XXIV 



On the 29th May, 1897, died Julius von Sachs, Professor of 

 Botany in the University of Wiirzburg, after six weeks' illness of 

 acute phthisis, the result of influenza. The following account of his 

 life is based upon information, kindly supplied by members of his 

 family, derived from a manuscript autobiography, which does not, 

 however, extend beyond the year 1882. 



Julius Sachs was born at Breslau on October 2, 1832. After 

 quitting the gymnasium in 1845, he appears to have turned his 

 attention to biological studies, for in 1851 he became private 

 assistant to the physiologist Purkyne at Prague. Whilst there he 

 entered upon a regular university course, devoting his attention to 

 animal anatomy and physiology, and subsequently, for two whole 

 years, to physics and mathematics. He must, however, have also 

 been studying botany at this time, for he soon began to publish 

 botanical papers ; but it is not clear under what circumstances he 

 pursued this study, for, though he inscribed himself for Kostelet- 

 zky's botanical lectures, it appears that he did not attend them. In 

 1856 he took his doctor's degree, the subject of his dissertation, 

 which was not published, having been Diffusion. Shortly after this 

 he finally adopted a botanical career, establishing himself in 1857 as 

 Privatdocent for plant-physiology in the University of Prague. 

 Whilst still at Prague, Sachs was invited by the Agricultural 

 Academy of Tharandt, in Saxony, to write a memorandum on the 

 importance of plant-physiology to agriculture, with the result that, 

 in April, 1859, he was appointed physiological assistant to the 

 Agricultural Academy there. In 1861 he was called to be the 

 Director of the Polytechnic at Chemnitz, a post which he held for 

 only four months, when he was transferred to Poppelsdorf, near 

 Bonn, as the Director of the Agricultural Academy at that place ; 

 here he remained till 1867, when he was nominated Professor of 

 Botany in the University of Freiburg-in-Breisgau. In 1868 he 

 accepted the Chair of Botany in the Bavarian University of Wiirz- 

 burg, where he remained until his death, in spite of calls to the 

 Universities of Heidelberg, Vienna, Berlin, Jena, Bonn, and Munich. 

 He was nominated a Greheimrath, and was ennobled by the King of 

 Bavaria, His election as Foreign Member of the Linnean Society 

 dates from 1878, and of the Royal Society from 1888. 



To give anything like an adequate account of Sachs' labours would 

 be to write the history of plant-physiology from 1857 to 1885, after 

 which time his active work, in consequence of ill-health 7 may be said 

 to have ceased. Nothing more that a mere sketch of his scientific 

 career will be attempted. 



It appears from the 'Catalogue of Scientific Papers,' that Sachs' 

 activity as an author dates from the year 1853, when he published 

 three papers in the Bohemian journal ' Ziva,' two of which were 



