220 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



prime minister, and only thirty-four years of age !) drew me 

 into the wide circle of ordinary society, I have yet had leisure 

 to enjoy familiar intercourse with Franck and Jacquin, and to 

 avail myself of the public institutions. For many weeks I have 

 visited the clinical hospital, merely for the purpose of becoming 

 better acquainted with the elder Franck (Johann Peter), and I 

 freely confess that I have seldom been more deeply impressed 

 by anyone. What clearness of thought, what powers of per- 

 ception, what solidity side by side with the most vivid 

 flashes of genius ! Of the unlimited use of sthenical 1 treat- 

 ment at this hospital, which is raising such an outcry in 

 Vienna, I have seen nothing. Franck has been attending my 

 sister-in-law, and has treated her case, even though there is 

 unmistakeable evidence of debility (from too great a flow of 

 milk), according to the old system a course which would 

 certainly have been approved by you, my dear friend, and by 

 Hufeland. What has particularly charmed me in Franck is 

 that with all the peculiarities of a man of eminence he is yet 

 so simple in his domestic habits. Up till eleven o'clock he is 

 engaged at the hospital, from eleven till two he drives about to 

 his patients, from three till five, while reclining on his couch, 

 (after the manner of Tissot), he receives visits from patients, 

 princes as well as ladies, and in the evening from five till ten he 

 again visits professionally. He conducts his correspondence at 

 night and of a morning before seven o'clock. There is certainly 

 no need for me to vaunt such activity to you, who already set 

 such an example of indefatigable industry. It is therefore only 

 possible to enjoy social intercourse with Franck during the 

 intervals between his numerous engagements ; but in these 

 leisure moments he is always collected in mind and ready for 

 conversation on physiology or natural science. But this will 

 suffice for a description of one with whom perhaps you are 

 personally acquainted. 



' There is still another name I must mention to you, that of 

 Professor Porth, who is without exception the most genial man 

 in Vienna. As he resides near the Botanic Gardens, I was able 

 to visit him very frequently, in his one room, in which he lives 



1 [Sthenic, a term employed in the Brunonian system of medicine, which 

 was then exciting much attention in Germany.] 



