166 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



be gratefully acknowledged if I should ever be able to ac- 

 complish my wish of furnishing from my own point of view a 

 sketch, if not a history, of that epoch which proved so memorable 

 to me the last decade of the past century.' 



In the various remarks relating to the two Humboldts to be 

 met with in Goethe's writings, he alludes more to their scien- 

 tific labours than to any of their other studies, and particularly 

 mentions their investigations in anatomy and galvanism, in 

 which he actively participated. The following entry occurs in 

 the < Jahres- und Tageshefte ' for the year 1794 : 



4 The long-expected arrival of Alexander von Humboldt from 

 Eayreuth was the signal for turning our thoughts exclusively 

 to science. His elder brother, also at Jena, who manifested a 

 keen interest in almost every branch of knowledge, lent to 

 these investigations his advice and practical assistance. It is 

 worthy of remark that the Court Counsellor Loder was then 

 lecturing upon the ligaments of the animal frame a highly 

 important branch of anatomy, for do not these constitute the 

 necessary connection between the bones and the muscles ? And 

 yet from a strange infatuation this branch is quite neglected 

 by the medical students. We three, in company with our friend 

 Meyer, used to wade of a morning through the deepest snow to 

 hear, in an almost empty lecture-room, this portion of physical 

 structure lucidly explained and exemplified by the most accu- 

 rate anatomical preparations.' 



In 1795 he further adds: 



' By the advent of the two brothers Von Humboldt at Jena, 

 towards the end of the year, I was entirely diverted from the 

 creative art of poetry, and brought back to the study of nature. 

 Just at this time they both took great interest in the pursuit 

 of science, and in the course of conversation I could not refrain 

 from communicating my ideas upon comparative anatomy and 

 its systematic arrangement. As my views appeared to display 

 consistency and some measure of completeness, I was urgently 

 requested to record them on paper, and at once acceding to 

 this proposition, I proceeded to dictate to Max Jacobi the 

 ground-plan of a system of comparative osteology. In thus gra- 

 tifying the wishes of my friends, I gained for myself a platform 

 upon which to erect new theories. The influence exerted by 



