696 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. Vn. No. 17 



think of his ' Experimental Physiology,' his 

 ' Text-book ' in four editions, his ' History 

 of Botany ' and his ' Lectures on the Physi- 

 ology of Plants.' Although he wrote Tvith 

 ease, he bestowed great care upon composi- 

 tion, and usually made several rough 

 sketches before the work was done to his 

 satisfaction. In later years he generally 

 dictated, and the 'Lectures' were written 

 in this way. The great debt owed by mod- 

 ern botany to his ' Text-book ' can scarcely 

 be appreciated even yet by the younger 

 generation of botanists. 



Xo entirely satisfactory text-book had ap- 

 peared since Schleiden's ' Outlines, ' a book 

 that contained much that was critically 

 suggestive, but, on the other hand, was 

 one-sided and tinged by the author's per- 

 sonal prejudices ; nor had the later editions 

 of it been brought up to date with the ad- 

 vance of science. Sachs' book was the first 

 to make iSTLigeli's and Hofmeister's re- 

 searches known to the world. It was writ- 

 ten in an unusually clear, literary style, 

 and contained all that was best according 

 to ' the present state of science,' as the title 

 page says, especially the author's important 

 physiological researches. The letter-press 

 was interspersed with numerous illustra- 

 tions, chiefly Sachs' own work and not 

 seldom the results of laborious, tedious ex- 

 periments. These illustrations have been 

 frequently reproduced and, contrary to 

 Sachs' express wish, have become common 

 property. Too often it has been consid- 

 ered quite unnecessary to obtain his con- 

 sent to the use of the figures, and the ap- 

 pearance of a newer text-book decked out 

 with his own illustrations elicited from him 

 the somewhat bitter though just remark 

 that a student, using this book, would 

 surely think that he (Sachs) was employed 

 by the author to illustrate his work. To- 

 wards the end of his life the frequent re- 

 visions needed for a text-book became a 

 burden to him ; he could not make up his 



mind to a fifth edition and he wrote his 

 ' Lectures ' in a freer style of exposition. 



The book, however, that presents the best 

 insight into Sachs' individuality is his ' His- 

 tory of Botany. ' Xiigeli had originally been 

 commissioned to undertake this work, which 

 was to form a part of ' The History of Sci- 

 ence in Germany,' issued by the Eoyal 

 Academy of Bavaria, but he had soon 

 abandoned the task. It cost Sachs five 

 years' continuous toil. As with all human 

 work, it has many defects and omissions, but 

 the lucidity, the profound philosophical 

 bent of Sachs' mind, lend an incomparable 

 charm to the whole. An English transla- 

 tion of this work appeared in 1S90. 



If I further attempt briefly to characterize 

 Sachs' importance with respect to science it 

 is with a due sense of the difficulties of the 

 case. His activity was so comprehensive, 

 the results of his researches have become, 

 through his ' Text-book,' so largely common 

 property that it is not easy briefly to set 

 forth what he has done for science. One 

 would have to write a history of botany 

 from 1S60 onwards to justly rate his 

 services. But this is by no means the place 

 for such a work, nor do I feel equal to the 

 task. The extracts already given show 

 that he was no one-sided physiologist, and 

 he was fully aware of the fact. '•' It may 

 surprise you," he writes, "that from my 

 boyhood the mysteries of relationship (sys- 

 tematic botany) have interested me more 

 than those of biology and physiology. I 

 have apparently specialized in the last- 

 named branch of science, because I have 

 always been of the opinion that the ulti- 

 mate problems of systematic botany can 

 only be solved by physiological methods." 

 His latest treatises most clearly reveal what 

 he meant. 



De Bary's remarks with respect to Mohl 

 apply more or less to almost all distin- 

 guished investigators (•' Bot. Zeitung,' 1S72, 

 p. 572): "As regards a number of dis- 



