WEIMAR AND JENA. 167 



Alexander von Humboldt requires to be dealt with separately. 

 His presence at Jena promoted the study of comparative ana- 

 tomy ; I was incited by him and his elder brother to record the 

 outline of my scheme of anatomy. During his residence at 

 Bayreuth my correspondence with him was of great interest.' 

 Unfortunately, none of these letters have as yet been found. 



In the appendix to the 6 Osteology,' Groethe alludes almost in 

 the same words to the stimulus he at that time derived from 

 the two brothers : ' My time in this way was closely occupied, 

 till in the year 1795 the brothers Humboldt, who, as Dioscuri, 

 had often illuminated my path, came to reside for a consider- 

 able time at Jena. I brought the subject of my anatomical 

 scheme so perseveringly and pressingly forward, that at last it 

 produced some amount of impatience, and occasioned the re- 

 quest that I should set down in writing the thoughts with 

 which my whole being heart, .soul, and mind was imbued.' 



The Humboldts are again alluded to by Groethe, when de- 

 scribing in 1797 the prodigality of intellectual life then at 

 Jena : ' The Humboldt brothers were there, and almost every 

 aspect of nature was discussed in a philosophic and scientific 

 spirit. My osteological type of 1795 afforded a motive for a 

 more systematic use of the Museum, as well as of my own 

 private collection. I drew out a system upon the metamor- 

 phoses of insects which I had had in view for many years. 

 The drawings of the Hartz Mountains by Krause gave rise to 

 geological disquisitions. Experiments in galvanism were in- 

 stituted by Humboldt.' 



In a letter to Schiller of April 26, 1797, Goethe writes, 

 after a visit from Alexander von Humboldt at Weimar: 

 ' During Humboldt's visit my time has been usefully and agree- 

 ably spent ; his presence has had the effect of arousing from 

 its winter sleep my taste for natural science.' 



It is thus evident that the important significance of Alex- 

 ander von Humboldt's character and attainments was early 

 appreciated by Groethe, who continued to regard him with an 

 ever increasing admiration till the close of life. 



When, however, Humboldt avowed himself a convert to 

 the theory of volcanic agency in the formation of the crust of 

 the earth, Groethe, who still remained an adherent of the . 



