78 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



lines : c My brother has also been occupied in some investi- 

 gations regarding* the inen cloth employed in the envelopment 

 of mummies, and he intends at some future time to publish the 

 result of his researches.' 



Humboldt alludes to this treatise upon the method of weaving 

 among the ancient Greeks as his first literary effort, 1 but this 

 statement, in view of the pamphlet ' Sur le Bohun Upas,' 

 mentioned in p. 58, stands in need of some modification. 

 Unfortunately, the work has been lost. 



The zeal with which Humboldt prosecuted these studies of a 

 philological and antiquarian nature in no way lessened his 

 interest in natural science, which was stimulated by the instruc- 

 tion and heightened by the social intercourse of such men as 

 Blumenbach, Beckmann, Lichtenberg, &c. We may easily sup- 

 pose that he was strongly attracted to Blumenbach, and in- 

 fluenced by him in a considerable degree, without the proof 

 that Blumenbach was one of the first to whom he communicated 

 the results of his experiments with galvanism upon the action 

 of the muscles and nerves results which were forthwith pub- 

 lished in Grrens' ' Neues Journal der Physik.' 



In addition to the encouragement thus offered to the pur- 

 suit of science, Grottingen was the centre of all efforts which 

 had for their object the development of the new principles of 

 physical geography, and the establishment of a better system of 

 map delineation. While Heyne devoted his attention to the 

 ancient geography of the world, and Michaelis confined himself 

 to that of the Holy Land, Blumenbach was occupied in illus- 

 trating and classifying the most recent discoveries in natural 

 science, and at the time of Humboldt's residence at the 

 University was elucidating Brace's travels in search of the 

 source of the Nile. Nor were the students of the university 

 less active in their devotion to science than the professors. In 

 the year 1789 Humboldt was the means of founding a society 

 in conjunction with several of his friends, Seetzen, Link, Meyer, 

 Van Greuns, Deimann, Kries, Kels, Schrader, Hofmann, and 

 others, called the Philosophical Society, 2 which, by the valuable 



1 Brockhaus' ' Conversations-Lexikon/ 10th ed v art. ' Alexander YOU 

 Humboldt.' 



3 Seetzen's ' Eeisen/ edited by Kruse, vol. i. p. 5. 



