CHAPTER XV. 



AN assemblage of despotisms, big and little, engaged in 

 constant bickerings and dissensions among themselves, and 

 involved in foreign wars which drained every resource, 

 formed the loosely-coherent German Empire of the eigh- 

 teenth century. For the first forty years of this period, as 

 might well be expected, German progress in physical science 

 was far behind that of England, France or Italy. Learned 

 societies had, however, been established, the most impor- 

 tant of which was the Leopoldine or Collegium Naturale 

 Curiosorum, modeled on the English Royal Society ; but 

 their existence was precarious, and their work little more 

 than the gathering and glossing of the records of discover- 

 ies made abroad. The partial adoption of the Gregorian 

 calendar by the Protestant States of Germany in 1700 is 

 said to have led to the foundation in that year of the Berlin 

 Royal Society of Sciences by Frederick I. of Prussia; but 

 the real motive was that especially pompous king's desire 

 to imitate and rival Louis XIV. of France. 



It soon became apparent that to organize a philosophical 

 society is one thing, and to find members of genius for it, 

 another. The latter were manifestly wanting. Even the 

 gigantic intellect of a Leibnitz in the Presidential chair 

 could not leaven the entire mass. Hence its existence 

 remained merely nominal until 1711, when a solemn open- 

 ing of its proceedings was held; and it started on what 

 might have been from that time a useful career. But a 

 couple of years later, the sergeant king, who had less use for 

 learned societies than for giant grenadiers, succeeded to 

 the throne, and encouragement failed. 



In 1715, Weidler of Wittenberg, and Leibknecht of Gies- 

 sen, were still studying the mercurial phosphorus. The 



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