508 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1032 



data concerning Marcgrave's boyhood, his 11 

 years of preparation for his life work, and his 

 6J years of exploration and study in Brazil, 

 were taken directly from a sketeli found in 

 Manget's " Bibliotheca Scriptorum Medi- 

 corum" (1Y31), and from authors who had 

 gotten their data from this article. At the 

 time the paper above referred to was written 

 I had not had an opportunity of examining 

 Manget's huge folio, and as the three gentle- 

 men who had looked it over for me found nothing 

 to indicate who was the author of the sketch 

 of Marcgrave therein contained, I was at first 

 inclined to think Manget himself the writer. 

 However, the sketch was vsritten in the first 

 person by a man who personally knew Marc- 

 grave, Count Moritz, Piso, and all the other 

 principals in the Dutch expedition to Brazil of 

 1637-38, and as Manget was not born until 

 some years after Marcgrave's death, I had to 

 content myself with referring to " the un- 

 known writer in Manget." 



During the Christmas holidays, 1912, while 

 at work in the libraries at Washington, I went 

 to the Surgeon General's Library and per- 

 sonally looked over the sketch of George Marc- 

 grave contained on pages 262-264 of Manget's 

 volume II., but found absolutely nothing to 

 indicate who was the writer. However, on 

 the adjoining pages were a number of short 

 sketches of various Marggrafs (the German 

 spelling of the name), all of which were 

 worked over. Presently I came to Christian 

 Marggraf (1612-1687) who, it was stated, 

 published " Prodromus Medicinae Practicse " in 

 1674, "Materia Medica Contracta" in 1674, 

 and in 1715 " Opera Medica Duobus Libris 

 Comprehensa." Following the last title came 

 this highly interesting statement: 



In hac libro anteponitur vita fratris ejus natu 

 majoris Gteorgii Marcgravii quam infra subjectam 

 videas. (In this book there is placed at the front 

 the life of his older brother, George Marcgrave, 

 which you may see appended below.) 



Search was immediately made through the 

 catalog of the Surgeon General's Library, and 

 the Prodromus and the Materia Medica were 

 both found, but the Opera Medica was lacking. 

 This search was extended to a number of the 



large libraries throughout the east, but none 

 of them contained the Opera. However, Mr. 

 Charles Perry Pisher, Librarian of the College 

 of Physicians, Philadelphia, kindly informed 

 me that the " Opera Medica " simply consista 

 of the " Prodromus " and the " Materia 

 Medica" united and republished under the 

 new title " Opera Medica " in 1715. Since the 

 book could not be found in America, an efFort 

 was made to locate it in Europe, and a copy 

 in perfect condition was reported in the 

 Library of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. 

 This book was wanted that it might be ascer- 

 tained whether Manget had published every- 

 thing that Christian Marggraf had v^ritten 

 about his brother George. About this time 

 a letter was received from Dr. Perlbach of the 

 Royal Library of Berlin, which effectually 

 cleared up the whole matter. (I had previ- 

 ously written Dr. Perlbach, who had supplied 

 me with much valuable data for the original 

 paper on George Marcgrave.) 



He stated that the Eoyal Library of Berlin 

 does not contain " Christian Marggravius : 

 Opera Medica Duobus Libris ■ Comprehensa, 

 Amstelodami apud Franciseum van der Plaats, 

 1715, 4° " ; but that it does have his " Pro- 

 dromus Medicinse Practicse, Lugduni Bata- 

 vorum, ex ofBcium Arnoldi Doude, 1673, and 

 1674, 4° " (it seems probable that the print- 

 ing began late in 1673 and ran over into the 

 next year) ; also it has the same " Editio 2 

 auctior Lugduni Batavorum apud Comelium 

 Bontestyn, 1685, 4°." Further the Royal 

 Library also has " Materia Medica Contracta, 

 Lugduni Batavorum apud Arnoldum Doude 

 1674, 4°," and the same "Editio 2 aueta 

 Amstelodami apud Henricum Wetstenium 

 1682, 4°." 



Touching the matter particularly in hand. 

 Dr. Perlbach then concluded: 



In the second edition of the Prodromus (1685) 

 there are found (following the preface [dated at] 

 Lugduni Batavorum, Calendis Februarii, 1685), 

 four unpaged leaves containing the life of George 

 Marcgrave, which Manget, Bibliotheca Scriptorum 

 Medicorum II., pp. 262-64, prints word for word 

 with the edition of the author. I have compared 

 the two texts, and with the exception of some 



