May 13, 1898.] 



SCIENGE. 



667 



him with titles and orders ; as early as the 

 autumn of 1871 his colleagues chose him for 

 their rector, and he was repeatedly elected 

 to the Senate. 



With the commencement of his profes- 

 sional life at Wiirzburg, Sachs' 'Wander- 

 jahre' came to an end. They had been, 

 as the preceding facts show, beset with 

 difficulties. " I was thirty-six years old 

 when, with a salary of about 2,000 guldens, 

 I came to Wiirzburg and found a hole 

 in which to hide my head. During the 

 three previous years, in which I had laid 

 aside the ' Experimental Physiology ' and 

 had been writing the 'Text-book,' I had had 

 a severe struggle, in the strictest sense of the 

 word, to provide for the wants of my family. 

 I was thirty-seven years old when I suc- 

 ceeded for the first time in investing 200 

 thalers in the public funds, and had for 

 twenty years daily worked from fourteen to 

 fifteen hours. As you see, my life has not 

 been an easy one, and yet I wish that things 

 went as well with me now as they did then, 

 for what I have been through since is truly 

 more than a man can bear." 



The strong expression that he uses in 

 speaking of the laboratory at Wiirzburg 

 shows that there was much to be desired 

 both in it and in the gardens attached to it. 

 The laboratory which under his direction 

 obtained a world-wide reputation and at- 

 tracted young botanists from all parts was 

 housed, together with the clinical schools 

 and the Institute of Pharmacology, in a 

 building that contrasts most modestly with 

 the handsome modern structures that have 

 arisen in many universities. And yet 

 how much he accomplished in it ! Lit- 

 tle by little the whole of it came to be 

 given up to botanical purposes, Sachs 

 being much too modest to insist on a 

 new botanical laboratory in spite of the 

 fine new buildings that were erected for 

 the other sciences. He contented himself 

 with the addition of a very beautiful and 



suitable lecture-room. He was particularly 

 anxious about the garden, which was laid 

 out on barren soil made up chiefly out 

 of the rubbish-heap of an old fortress. 

 He gave it his own personal and devoted 

 attention, and was rewarded by a luxuriant 

 vegetation where formerly there had been 

 but a barren waste. Later on he divided 

 off a small part of the garden for special 

 purposes, and this he attended to himself 

 with the help of his laboratory servant. 

 There he made open-air experiments, and 

 there also was the well-known Schilderhaus 

 (sentry-box) for experiments in etiolation, 

 etc. The cultivation of strong, healthy 

 plants for the purposes of investigation was 

 in his opinion an essential part of experi- 

 mental physiological work ; he excelled in 

 the art and deemed it worthy of individual, 

 personal attention. There were almost in- 

 variably plants growing in his work-room, 

 but in the summer time, when growth was 

 going on in the plant-world, it was essential 

 to him to make constant observations out 

 of doors and to meditate upon his investi- 

 gations as he strolled about the garden. 



The astonishing amount of work that he 

 managed to get through from his earliest 

 days could not but affect his constitution. 

 He said himself that he had paid for each 

 of his books with wearisome ill-health, and 

 even the strongest nerves could not stand 

 such ceaseless labor. Added to this came 

 his wife's long tedious illness which un- 

 doubtedly helped to undermine his strength. 



Bearing these facts in mind, it is perhaps 

 more possible to form a just estimate of his 

 relations with the outer world. The latter 

 part of his life found him a lonely man who 

 had estranged many of his friends by bitter 

 and sometimes even unjust criticisms. We 

 shall perhaps condone his trenchant ani- 

 madversions upon the botanical writings of 

 his day if we remember how his sensitive, 

 highly strung temperment must have suf- 

 fered at times from the irritation of private 



