July i, 1897] 



NA TURE 



201 



'^ aXkv apiiTTfveiv <cal irdpoxov f/ififvat &K\tiiv," often cited by 

 the original of the medal. 



A few notes follow, on a less well-known side of 

 Sir William Lawrence's early work, from the pen of a 

 distinguished pupil. 



Ix Memory of Lawrenxe. 



In the domain of surgery the name of Lawrence is held in 

 high honour as that o( a practitioner and observer of the utmost 

 skill and originality. As a teacher at St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital and in the theatre of the College of Surgeons his 

 services to the profession which he had adopted are recognised 

 as having been invaluable. It is, however, not perhaps so well 

 known that he was also a pioneer in those branches of research 

 which more recently, under the direction of Darwin and 

 Wallace, have effected such a revolution in our conceptions of 

 the great scheme of zoological development. Not that it can 

 be claimed for Sir William Lawrence that he anticipated the 

 modern creed as to the descent of man, for he expressly re- 

 pudiated the tenet of a common line of ancestry for man and 

 brutes. Still, however, his lectures on the "Natural History 

 of Man," delivered as professor to the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 were far in advance of the opinions of the day, and were full of 

 new thought and suggestion. They were published in 1816, 

 and went through at least eight editions. Although now super- 

 seded by other works, they are still a mine of carefully collated 

 facts to which the student refers with pleasure and profit. 

 .A.S is well known, they brought upon their author a storm 

 of persecuting zeal, at the head ot which was Abernethy, 

 Lawrence's senior colleague at the hospital ! In a second 

 course of his college lectures Lawrence referred to these 

 proceedings, and in a tone of manly independence claimed the 

 right to think for himself and to express his opinions in his own 

 terms. " These privileges, gentlemen, shall never be sur- 

 rendered by me ; I will not be set down nor cried down by 

 any person, in any place, or under any pretext. However 

 fiaitering it may be to my vanity to wear this gown, if it involves 

 any sacrifice of independence, the smallest dereliction of the 

 right to examine freely the subjects on which I address you, and 

 to express fearlessly the result of my investigations, I would 

 strip it off instantly." This was bold language in a young man, 

 and one who in his profession was of course a candidate for 

 public favour. It was indeed by this high endowment of moral 

 courage that Lawrence was enabled to approach the topics 

 which he treated of in a manner which was so far in advance 

 of the current modes of thought, and so eminently advantageous 

 to the age. 



Lawrence's personal bearing was an index of his character. 

 His stature was tall and his manner dignified, and his face was, 

 in its expression of intellectual calm, one of the noblest ever 

 worn by man. Jonathan Hutchinson. 



JULIUS SACHS. 



JULIUS SACHS ^ was born at Breslau October 2, 

 J 1832, and died at Wiirzburg on May 29, 1897. 

 Although his health had been seriously impaired for 

 years, his last illness was not of long duration. He was 

 regularly at work in his laboratory during the Easter 

 vacation, and only took to his bed about the middle of 

 April. A few days before the end came, he sank into 

 coma and died without pain. Of his early career I have 

 not been able to learn anything : I remember to have 

 heard him say that his first teacher was Purkinje, under 

 whom he published two or three zoological and geo- 

 logical papers. His first official post was that of Privat- 

 Docent at Prague. In 1858-59 he was at Tharandt, in 

 i860 at Chemnitz. In 1861-62 he was appointed Pro- 

 fessor in the Landwirthschaftliche Institut at Poppels- 

 dorf, near Bonn. In 1867 he was called to the chair 

 of Botany in F"reiburg, and in 1867 he obtained the 

 professorship at Wiirzburg, which he held up to the time 

 of his death. - 



It is not easy for a botanist of these days to estimate 

 the debt of gratitude that he owes to Sachs, We have 



1 I believe that Sachs never made use of the title of von, which was con- 

 ferred upon him. 



2 For the above facts I am indebted to the kindness of Prof. Kunkel of 

 Wurzburg, and Prof. .M.-irshall Ward. 



NO. 1444. VOL. 56] 



grown up in the modern school, and we mistake for our 

 natural environment a state of things which his labour 

 of forty years painfully built up for us. There is a 

 natural blindness of the child to the parent, or the 

 apprentice to his master, and this we can only partially 

 overcome. 



The place of Sachs in the history of Botany is, I 

 am inclined to think, even higher as a teacher than as a 

 discoverer. He will be more permanently known for his 

 " E.xperimental Physiologie" (1866), by his " Lehrbuch" 

 (first edition, i868),i his *' Geschichte der Botanik" 

 (i875),-and his " Vorlesungen"( 1882),^ than by his " Col- 

 lected Papers " ( 1 892-93). The earliest of these volumes, 

 the "Experimental Physiologie," seems to me in some 

 respects the best. If we compare it with previous books 

 on the physiology of plants we feel an enormous advance, 

 not only in the fire and vigour with which it is written, 

 but especially in the absence of compilation ; it reads like 

 an original paper rather than a treatise, and it was in 

 fact largely founded on the activity of twelve of the best 

 years of his life. Between 1853, when his first paper 

 appeared in the Czechish journal if/Va, until 1865, just 

 before the publication of the " Experimental Physiologie," 

 he published (according to the Royal Society's Catalogue) 

 si.xty-eight papers, of which, however, the two or three 

 earliest ones were not botanical. The book gives internal 

 evidence of being written with the delight of a strong 

 man in his work, and Sachs has been heard to say that 

 he wrote it with a pleasure greater than that given by 

 any of his later books. 



On the other hand he spoke, if I remember aright^ 

 somewhat wearily of the years of section-cutting and 

 microscopy needed for his "Text-Book." This may 

 serve to remind us of what we are apt to forget — the 

 mass of original matter hidden in this admirable book. 

 In his last book, the " Lectures" of 1882, he returned to 

 what best suited his turn of mind — a broad, general view 

 of physiology. At the same time he handed over the 

 re-editing of the histology, the detailed morphology and 

 classification in the " Text- Book," to his friend and pupil 

 Goebel.» 



The "Text- Book" has no doubt had a greater effect 

 on botany than any one of his other books. The modern 

 botanist is sometimes assumed to be ignorant of taxo- 

 nomy, but a man who has worked practically through 

 Sachs' " Text-Book " knows more of the classification of 

 the vegetable kingdom as a whole, than the older botanist 

 who knew the phanerogams minutely, but little beyond 

 them. As a single proof of the fruits arising from a 

 proper understanding of the taxonomy of plants, it may 

 be pointed out that paheobotany has only been rendered 

 possible as a science by the sort of knowledge inculcated 

 by Sachs. Witness the work of Solms Laubach and 

 Nathorst and others on the continent, and of .Scott and 

 Seward in this country, as compared with the efforts of 

 earlier workers. The effect of Sachs' "Text-Book" in 

 England was intensified by the great revival of scientific 

 teaching instituted by Huxley, in which the all-import- 

 ance of practical work was insisted on. And thus the 

 learner of those days had the good luck to be supplied 

 with Sachs' "Text-Book" just when he was spurred on 

 by his teacher and by the spirit of the times to examine 

 the histology and physiology of plants for himself 



As a teacher in the laboratory Sachs' position w-as 

 equally great. He was most generous in receiving pupils,, 

 and those of us who had the good fortune to be of that 

 number must always remember with gratitude his genial 

 welcome and the pains he took with us over our work. 

 To some it was a first introduction to a research labora- 

 tory, to a region where, if examination is not quite 



J The English translation of a later edition appeared in 1874, under the 

 name of " Text-Book." 

 2 English translation, 1890. ^ English translation, 1887. 



•« English translation, under the title of " Outlines of Classification, &c., ' 



