THWARTED PLANS. 221 



surrounded by a heterogeneous collection of foreign plants and 

 animals, statues, dried specimens, and coins. Indolence and 

 wealth have alone prevented him from attaining great cele- 

 brity, for no one has ever so nearly approached Lieberkiihn in 

 his successful method of making anatomical preparations by 

 injections. What a collection he has of them ! all hidden away 

 in dusty cases, so protected in order that the delicate prepara- 

 tions intended for the microscope, and the drawings, which are 

 executed in a masterly style, should be kept free from injury. 

 " Je ne pense plus a ces balourdises," remarked the old hospi- 

 taller ; " ne les louez pas, cela n'en vaut pas la peine." It is a 

 great misfortune that the old man is so rich (he possesses 

 between 200,000 and 300,000 florins, for with all my efforts 

 I could not induce him to part with even a shred of prepared 

 cuticle. There is no one in Vienna so well acquainted 

 as he is with modern chemistry and the latest discoveries 

 in physiology. Everything around him bears the impress of 

 his peculiarities. Thus he wears a waistcoat provided with 

 sleeves and terminating in breeches and stockings, and looks as 

 if in a sentry-box. He eats only once a day, and that at ten 

 o'clock at night, in order, as he says, not to carry food about in 

 the body, which is very fatiguing and burdensome. Almost the 

 only society he has now is that of my young friend Van der 

 Schott, Director of the Botanic Gardens of Vienna. One of his 

 treasures is an antique statue of one of the sons of Niobe, 

 for which he paid 15,000 florins. It stands in the same 

 corner of the room in which he carries on his chemical experi- 

 ments, and where chickens are being hatched. He is now 

 contriving a hat for his own wear, which upon pulling a string 

 will expand into an umbrella three feet in diameter. In short, 

 it is impossible to find united in one person more genius, 

 learning, and practical ingenuity than he exhibits, combined 

 with which is an amount of eccentricity bordering upon mad- 

 ness. He has been compared with Beireis, but unjustly so, 

 since he is wholly devoid of charlatanry, is a great lover of 

 truth, and is very modest. Among the poor he often operates 

 for cataract, and that without assistance.' 



William von Humboldt and his family, accompanied by 

 Burgsdorf and the sculptor Dyk, left Vienna on October 11, and, 



