August 13, 1903] 



NA TURE 



345 



Forsyth, F.R.S., has consented to deliver an address 

 on "Universities: their Aims, Duties, and Ideals." 

 Invitations have been issued to many members of the 

 British Association, as well as to others interested in 

 educational work. 



THE CENTENARY OF HEIDELBERG 

 UNIVERSITY. 



ON August 5-8 the University of Heidelberg cele- 

 brated the centenary of its re-establishment. The 

 university, one of the oldest universities of the modern 

 world, was originally lounded in 1386 by the Palsgrave 

 Ruprecht I. of the Palatinate. At that time Heidel- 

 berg was the seat of the princely residence and capital 

 of this wealthy State of the middle ages, and the 

 young university did good work from the point of view 

 of those times. The " German Medici," Otto Hein- 

 rich (1556), delivered the university from the chains 

 of scholastic pedantry and inspired in her the ideas of 

 the Renaissance and of the Reformation. The thirty 

 years' war had a disastrous effect on this town and its 

 university, as, indeed, it had on all Germany ; 

 nevertheless, the Elector, Karl Ludwig (1650), again 

 gave it a short period of prosperity. But with the year 

 16S5 commenced for the Palatinate and the university 

 a long period of sorrow and loss. 



Soon the positions held by broad-minded inquirers 



and teachers were occupied by imperfectly educated 



members of Catholic Orders, and the university sank 



to a mere confessional school. Scientific research 



I degenerated into the school-divinity of the middle ages, 



appointments were given by those in control to their 



\t relatives, and very strict tests in matters of faith were 



\ imposed. 



The result was that, during the eighteenth century, 

 scarcely any work of scientific value was done by the 

 university, and the number of students sank to a 

 minimum. The condition of affairs was made still 

 worse by the loss of the income hitherto derived from 

 the possessions on the other side of the Rhine, which 

 were then in the hands of the French. 



Though the Bavarian Prince, into whose hands 

 Heidelberg had fallen in 1799, commenced to break 

 the dominion of the monks, and though he sought to 

 procure new incomes for the impoverished university, 

 her renovation was really the work of the Badish 

 Prince, Carl Friedrich. 



By the division of Germany in 1803, Heidelberg 

 came into the possession of the Elector, Carl Friedrich, 

 who later became the Grand Duke of Baden. With- 

 out delay, he commenced to re-establish the Heidel- 

 berg University, to give to her a broad constitution 

 resting on high ideals, and last, but not least, to pro- 

 cure the necessary money. 



He endowed the university with an annual sum of 

 50,000 florins, which had to be raised by the State. 

 He reserved to himself the office of " Rector " of the 

 university, a charge which since that time has rested 

 in the hands of the Grand Dukes. The essential 

 principle of the reorganisation is to be found in the 

 rule that " the professors' chairs shall be filled by the 

 most worthy competitors, without any consideration 

 of their religion." 



The names of the first professors of that time are 

 still well known. I only recall the names of the 

 theologians Daub, De Wette, Paulus, the jurists 

 Thibault and Zachariae, the physician Naegele, and 

 the philosophers T. H. Voss, Cr'euzer, and Bokh. It 

 is the centenary of this reorganisation that the uni- 

 versity has just now celebrated. 



Indeed, what these beginnings promised, the nine- 

 teenth century has seen fulfilled, and the university 

 has taken her place among the foremost of the world. 

 Excellent scientific laboratories, observatories, and 



NO. 1763, VOL fSS] 



hospitals have been built, a monumental library-build- 

 ing is in the process of construction, and the first 

 modest annual endowment of 50,000 florins has grown 

 to one of 800,000 marks, to which has been added a 

 regular special grant, amounting in the budget of 

 1902-03 to almost exactly a million of marks, so that 

 at the present time about 65,000 pounds sterling are 

 expended annually upon the university. 



If one remembers that Baden has about two millions 

 of inhabitants, and that it possesses not only one, but 

 three universities (Heidelberg, Freiburg, and the 

 Karlsruhe Polytechnicum), it must be confessed that a 

 great work has been accomplished. The number of 

 professors and docents of the Heidelberg University 

 is now 151, that of students 1884. 



The work of the university during the nineteenth 

 century has received the acknowledgment of educated 

 men all over the world. The development of the 

 history of Christianity is connected with the Heidel- 

 berg names, Hitzig, Ulmann, Rothe, Schenkel, and 

 Holsten ; lawyers and political economists appreciate 

 fullv the influence of Vangcrow, Windscheid, Blunt- 

 schli, Mittermaier, Renaud, and Knies; physicians will 

 remember the names of Chelius, Pfeuffer, Arnold, and 

 Gegenbaur. The names of the philosophers Hegel 

 and Zeller are known far and wide. Well known, 

 too, are the philologists Koechly, Ribbeck, VVachs- 

 niuth, Zaugemeister, and Bartsch, and the historians 

 Schlosser, Hiiusser, Gcrvinus, and Treitschke. The 

 mathematicians Hesse and Fuchs, and the leaders in 

 natural science, Hofmeister, Kekule, Kopp, and 

 above all Bunsen, Kirchhoff and Helmholtz, have 

 spread the glorv of Heidelberg over the world. 



The greatest 'credit for the success of the Heidelberg 

 University in the past century must be attributed to 

 the Grand Duke Friedrich, now seventy-six years old, 

 who — during the fifty-one years in which he has been 

 Rector — has made the university what she is to-day. 



In the evening of August 5 the students formed a 

 torch-light procession in honour of the Grand Duke. 

 The next morning, after a festival divine service, the 

 .Actus was held in the Aula of the university, where 

 the Grand Duke, the Minister, the deputations of other 

 universities and corporations, and the acting Prorector 

 of the universitv (Prof. Czerny) delivered addresses. 

 .\fter a banquet' a reception was given by the city in 

 the poetical ruins of the celebrated Heidelberg Castle. 



On .August 7 the historian of the university (Prof. 

 Marks) gave a historical address, concerning the de- 

 velopment of the scientific life of the university during 

 the past century. In the evening the students held 

 their great " C'ommers." 



The announcement of the honoris causa doctores 

 took place next morning. In the branch of medicine 

 the following men of science were elected : — M. T. H. 

 Dunant, Geneva; Prof. Sv. Arrhenius, Stockholm; Sir 

 W. Ramsay, London; Prof. P. Lenard, Kiel; G. 

 Schweinfurth, Riga; G. Moynier, Geneva. 



In the branch of natural science the following were 

 elected: — Mathematics, M. G. Darboux, Paris; 

 phvsics. Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, London ; astrophysics, 

 Sir William Huggins, London; chemistry. Prof. S, 

 Cannizzaro, Rome; mineralogy. Prof. F. Fouqu^, 

 Paris; astronomy. Prof. E. C. Pickering, Cambridge, 

 LT.S..\. ; zoology'. Prof. E. Maupas, Algiers; botany, 

 \. Cogniaux, Nivelles. 



In the evening of August 8 a reception was given by 

 the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess at their 

 castle in Schwetzingen. Sunday, August 9, was de- 

 voted to excursions in the neighbourhood, and at night 

 an illumination of the castle, and a great display of 

 fireworks on the Neckar, brought the festivities to a 

 close. 



The present generation has expressed by these 

 splendid meetings that it appreciates highly the benefit 



