IX 



" Indescribable " he says, on the occasion of his jubilee, after a 

 lapse of fifty years, " was the impression made upon me here by the 

 chemical lectures and experiments of Nicholas de Fremery. When, 

 for the first time, I mastered the notion that all that exists, in its in- 

 finite variety, is composed of a relatively small number of elements, 

 which in certain proportions unite and reunite, it seemed to me as if, 

 with the creation of the elements, the whole of nature had been given, 

 and my imagination worked this out in its own way. Later on I 

 became especially interested in Physiology, as taught by Schroeder 

 van der Kolk." 



The term prescribed for admission to his examination for his 

 degree at Utrecht not having yet arrived, he anticipated it by at once 

 proceeding to Leyden, where his unusual proficiency in Latin and 

 his many accomplishments secured for him a brilliant reception from 

 the academical body.* Thus accredited, he went immediately to 

 Flushing as a military surgeon and health officer, and shortly after- 

 wards was promoted to headquarters at the Hague. Here he worked 

 intensely in the hospital wards, made autopsies, contributed papers 

 to the medical journals, and was favourably noticed by the Director- 

 General ; who, being about to reorganise the Military Medical School 

 at Utrecht, flatteringly invited him, then only in his twenty-fourth 

 year, to give the courses on Anatomy, Histology, and Physiology. 

 This was no light enterprise, for it included 18 lectures in the week 

 for the 46 weeks which made up the scholastic year ; but he under- 

 took it joyfully, " feeling teaching to be his true vocation." Thus 

 he came back already distinguished to his own University city, his 

 home from that time onward. There he was soon to become famous. 



G. J. Mulder, then recently appointed Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University, was already powerfully contributing to give form to the 

 new science of Physiological Chemistry, and his genius at once at- 

 tracted and was attracted by that of Bonders. The two soon became 

 close friends and fellow workers, Bonders occupying himself in every 

 spare moment with microscopical researches in connexion with the 

 chemistry of the elementary tissues, and publishing many original 

 papers.f With Jac. Moleschott also, then very young, he established 

 a lasting friendship, as well as with Opzoomer and others who, in 

 their several ways, became eminent. In those days of opening man- 

 hood, Bonders plunged eagerly and discursively into every avenue 

 of spiritual and intellectual activity. Men of science, lawyers, 

 divines, were alike his intimates, while, in general society, his 



* His inaugural dissertation, based on original researches, was entitled " Dis- 

 sertatio inauguralis sistens obseryationes anatomico-pathologieas de centre nervoso," 

 1840. 



t Vide, e.g., " Proofs of a General Physiological Chemistry," 1843-50, pp. 539 

 et seq, 



c 2 



