«64 



SCmNGE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 176. 



wholly distasteful to him, as the following 

 remark in one of his letters shows : " I 

 strongly disprove of the so-called ' physiolo- 

 gists,' to whom the commonest meadow and 

 garden flowers are unknown, especially as 

 such people generally have but little knowl- 

 edge of physics." And if he complained 

 many a time in joke of the foolishly unnec- 

 essary and tedious multiplication of phaner- 

 ogamic varieties he was far from under- 

 valuing the knowledge and study of them. 

 Indeed we shall come across instances of 

 the keen interest in the common problems 

 of systematic botany which constantly ap- 

 pears in his writings. 



It was his mother who conceived the 

 thought of allowing him to attend the 

 gymnasium, a privilege accorded to none of 

 his brothers, for this considering the family 

 poverty involved no slight risk. 



The years he spent at the Elizabeth 

 gymnasium formed a bright picture in 

 Sachs' life. The school work was con- 

 genial to him ; it lifted him out of the 

 petty surroundings of his home-life into 

 a higher sphere. He attended the gym- 

 nasium from 1845 to 1S50. Of the mas- 

 ters only one — Dr. Rumpelt — came at 

 all into personal contact with him. He 

 recognized Sachs' exceptional talents and 

 the two became good friends. On the other 

 hand, the natural science master, the lich- 

 enologist Korber, only repelled him. Kor- 

 ber could not instruct and had no concep- 

 tion how to impart anything worth knowing 

 about his subject. Sachs, therefore, woi-ked 

 on at his scientific pursuits unaided and 

 undirected. He read eagerly, without its 

 doing him any harm, Oken's ' Philosophy of 

 l^ature,' which he had bought at a sale for a 

 few pence, began to make a collection of 

 skulls, and wrote a monograph on the cray- 

 fish. Korber's attention was drawn to this 

 work by Dr. Eumpelt; he sent for Sachs 

 and solemnly warned him against devoting 

 himself to natural science, on the ground 



that it would not bring him in a half-penny' 

 One cannot but rejoice that this advice was 

 not acted upon. 



In the year 1848 Sachs lost his father, 

 and in the following year his mother. 

 Thus orphaned, he lived at first with his 

 brother, where, to his great joy, he was al- 

 loted a room in the roof which, otherwise 

 unattractive, afforded him the opportunity 

 of carrying on his scientific studies in his 

 scanty leisure. Here, for instance, he mas- 

 tered the Latin Anatomy of Bartholinus. 

 It became more and more imperative, how- 

 ever, that he should face his position. He 

 left the school (having risen to the upper 

 second form) and wished to go to sea. 



In the meantime Purkinje had been 

 called to Prague. He remembered his son's 

 friend and wrote suggesting that Sachs 

 should come to him as a kind of private as- 

 sistant. He was to prepare natural science 

 drawings and in return to receive the 

 modest salary of 100 florins a year and his 

 keep. 



After numerous difficulties with his guar- 

 dians, Sachs left Breslau on the 14th of Feb- 

 ruary, 1S51, for Prague. He found there 

 shelter, it is true, but no home. Purkinje 

 was a man of high attainments, for whose 

 genius Sachs had great respect. But their 

 peculiar temperaments, made it impossible 

 for them to understand each other, and the 

 elder naturalist had no word of recognition, 

 sympathy or encouragement for the younger. 

 He was of peasant origin and this stuck to 

 him all his life. Sachs, on the other hand, 

 felt himself — as he said with reason, in 

 spite of the reduced circumstances of his 

 family — to be a born aristocrat, and so there 

 could not fail to be friction between them. 



Whilst Sachs was at Prague the question 

 arose whether he should remain simply an 

 illustrator of scientific writings or should 

 carry on his studies further. Fortunately, 

 he decided upon the latter course, and, de- 

 spite the time that had elapsed since he left 



