LETTER TO CUV1ER. 105 



only increased. My frequent visits to the Mu- 

 seum at Frankfort, and what I heard there 

 concerning M. Riippell himself, strengthened 

 my purpose even more than all I had previ- 

 ously read. I was, as it were, Ruppell's trav- 

 eling companion : the activity, the difficulties 

 to be overcome, all were present to me as I 

 looked upon the treasures he had brought to- 

 gether from the deserts of Africa. The vision 

 of difficulty thus vanquished, and of the in- 

 ward satisfaction arising from it, tended to 

 give all my studies a direction in keeping with 

 my projects. 



" I felt that to reach my aim more surely it 

 was important to complete my medical stud- 

 ies, and for this I came to Munich eighteen 

 months ago. Still I could not make up my 

 mind to renounce the natural sciences. I at- 

 tended some of the pathological lectures, but 

 I soon found that I was neglecting them; 

 and yielding once more to my inclination, I 

 followed consecutively the lectures of Dollin- 

 ger on comparative anatomy, those of Oken 

 on natural history, those of Fuchs on miner- 

 alogy, as well as the courses of astronomy, 

 physics, chemistry, and mathematics. I was 

 confirmed in this withdrawal from medical 

 studies by the proposition of M. de Martius 



