December 25, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



949 



nons sous le nom d'activite de V dme, ne sont que 

 les fonctions de la substance eSrebrale, et pour 

 nous exprimer d' une fagon plus grossihre, la 

 pensee est d peu pres au cerveau ce que la bile 

 est au foie et V urine au rein, II est absurde 

 d' admettre une dme independante qui se serve 

 du cervelet coinme dhm instrument avec le- 

 quelle travaillerait comme il lui plait.''''* But, 

 through Du Bois-Eeymond, many have been led 

 to believe that it has a basis of truth, and now 

 nobody is shocked, it may serve as a work- 

 ing hypothesis for the psychologist. Its lack of 

 reserve on philosophical and theological points, 

 its outspoken denial of the immortality of the 

 soul, and other rude and unnecessary thrusts 

 at what was and is held dear by all Christen- 

 dom, led to the general condemnation of the 

 book. 



As late as 1875 the Bishop of Orleans, criti- 

 cising the review of the French translation of 

 this book, claimed that the ' honteuses et funes- 

 tes doctrines ' expressed in it afforded a basis 

 for the revival of communism in Paris. Even 

 on May 8, 1895, a French Catholic writer 

 ranked Vogt as a moral monster, even claim- 

 ing that he was as bad as some of the noted 

 murderers of the age. 



He also horrified all Europe in another way. 

 Up to 1848 custom demanded the use of the 

 razor. Vogt was the first man in Germany to 

 wear a beard. 



He aj)plied for the professorship of zoology 

 at Giessen, the place of his birth, for which 

 he was warmly recommended by Arago, 

 Agassiz, Liebig and others, and despite 

 the detraction and gossip of his opponents 

 he was elected. He arrived at Giessen in 

 April, 1847. The opening address of the new 

 professor electrified the students, who were 

 struck, as his biographer says, by the elevation 

 of his instruction, the ascendency of his amiable 

 spirit and his simple unpretending manner. 

 He had added the last details to the construc- 

 tion of a laboratory of zoology when rumors of 



* This expression is substantially in Cabanis, who 

 says: The brain produces ' la secretion de la pensee 

 (Eapports du Physique et du Moral de 1' Homme, 

 Paris, 1844, p. 138). See Lange, ii., p. 312, foot-note, 

 ■who adds, the editor, L. Peisse, remarks on it: ' Cette 

 phase est rest^e c(ilebre. ' 



the revolutionary movements of 1848, which 

 shook the continent to its foundations, spread 

 through the country and entered the uni- 

 versity town of Giessen. Vogt was a re- 

 publican, but not of the red shade of the 

 French school. He detested Eobespierre and 

 his allies. In later times he showed no sym- 

 pathy with socialists or anarchists. He simply 

 strove for freedom of thought and for justice 

 to the middle classes, such as is now en- 

 joyed, and opposed the reactionary spirit of the 

 wealthy aristocratic and ultra- clerical circles. 

 He was sent to the Parliament and directed the 

 radical left. His polemical spirit, his incisive, 

 caustic raillery, with his persuasive eloquence, 

 his sincerity of conviction and his civic courage, 

 coupled with his lack of pessimistic spirit, made 

 him conspicuous and obnoxious. He was, in 

 consequence of the rising of the republican ele- 

 ment, of which he was a natural leader, un- 

 seated from his chair at Giessen, in which he 

 was succeeded by R. Leuckart, the ' Nestor of 

 German zoology,' now the distinguished teacher 

 of so many distinguished zoologists at Leip- 

 zig. He fled with other refugees to Switzer- 

 land, settling down at Berne, but soon went 

 thence to Nice and resumed his former quiet 

 life as an investigator and writer. In 1851 he 

 translated the 'Vestiges of Creation.' The 

 * Eecherches sur les Siphonophores de la mer de 

 Nice' appeared in 1852, 



This volume with his embryology of the sal- 

 mon, placed him in the first rank of gifted in- 

 vestigators, such as Huxley, Kolliker, Leuckart, 

 Gegenbaur and Milne-Edwards. His sketches 

 were beautifully drawn, his talent for observa- 

 tion had now greatly developed and matured, 

 and his views were original. Meanwhile, he put 

 out a popular work, characterized as before by 

 a trenchant, iconoclastic, uncompromising hos- 

 tility to the prevailing philosophy and theology. 

 His Eecherches sur les Colonies Animales, a phil- 

 ippic bristling with political illusions, was placed 

 on the index by the Prussian government, and 

 a writer of the day, on account of the ' heresies 

 and blasphemies of this frivolous and trivial 

 book,' stigmatised it as ' an eternal stain on the 

 zoological literature of Germany.' One of his 

 most successful and widely read books was his 

 ' Zoologischer Brief e,^ sent to the printer in 1851. 



