Leipsic, — Menz and Christ. To the first he 

 was indebted for his love of literary history and natural history, 

 and to the latter for his taste for the fine arts and antiquity. 

 I also found pleasure and enjoyment in these subjects ; which 

 are partly requisite, and partly at least not adverse, to the 

 study of medicine, the pursuit selected by me from choice. 



" In Jena, where I commenced my academic career, I 

 found nourishment for literature and book-lore in the society 

 of Baldinger, and for natural history and archaeology in that 

 of my relation J. E. Imm. Walch, professor of eloquence. 

 When I proceeded to Gottingen to fill up some blanks in my 

 medical studies, my former rector in Gotha, Ecclesiastical 

 Councillor Geisler, gave me a letter to Heyne. When I de- 

 livered it. I at the same time shewed him an antique seal- 

 stone which, when at school, I had purchased from a gold- 

 smith. Such a taste in a medical student seemed singular 

 to him, and this little stone was the first cause of the subse- 

 quent varied and very intimate intercourse with that ad- 

 mirable man. 



" There lived at Gottingen at that time a singular indivi- 

 dual of extraordinarily varied acquirements, Professor Chr. W. 

 Bi'ittner, well known for his talents as a linguist, but who for 

 many years had given no lectures, and was quite unknown to 

 the students. Just at the period of my arrival, his friend 

 and great admirer Michaelis, the orientalist, whose eldest son 

 was then commencing the study of medicine, had persuaded 

 him to give, if possible, a course of lectures on natural history, 

 the subject on which he had formerly lectured, [and of which he 

 possessed a well-known collection. I was asked to attend, 



