2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY 
identified, and even cultivated them, without, however, losing 
all the lively interest of a boy in other amusements. 
Near the town house of the Sachs at Breslau there stood in * 
a large garden a small one-storied structure, insignificant from 
without, and much restricted within. From this unpretentious Ee 
building, however, there was exerted upon the scientific world — 
without a mighty influence, and from this place there went out ~ 
young men inspired by the zeal of an exact, experimental investi- _ 
gator, and pledged to enrich the store of biological knowledge. a 
That little house was the laboratory of the famous physiologist — 
Purkinje. It was, perhaps, the first place where exact physio-— 
logical experiments were successfully performed. In this gar- : 
den young Sachs was the playmate of the two sons of Purkinje. 
They were three keen and enthusiastic observers with a common — 
and absorbing interest in nature. Purkinje, who, in addition to a 
his studies in animal physiology, occupied himself to some — 
extent with botanical investigations, very soon recognized the@ : 
gifts of young Sachs, and aroused in him an active interest in 
the work of the laboratory. At this time, besides Sachs, there | a 
were others at work in the Purkinje laboratory who later became © 
noteworthy botanists. Among these were Ferd. Cohn and Nu 
Pringsheim. 
At about this time iy misfortune fell to the lot of thes 
Sachs family. In 1848 an apoplectic stroke killed the father, 
and scarcely a year later cholera took from the seventeen-year- 
old boy his mother and a brother. Not yet out of the gymnas 
sium, young Sachs was thrown wholly upon his own resources. 
With new determination he continued his work at sketches, litho- , 
graphs, and painting, and sought thereby to sustain himself at 
his studies. That was no easy task, however, and already the | 
young man, with his characteristic determination, had decided 
to become a sailor, when Purkinje, who had meanwhile accepted 
a call to Prague, afforded him an opportunity to come there. 
Sachs was received as a son into the Purkinje house at Prague. — 
He was enabled to complete his interrupted course at the Gym- 
nasium, and meanwhile assisted Purkinje, and had much to do- 
He EO Po 
