22 



Prof. Ernst HaecTcel 



the Saale River, or wandering over Europe, Asia, or Af"ca 

 as the knight-errant of Science, or defending her latest ac- 

 quis tions against retrogrades and Phihstmes in t^ie scien- 

 Tfic assemblies of GernTany and Europe, and finally receiv- 



ing their honors. . ^^c,. 



He was born at Potsdam, near Berlin, Eebruary 16, 1834, 

 within a day of the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bruno 

 rFebruarv 17, 1600) and two years after the death ot 

 (Joethe who is still remembered as the presiding genius 

 of the Saale Valley-of Jena and the neighboring Weimar. 

 Haeckel's chief characteristic— we may say inheritance— 

 S a cMld seems to have been a love of nature, which psU- 

 fied his being called a German Lmn^us His love of flow- 

 ers began in the cradle. When but twelve years of age we 

 are totd, he was quite a botanist, and had collected two 

 herbaiSms_one k^i< in which he had placed what were 

 then called typical forms, all carefully labeled as sepa- 

 rate and distinct species, while in the other a secret one 

 were placed the " bad kinds," presenting a_ long series of 

 specimens transitional from one good species to another 

 Such discoveries were at that time the forbidden fruits ot 

 knowledge, which, in leisure hours, were his secret dehglit 

 —a delight which grew from year to year. 



While at the Gymnasium, or high school, he prepared a 

 botanical work for publication. At the university he de- 

 termined to enter upon the medical profession as the open 

 gateway to the secrets of nature. As a student he seems 

 to have enioyed rare advantages. Under the distinguished 

 professors KuUiker and Leydig he studied physiology and 

 anatomy at Wiirzburg, and then under Prof. Johannes 

 Midler at Berlin, an instructor to whom he gives generous 

 meed of praise as his great teacher-for in this tone he feel- 

 ingly refers to him in his reply to, or rather duel with, the 

 cefebrated physiologist Rudolph Virchow m 1878. AV heicof 

 he then spoke he must have known well, for ^^c was also 

 the student and assistant of this same redoubtable hudolpU 

 Virchow, and apparently a favorite of his, until his course 

 of preparatory medical studies closed. At their conclusion 

 we find ]iim settling down as a practicing physician at lier- 



lin in 1858. , ■■ i. • i „„ri 



But it was evident to his instructors and friends, and 

 finally to himself, that he was called by nature to, let us 

 gay, a diflercTit rather than a higher work— for can there be 

 a higher than the worthy practice of medicine? As early 



