XX111 



many days before his death, his sufferings were indeed very painful 

 to "witness. His mind was, however, perfectly clear ; he fully recog- 

 nised his position, and was entirely resigned to it. He passed away 

 quietly, and without any pain towards the last. — J. H. G. 



Charles Adolphe Wurtz was born at Wolfisheim, a village near 

 Strasburg, on the 26th November, 1817. 



His father, Jean Jacques Wurtz, tbe Protestant minister at 

 Wolfisheim, was a man of considerable literary culture, but of a 

 somewhat gloomy disposition. His mother, Sophie Kreiss, was singu- 

 larly cheerful and sweet-tempered, had a sound clear head, and was 

 most conscientious in the discharge of her duties in life. She was 

 the intimate friend and confidant of her son until her death, which 

 took place quite recently, namely in 1878. 



Young Adolphe spent his early childhood at Wolfisheim, and he 

 probably owed to his country life as a child the robust health which 

 he enjoyed in after life. 



As Wolfisheim was not many miles from Strasburg, the Wurtz 

 family, although living in the country, were by no means isolated, 

 and had frequent opportunities of enjoying the society of their various 

 friends and relations. Besides other friends, Madame Wurtz's two 

 brothers, Theodore and Adolphe Kreiss, would often come out to 

 spend Sunday at the parsonage, and the intelligent conversation of 

 these two distinguished men probably contributed in no small measure 

 to the moral and intellectual development of young Wurtz. 



In the year 1826 Jean Jacques Wurtz was appointed to the church 

 of St. Pierre-le-Jeune, in Strasburg, and Adolphe now joined the 

 classes of the Gymnase Protestant, a school of secondary instruction, 

 founded by Jean Sturm at the period of the Reformation. 



As a schoolboy Adolphe Wurtz did not specially distinguish him- 

 self. During the eight years he attended the Gymnasium he obtained 

 several prizes for diligence, one for geography, one for memory and 

 elocution, besides mentions for history and geography, for Latin and 

 Greek translation, mathematics, and French verse. He appears to 

 have worked industriously and steadily at the various subjects 

 taught him, but not to have particularly distinguished himself in any 

 one. Hence it is not surprising that his father, with his morose 

 disposition, should on more than one occasion have told the boy 

 that he would never do anything remarkable in life. 



A free course of botany was open to the pupils of the Gymnase 

 Protestant, and in 1828 young Wurtz attended this course, which 

 doubtless contributed to the development of his faculties of observa- 

 tion, and to give him his taste for natural history. Years afterwards, 

 when fully entered upon his career as a chemist, he still took a 

 pleasure in reading the works of the naturalist Oken. 



