132 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



He remained at Berlin till the end of April, and, besides his 

 official labours connected with the salt-works, was much occu- 

 pied in the publication of the 'Flora Fribergensis,' and in 

 various chemical and galvanic experiments upon plants and 

 animals. He also entered upon some investigations in Hermb- 

 stadt's laboratory on the absorptive properties of sponge. 1 



Humboldt writes from Berlin to Wattenbach, on February 9, 

 1793, as follows: 'Since June I have travelled nearly 3,000 

 miles, and remained at no one place for any length of time. . . . 

 For the last fortnight I have been at Berlin, where I intend 

 remaining quietly till April, while I see my long-announced 

 work " Flora Fribergensis " through the press. In April I leave 

 for the Fichtelgebirge, as I have been appointed Superin- 

 tendent of the Mines in the Franconian Principalities. During 

 the summer I visited Suabia, Bavaria, the Tyrol, Vienna, Moravia, 

 and Silesia, returning through Poland to visit the rock-salt 

 works. Man is indeed a wandering being, yet ever glad to find 

 himself once more among old familiar friends, for he does not 

 easily forget the pleasures of social intercourse.' . . . 



Three days later, on February 12, he writes to Girtaner: 

 ' My course of life is so far removed from your political career, 

 that it has been scarcely possible for me to follow your successes, 

 notwithstanding the sensation they have created throughout 

 the whole of Southern Germany ; but I have been profoundly 

 interested in the discoveries you have made in chemical phy- 

 siology. Your paper, " Sur le Principe de 1'Irritabilite," which 

 has been zealously supported by men of such ability as Som- 

 mering, Scherer, Planck, and Herz, afforded me an opportunity 

 of becoming acquainted with the antiphlogistic system, or 

 rather, with the antiphlogistic truths. I at once commenced 

 making experiments, and for the last two years have exerted 

 myself to the utmost to study everything that bore the 



value placed by Humboldt upon such tokens of respect is shown "by some 

 expressions addressed to Bonpland in a letter from Rome, June 10, 1805 : 

 ' If you wish it, I can procure your admission into the Arcadian Academy. 

 It will cost you forty francs, and they will assign you a Greek name and a 

 cottage in Greece or Asia Minor. They have given me the name of 

 Megasthenes of Ephesus, and a piece of land close to the Temple of Diana/ 

 (De la Roquette, f Humboldt, Correspondance, etc.' vol. i. p. 179.) 



1 ' Aphorism, ex doctr. physiol. chem. plant.' Fischer's German transla- 

 tion, p. 109. 



