238 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



town, planned and executed in a day, but deliberately to wipe 

 out the impress of the slow evolution of centuries was to his 

 sequence-tracing mind an unpardonable sin. He gained, how- 

 ever, from the picture-galleries, the School of Mines, and the 

 natural history collections much pleasure and profit. At the 

 Jardin des Plantes he attended the lectures given by some of 

 the most distinguished scientific men of the day. He often spoke 

 of the small and inferior quality of the audiences, and of the 

 perfunctory manner of some of the lecturers. His attention 

 was not infrequently diverted by an old soldier who came at 

 regular intervals apparently for no other purpose than to have 

 his epileptic fit in a safe place. Another old man, whose blear 

 eyes denoted the previous night's debauch, dropped in several 

 times a week to refresh himself with a nap ; and now and then 

 a nurse-maid brought her baby in to profit by the warmth found 

 beneath the academic roof. As for the alert and intelligent 

 listeners that lecturers of equal eminence are wont to attract 

 in America, they were not manifest. 



In Germany Mr. Shaler was more at home. His knowledge 

 of the language and literature of the country brought him into 

 sympathetic relation with the people, and instead of search- 

 ing for national differences, as in France, he was intent upon 

 detecting points of resemblance in the Anglo-Saxon and 

 Teutonic character. But when it was a question of manual 

 dexterity so conspicuous in his own country, he was driven to 

 the verge of despair. At Dresden he endeavored to have con- 

 structed the model of an invention for the ventilation of hos- 

 pitals. The clumsy affair, when finished, was sent to Dr. Evans 

 (the American dentist), who hoped to be able to introduce it in 

 the hospitals of Paris. The effort finally languished, and Mr. 

 Shaler himself in the course of time forgot all about it. 



While at the Saxon Capital he was induced to enter a water- 

 cure establishment, where he was led to believe he would get 

 rid of his old enemy, malaria. The heroic treatment peculiar 

 to the place was supervised by an able though uneducated 



