Misref/anrous. 113 



MI.SCKKLANKUU.S. 



CURISTIAN G(»TTFRIEn EnUEXDERO *. 



Amonu the men whose iiamos will cvor be iissociatcd with the 

 history ot" science, Khrenberg occupies a very promiiient place. 

 Filly years ago ho bolcUy iK'Jietrated into Al'rica a.s far as Abyssinia 

 ill the lace of difticulties of which wo can now scarcely form any 

 idea, collecting zoological and botanical materials, whilst the fanati- 

 cism of the inhabitants followed the Christian wherever he went, and 

 more than once phieed him in peril of his life. The results of these 

 travels led him to the department of science the investigation of 

 which constituted the ])rincipal labour of his life, and especially 

 contributed to his scientific fame, namely tlie study of the lower 

 forms of animal life, and especially the world of microscopic orga- 

 nisms, whose richness and variety were previously unsuspected. 

 And it was not only to the living forms that Elirenberg devoted his 

 attention ; he also demonstrated their wide diffusion in the rocks 

 of former jK^riods of the earth's history, and became the founder of 

 microscopic palaeontology, which has been of essential aid to the 

 geology of the sedimentary rocks. \\ ith the greatest care the 

 objects of numerous observations were united by him into a collec- 

 tion which is unicjue in its kind, and which will remain at once as 

 an important aid to study and as a monument of the indefatigable 

 industry of a German eavant, 



Ehrenbcrg was born on the 10th April, 1705, at Delitzsch in tho 

 pro\-inco of Saxony. Up to his fourteenth year ho attended the 

 school of his native place ; in ISlo he obtained a free scholarship 

 in the Pforta Academy, where he had several men of note (as, for 

 example, Leopold von Itanke) among his associates ; and he left this 

 institution in 1^15 to study theology at Leipzig, in accordance with 

 his father's wish. But even in the midst of his classical studies at, 

 the Academy, he had already devoted his hours of leisure to inves- 

 tigations in natural history ; and this bent of his mind led him when 

 he had been a year at the University, to exchange tho study of the- 

 ology for that of medicine. He completed his academic studies in 

 Berlin, where he attained his degree of Doctor of Medicine on the 

 5th November, 1S18, his inaugural dissertation bearing tho title 

 " Sylvaj mycologica; Bcrolincnses." 



In the two following years wo find the young doctor engaged with 

 his friend Hemprich in sketching plans for a great journey of inves- 

 tigation to some distant jiart of tlie earth; and the wishes of both of 

 them were fultilled in the year 1N2U, when General von ilinutoli, 

 who was on the i)oin< of starting on an antiquarian journey into 

 Egj'pt, requested the lierlin A cadcmy of Sciences to recommend him two 

 young naturalists as comi)ani<)ns. The Academy selected Eluxiiberg 

 and Hemprich. Their journey in comuKm extended into the Libyan 

 desert as far as the oasis of Jupiter Amnion (Siwah) ; but after their 



• [P'or the original of this notice wo nro indpbtfd to the kindness of 

 Prof. C. Raminelsberg. — Ens. 1 



Ann. dL- Ma(/. X. Hist. Ser. 4. \'ul. xix. 8 



