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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1069 



microscopical work and ttirned his atten- 

 tion to theoretical questions. One of his 

 former students and assistants. Professor 

 Alexander Petrunkewitch,- to whom I am 

 indebted for much valuable information 

 concerning his personality, says that al- 

 though he was usually quiet in manner, he 

 invariably became nervous and unhappy in 

 the presence of moving objects, which pain- 

 fully affected his eyes. 



A short autobiography published in Lamp 

 in 1903 gives a glimpse of his family life: 



During the ten years (1864—74) of enforced in- 

 activity and rest occurred my marriage to Friiulein 

 Marie Gruber, who became the mother of my chil- 

 dren and was my true companion for twenty years 

 until her death. Of her now I think only with love 

 and gratitude. She was the one who more than 

 any one else helped me through the gloom of this 

 period. She read much to me at this time, for she 

 read aloud excellently, and she not only took an 

 interest in my theoretical and experimental work, 

 but she also gave practical assistance in it.3 



His great work on the "Natural History 

 of the Daphnoidea" (1876-79) is dedicated 

 to "My father-in-law, Adolph Gruber, in 

 thankful memory of the beautiful hours of 

 leisure spent on the shores of Bodensee." 

 His colleague, the anatomist Wiedersheim, 

 married another daughter of Gruber who 

 was a Genoese banker. After the death of 

 his first wife Weismann married again when 

 abouty sixty years old, but not happily. 

 One of his daughters married the zoologist 

 W. N. Parker, who translated into English 

 his best-known work "The Germ Plasm." 

 A son was trained as a professional violinist. 



Weismann, like so many other natural- 

 ists, was of an artistic disposition. He 

 loved nature, art and music and he was an 



- 1 am also indebted to Professor H. H. Wilder, 

 of Sniith College, and to Professor J. S. Kingsley, 

 of the University of Illinois, for information re- 

 garding the family life and personality of Weis- 

 mann. 



3 Quoted from Locy 's ' ' Biology and its Mak- 

 ers, " p. 401. 



accomplished pianist. During the periods 

 when he suffered much from his eye trouble 

 he says that he "found solace in playing a 

 good deal of music." He was an enthu- 

 siastic admirer of Beethoven, but could not 

 appreciate Wagner. His artistic tempera- 

 ment is further shown in many of his 

 essays, which for beauty of expression are 

 rarely surpassed in scientific literature. 



He was an excellent speaker, being simple 

 and earnest in manner and never indulging 

 in jokes. His lectures on evolution, which 

 were delivered regularly for almost forty 

 years, were famous and always attracted 

 great audiences. As a teacher of advanced 

 students he was stimulating and helpful, a 

 kind critic and an attentive listener. 



He took no active part in polities, but, like 

 many German professors, was a member of 

 the "National Liberal" party. In philos- 

 ophy he held tenaciously to a mechanistic 

 conception of nature, but he believed that 

 extreme mechanism was consistent with 

 extreme teleology; indeed, he held that 



The most complete mechanism conceivable is 

 likewise the most complete teleology conceivable. 

 With this conception vanish all apprehensions that 

 the new views of evolution would cause man to 

 lose the best that he possesses — morality and purely 

 human culture. 



In his philosophy as in his scientific con- 

 troversies he was extremely tolerant. He 

 was interested in the promotion of knowl- 

 edge, but was not aggressive nor offensive 

 in manner. 



Inasmuch as his life was so largely given 

 to the extension and support of the Dar- 

 winian theory, it is interesting to hear from 

 himself how that theory first came to his 

 attention. After remarking, "I never 

 heard evolution referred to in my student 

 days, ' ' he describes the influence on himself 

 of Darwin's book in these words : 



I myself was at the time in the stage of meta- 

 morphosis from a physician to a zoologist, and as 



