LEONHARD FUCHS NEUMANN. 647 



circulation than any similar scientific work of its day. 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 became scattered. 

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

 way into the Gessner collection in Zurich. 1 



There remain to be added a few facts about the later years 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 greatly 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 enjoyed 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, which prevented him from assuming the rank of nobility 

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

 mankind as physician 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 1524 in Ferrara. Both were 

 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. Geschichte der Botanik. Neu Bearbeitet. 2 Teile. Altenburg una* 

 Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1817-18. — Meyer, Ernst H. F. Geschichte der Botanik. 

 4 Bde. Koenigsberg, Gebriider Borntrager, 1854-57. — Sachs, Julius. Geschichte der 

 Botanik vom 10. Jahrhundert bis 18G0. Munchen, R. Oldenbourg, 1875. — Roth, F. W. E. 

 Leonhard Fuchs, ein deutscher Botaniker, 1501-1566. In Beihefte zum Botanischon 

 Centralblatt, Bd. VIII, Heft 3, p. 161-191. Cassel, Gebriider Gotthelft, 1898. — Greono, 

 Edward Lee. Landmarks of botanical history. Part 1 — prior to 1562. Washington, 

 Smithsonian Institution, 1909. 



