92 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



economy. In the realm of medical science, among those 

 equally distinguished for their scientific investigations and pro- 

 fessional reputation may be mentioned the venerable Heim, 

 Karl Ferdinand Grafe, and the ingenious Hufeland, and with 

 these may perhaps be included Kudolphi, Link, and Lichten- 

 stein, entitled to distinction for their researches in comparative 

 anatomy. While in metallurgy Karsten took the lead, and Weiss 

 in mineralogy, Leopold von Buch ranked as the founder of a 

 new system of geology ; among the chemists may be mentioned 

 Hermbstadt and his more celebrated contemporaries Heinrich 

 Rose and Mitscherlich. The science of physics was prosecuted 

 by the academicians Erman and Seebeck. In mathematics and 

 astronomy, among the elder generation including Bode, Eytel- 

 wein, Fischer, Griison, and others, Ideler alone, on account of 

 the speciality of his historical chronology, deserves especial 

 notice, while among the younger men may be mentioned 

 Oltmanns, with whom we have already made acquaintance, 

 Encke, Dirksen, and Ohm. The Academy register for December, 

 1827, includes the name of Ehrenberg, who had already at- 

 tained some distinction, and in succeeding years appear the 

 names of Dirichlet, Johannes Miiller, Gustav Kose, Poggendorff, 

 Steiner, and Dove. 



A comparison of these men of note with the illustrious circle 

 then assembled at Paris cannot fail to awaken the following 

 reflections. As regards the concentration of learned men of 

 European reputation, Berlin could in no way approach Paris. 

 In philology alone could it offer any worthy representatives, 

 while in natural science the foundations only had been laid 

 of its future eminence. The wave of scientific culture, which 

 had risen to so great a height in Paris at the commencement of 

 the present century, had given place to a wave no less high 

 which spread over the whole of Germany, and the period now 

 before us between the years 1820 and 1830 was the period 

 of transition between the subsiding of the first wave and the 

 rising of the second. This wave undoubtedly culminated at 

 Berlin ; for though the greatest scientific men of that time, 

 Gauss, Bessel, &c., did not properly belong to the capital, the 

 men of the following generation, upon whom the future of 

 scientific effort in Germany depended, were there to be met 



