CARL LUDWIG AND CARL THIERSCH. 353 



upon his pupils. It is only too easy for young physicians to become 

 callous to human suffering, which they are daily called upon to wit- 

 ness, and unless carefully guided by a teacher their manner toward 

 patients may easily become inconsiderate. Like his deceased col- 

 league, Wagner, Thiersch was one of those teachers whose benevolent 

 dispositions exercised an ennobling influence over their pupils, and at 

 once checked any tendency toward coarseness in word or thought. 



The striking power of Thiersch's personality was at once felt by 

 any one with whom he came in contact. His decisive bearing, his 

 clear and sure judgment gained great respect for him in all circles. 

 Among his surgical colleagues and at our academic meetings his 

 opinion was depended on as a decisive one in all difficult questions. 



As companions in the faculty, Ludwig and Thiersch supple- 

 mented one another admirably. Each one fully appreciated the 

 other's value. Ludwig's aims were always of an ideal nature and 

 always high. In the struggle to reach them he knew no compromise. 

 It often seemed to me as if Ludwig, in his somewhat austere severity, 

 was the embodied conscience of the faculty. Thiersch, on the other 

 hand, with his intelligent insight, always knew where to find the 

 starting point from which the object to be sought for was accessible. 

 Both men were equal, however, in their sincerity and in the inde- 

 pendence of their dispositions, both absolutely free from private con- 

 siderations, and only anxious for the well-being of the institutions 

 intrusted to them. 



The names of Carl Ludwig and Carl Thiersch will be reverenced 

 by our university for many years to come. Long will she be proud to 

 have possessed two such large-minded and noble men. Such a pos- 

 session is lasting in its consequences, for it will have an elevating 

 and strengthening influence on coming generations. The memory 

 of both men will always be blessed. 



While fully recognizing the influence of the inheritance of the imagi- 

 nation of his grandfather and the acute observation of his father on the 

 formation of Darwin's scientific habits, Mr. A. R Wallace mentions as 

 other factors which have been usually overlooked the five years 1 voyage 

 and his persistent ill health. During a very large portion of the five years 

 on the Beagle, Darwin must have been practically alone and thrown on his 

 own mental resources ; and this mental solitude of an active mind, fur- 

 nished continually with new and interesting facts on which to exercise the 

 imaginative and reasoning powers, led to the formation of those original 

 and suggestive ideas which were the foundation of his greatness. Hardly 

 less important was the almost continuous ill health, which, while not pre- 

 venting work or shortening life, obliged him to live in the country, free 

 from the distractions of society, where his active mind could only be satis- 

 fied by continual study and experiment. 

 vol. lit. 27 



