Medicine and the Physical Sciences in Germany. 299 



approbation on the assembled circle, and indeed, the monarch, 

 himself a real lover of science, had ordered that all the royal 

 museums and collections should be open during this period 

 to all the visiting men of science, who also had tickets of ad- 

 mission, of which, both early in the morning and in the after- 

 noon, the most diligent use was made. One of the most spa- 

 cious restaurateur-establishments at the top of the old town 

 was specially engaged, to be constantly open as a point of 

 union, and was supplied with suitable hospitality, of which 

 the visitors and many of the residents very agreeably partook. 

 In the middle of the week a splendid entertainment and 

 feast was given on the smiling shore of the Elbe to the visitors 

 and other friends of science. Ornamented gondolas, in the 

 front of which was a band of music, received the guests at the 

 bridge, and on their return they were greeted by a fire from 

 small cannon and music of a second band. The animated 

 view of the stream and of the amphitheatre of vine-clad hills 

 delighted all ; and the inspiration of the scene was heightened 

 by toasts and songs, and all the reciprocations of cordiality. 

 Among the guests were many ministers of state, literati, 

 poets, and artists of Dresden : in this pleasing variety, how- 

 ever, the leading object of the occasion was not forgotten ; 

 but on the contrary was promoted with unexampled activity. 

 So numerous were the essays and other communications which, 

 for the most part, were delivered without manuscript, that 

 many deemed it better to withhold what they had intended to 

 deliver, and had the time been twice as long there would have 

 been ample materials to fill it. No branch of medical or 

 natural science was passed over without being elucidated by 

 fresh information, or receiving some additional confirmation. 

 Physiology united with chemistry on the one hand, and with 

 comparative anatomy through the whole range of organic 

 nature on the other. Discourses on all subjects were de- 

 livered; — on those included in the wide range of the vegetable 

 kingdom by Treviranus of Breslau, and Reichenbach of Dres- 

 den. In mineralogy, Count Caspar Sternberg, the magna- 

 nimous promoter of the study of nature, delivered one on pe- 

 trified ferns, palms, and flowers, with references to his splen- 

 did work ; Counsellor Cotta of Tharand, on the volcanic phe- 

 nomena of the Kammerbuhl at Eger ; Professor Breithaupt of 

 Freiberg, on some of the newest minerals. In zoology, Pro- 

 fessor Eretschmar of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, delivered a 

 discourse on the African dogs and giraffes, which were first 

 brought to notice by Ruppels, and now appear in separate 

 copper-plates ; and at the same time the Professor gave criti- 

 cal notices of the latest preelections of Lichtenstein of Berlin 



2 P 2 concerning 



