LEWIS DAVID VON SCHWEINITZ. 



169 



Here he made the acquaintance of Prof. J. B. de Albertini, who 

 became his fast friend and his fellow-worker in botanical in- 

 vestigations. After completing his course as a student he 

 became a teacher in the academy. His leisure at Niesky was 

 occupied in the pursuit of his favourite science, in general read- 

 ing and study, and in writing for the literary journals of the 

 time. In his Memoir of von Schweinitz, read before the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Walter R. Johnson 

 says of his literary activity at this time, " Scarcely any im- 

 portant topic in the wide field of science escaped his notice, 

 and especially did the constitution and management of the 

 affairs of his social and religious fraternity call forth from his 

 pen many able and spirited articles." 



The first published botanical work of von Schweinitz ap- 

 peared in 1805, when he was twenty-five years of age. From 

 the beginning of his residence at Niesky he had given especial 

 attention to the fungi, previously little studied. The associa- 

 tion with Albertini had continued and the discoveries of the 

 two friends in this field had been so many as to warrant the 

 publication of a volume of about four hundred pages on the 

 fungi of Lusatia embodying the results of their united efforts. 

 It was written in Latin, as was still the custom for scientific 

 works in Europe, and the twelve plates, containing figures of 

 ninety-three new species, with which it was illustrated, were 

 drawn and engraved by von Schweinitz's own hands. In this 

 work the authors creditably refrained from the then too com- 

 mon practice of giving new names to the already known plants 

 included in their descriptions. They were convinced that nat- 

 ural history had been grievously burdened by the accumulation 

 and confusion of synonyms, many of which promoted no other 

 purpose than an unworthy ambition. 



Soon after this Mr. von Schweinitz began to preach, and in 

 1807 was called to the Moravian settlement at Gnadenberg, 

 not far from Niesky. " Considered as literary performances," 

 says Johnson, in the memoir already cited, " his sermons were 

 characterized by the utmost simplicity, both in style and de- 

 livery, and were addressed more to the heart than to the head. 

 His discourses were invariably practical, not argumentative 

 experimental, not speculative." It was now the time of Na- 

 poleon's continental wars, and troops were quartered at Gna- 

 denburg. The inhabitants found the presence of the soldiery 



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