24 LEOPOLD VON BUCII. 



But sick or well, Humboldt's studies went on. He con- 

 tinued bis experiments on galvanism, turning bis atten- 

 tion chiefly to tbe laws of muscular irritation, and the 

 disposition of the nerves of living animals when under 

 the galvanic influence. He wrote a work on tbe subject, 

 " Experiments on Nervous and Muscular Irritation," and 

 sent it to bis old teacber, Blumenbacb, who publisbed it 

 for bim, with notes and comments of bis own. 



The brothers went to Berlin in May to settle tbe family 

 inheritance, previous to making a journey together into' 

 Italy. "William's share was the old castle at Tegel, Alex- 

 ander's the estate of Ringenwalde, in Neumark. He 

 sold it to the poet Franz Von Kleist, to raise the neces- 

 sary funds for his great journey. 



The unsettled state of affairs in Italy preventing the 

 contemplated journey, William and his family determined 

 to proceed to Paris. Alexander went with them as far 

 as Saltzburg, w r here he was induced to stay awhile by 

 bis friend Leopold Von Buch. Buch, who bad just pub- 

 lished a scientific work, " Outlines of a Mineralogical De- 

 scription of Landeck," had been, as the reader remem- 

 bers, one of his fellow-students in the Mineralogical 

 Academy at Freyberg, and was like him a believer in 

 tbe Neptunic theory of Werner. Humboldt afterwards 

 called bim " the greatest geologist of the age." A scientific 

 trip was proposed, and the pair stalled off on foot, armed 

 with their geological hammers, and a change of linen. 

 They travelled through several cantons of Saltzburg, and 

 Styria, and reached the Tyrolese Alps. While on this 

 Bohemian trip Humboldt made the acquaintance of Lord 

 Bristol, an English nobleman, who had visited tbe coasts 

 of Greece and Illyria, and bad planned an expedition 



