661 



SPRENGEL, CURT. 



SPRUNER, KARL VON. 



662 



He was the son of a clergyman, and was educated at Wadham College, 

 Oxford, of which foundation he became fellow. He took the degree 

 of M.A. in 1657. In 1659 he published a poem on the 'Death of 

 Oliver Cromwell,' and another, ' The Plague of Athens.' Having been 

 ordained after the Restoration, he was made chaplain, first to the 

 Duke of Buckingham, whom he ia said to have assisted in writing 

 1 The Rehearsal,' and afterwards to the king. At this time he was 

 made one of the original fellows of the Royal Society, and in 1667 pub- 

 lished its history. In 1668 he was made prebendary of Westminster, 

 in 1683 clean of Westminster, and in 1684 bishop of Rochester. In 

 return for these marks of royal favour, Sprat in 1685 published a 

 history of the Rye-House plot, entitled ' A true Account and Declara- 

 tion of the horrid Conspiracy against the late King, his present 

 Majesty, and the present Government;' but he repented of having 

 written this work, and when requested by James, after Monmouth's 

 execution, to add a second part, he refused, on the ground that the 

 lives of many innocent persons would be endangered thereby. (See 

 his letter to the Earl of Dorset, written in 1689, printed in 1711. 4to.) 

 In the following year he was appointed one of the commissioners for 

 ecclesiastical affairs : he voted in this office for the acquittal of the 

 Bishop of London ; and in 1688, though he had himself acknowledged 

 the king's declaration of Toleration, he refused to take part in any 

 proceedings against the disobedient clergy, and withdrew from the 

 commission. On the abdication of James, Sprat was one of those 

 who in the convention -held on that occasion proposed the appointment 

 of a regent ; but after the settlement of this question he did not 

 refuse allegiance to William. In 1692 an attempt was made to 

 implicate the bishop in a pretended plot for restoring James, his 

 signature having been fraud uleutly obtained by two men of infamous 

 character, Robert Young and Stephen Blackhead. He succeeded after 

 some little time hi triumphantly establishing his innocence and the 

 villany of his accusers. From this time till his death May 30, 1713, 

 at Bromley in Kent he lived undisturbed by any political troubles. 

 His property was bequeathed to his son Thomas Sprat, archdeacon of 

 Rochester. 



Burnet, who appears to have viewed Sprat with the jealous eye of 

 a rival, speaks, after his manner, slightingly of his moral character ; 

 but his conduct on many occasions shows an integrity superior to the 

 feelings of personal gratitude towards the king. There is a list of his 

 works hi Wood's ' Athenae Oxon.,' among which is a brief ' Life of 

 Cowley ' of no great merit, but which is the basis of all the subse- 

 quent lives of the poet and some sermons and letters. There is also 

 a letter of his among the Lansdowne Manuscripts, British Museum. 

 His prose style is remarkable for choiceness of expression and beauty 

 of structure : he is styled by Wood a commanding and eloquent 

 preacher, and this praise is confirmed by Burnet. He wrote a few 

 short poems, in the manner and with all the faults of the school of 

 Cowley. The longest of them, ' The Plague of Athens,' is, to borrow 

 Sprat's own words in the dedication of it, " an example how much a 

 noble subject is changed and disfigured by an ill hand." (See ' Some 

 Account of the Life and Writings of the Right Reverend Father in 

 God Thomas Sprat, D.D., with a true copy of his Last Will and 

 Testament,' London, printed for E. Curll, 1715 ; and Johnson's ' Lives 

 of the Poets.') 



SPRENGEL, CURT, one of the most learned physicians and 

 botanists of the last and present century, was born on the 3rd of 

 August 1766, at Bolderkow in Pomerania, where his father was a 

 clergyman. His early studies were entirely directed by his father, 

 ' and he is represented at the age of fourteen as being conversant not 

 only with the Latin and Greek classics, and some modern languages, 

 but to have made considerable progress in Hebrew and Arabic. Nor 

 was his attention confined to languages, for at this age he published a 

 little work on botany, in a series of letters, entitled ' Botany for 

 Ladies.' In 1784 he commenced his studies at Halle, and devoted 

 himself to both theology and medicine ; but he soon gave up the 

 former for the latter. In 1787 he took his degree in Medicine, and on 

 this occasion presented as his thesis a paper entitled ' Rudimeuta 

 Nosologies Dynamic.' 



During his medical studies he kept up his acquaintance with the 

 ancient languages, and extended his knowledge of those of the east, 

 and was thus remarkably qualified for the study of the history of 

 medicine. To this department he applied himself, and in 1789 was 

 appointed extraordinary professor of medicine in the University of 

 Halle. In 1795 he was made ordinary professor of the same depart- 

 ment. Although his application to the study of medicine was great, 

 and he had already commenced his work on the ' History of Medicine,' 

 and had published his ' Manual of Pathology,' he yet found time to 

 cultivate his acquaintance with plants, and hi 1797 was appointed 

 professor of botany. To this department he applied the same learning 

 that he had done to medicine, and his prolific pen furnished the most 

 complete history of botany extant. 



Through his works he became celebrated throughout his native 

 country, and was called upon to fill very important chairs. In 1803 

 he was invited to Marburg to fill the chair vacated by Baldinger ; in 

 1809 to Dorpat ; and on the death of Willdenow in 1812 he was invited 

 to occupy his place at Berlin. All of these he refused, and remained 

 his whole life at Halle. The fame of his learning however was not 

 confined to Germany ; almost every country in Europe sought to 



confer honours upon him. Upwards of seventy learned societies and 

 academies sent him their honorary diplomas, and many kings con- 

 ferred upon him their orders of distinction. These however were 

 objects at which he never aimed, and which he never allowed to divert 

 him from his favourite studies. He was one of the most industrious 

 and learned men of his age ; but whilst his great learning enabled him 

 to become perfectly conversant with what had been done by previous 

 writers, he did not neglect to observe for himself, and add the fruit of 

 his own experience to that which had been previously produced. 



The early part of Sprengel's life seems to have been more particu- 

 larly directed to medicine. In 1788 he published a defence of Galen's 

 doctrine of fever, and in 1798 an apology for Hippocrates. In 1792 

 the first part of his ' History of Medicine ' appeared, and was not com- 

 pleted till 1820. These works were followed by smaller ones on various 

 departments of the science of medicine, a complete view of which was 

 given in his ' Institutiones Medicos,' a work in six volumes, which 

 appeared at various intervals from 1809 to 1816. In this work the 

 whole field of medical science is gone over, and each department dis- 

 plays the author's characteristic learning. As a botanist Sprengel 

 stands very high. Ho had in early life contracted a love for botany, 

 and after his appointment to the professorship of that science in Halle, 

 he never ceased, till disabled by disease, contributing important 

 additions to its literature. In 1798 he published his ' Antiquitates 

 Botanicse,' which was followed in 1808 by his ' Historia Rei Herbaria;.' 

 In these works he has brought his knowledge of ancient languages to 

 bear upon the illustration of botany in the earliest times, and in the 

 latter work the history of the science is brought down to the period at 

 which it was written. To descriptive botany he made great additions, 

 especially in the 'Flora Halensis,' published iti 1806, and subsequent 

 editions. These works were illustrated by many plates from his own 

 pencil. Besides these he has published many other papers in this 

 department of botany. He took a part with Schultes iu preparing an 

 edition of the ' Systema Vegetabilium ' of Linnaeus, and subsequently, 

 in 1824, published an edition of that work himself, with an appendix. 

 He also described a part of the Brazilian plants, collected by Sellow, 

 in his ' Neue Entdeckungen im ganzen Umfang der Pflauzenkunde,' 

 published in 1820. In the systematic arrangement of plants he 

 established many improvements, both in the Linnsean and natural 

 systems, the principal of which are contained in his works on descrip- 

 tive botany. In 1811 he published a work on physiological and 

 descriptive botany, entitled ' Von dem Bau und der Natur der 

 Gewiichse,' in which he has given the result of the labours of others, 

 and added many new observations of his own. In 1822 he published 

 a German translation of Theophrastus's ' Natural History of Plaute,' 

 and in 1829 a new edition of 'Pediani Dioscoridis Auazarbei de 

 Materia Medica Libri v.' His last work was an edition of the ' Genera 

 Plantarum ' of Linnaeus, in 1830. 



His eldest son William was professor of surgery at Greifwald, and 

 died in 1828. This loss affected the father very severely, and he never 

 recovered the stroke. He was attacked by several apoplectic fits, and 

 died in one of these seizures on the loth of March 1833. 



* SPRUNER, KARL VON, was born at Stuttgardt in 1803, but, 

 left an orphan early, resided with some relatives at Ingolstadt and 

 Salzburg till 1814, when he was admitted to the corps of cadets at 

 Munich, where he quickly distinguished himself by his addiction to 

 historical and geographical studies. In 1825 he obtained his com- 

 mission as lieutenant, and while in garrison at Munich, Bamberg, and 

 Wiirzburg, he prosecuted his favourite researches with great zeal and 

 industry. His first production, ' Baierns Gaue ' (the Country of 

 Bavaria), appeared in a periodical work in 1831. His next was pub- 

 lished at Bamberg in 1833, 'Gaukarte der Herzogthums Ostfranken ' 

 (District Map of the Duchy of East Franconia). In 1837 he com- 

 menced the publication of his most important work, the ' Historisch- 

 geographische Handatlas,' completed in three parts, on 118 sheets, in 

 1852, and of which a second edition was commenced in 1853. It 

 gives a most laborious and carefully prepared comparative abstract of 

 the history of Europe and Asia, affording assistance of the greatest 

 utility to every historical student, and its merit has been recognised 

 throughout the educated world. This important work however did not 

 occupy all his time ; in 1838 he published an ' Historischer Atlas von 

 Baiern,' and also some handbooks for travellers in the district of the 

 Main, and in the mountain region of Lower Franconia. His ' Tabellen 

 zur Geschichte der deutschen staaten' (Historical Tables of the German 

 States), commenced in 1846, was brought to a premature termination 

 in 1848 through unfavourable circumstances. His labours had pro- 

 cured him in 1843 the degree of Doctor from the university of 

 Erlangen; in 1842 he was chosen corresponding member of tho 

 Academy of Sciences in Munich ; and in 1853 actual member. 



Spruner had for some time been patronised by the crown-prince 

 Maximilian, who soon after his accession to the throne made him 

 a captain, and placed him on the staff in 1851. In 1852 he was fur- 

 ther advanced to the rank of major, and employed by the King of 

 Bavaria on special commissions, among which may be named a com- 

 prehensive historical chart of Bavaria, and a comparative historical 

 chart of Europe. To him has also been confided the instruction of 

 the higher classes in the cadet corps in military geography. Spruner 

 has also endeavoured to extend the general usefulness of his researches 

 by publishing an abridgement of his ' Historischen Handatlas,' an 



