Scientific Meetings. 881 



to draw public attention to science, and to excite governments 

 to examine into the condition of their scientific institutions, and 

 to seek for men of science competent to fill the chairs of public 

 instruction. At Frankfort, in 1825, they were most honourably 

 received. The inhabitants of this town, which has no university, 

 vied with each other in the hospitable attentions they paid to 

 their distinguished visitors. At Dresden, in 1826, they had also 

 a very friendly reception. In 1827, Munich received them, but 

 we shall give Mr. Johnston's words. 



" The sixth meeting, in 1827, was held at Munich, the seat of a flourishing 

 university, opened only the preceding year under the favouring auspices of 

 Louis Maximilian of Bavaria. This city also deserves well of the society, 

 and the attentions of the king was such as it had not hitherto experienced. 

 Besides general attention to the comfort and accommodation of the whole 

 body, particular attentions were paid to the individual members ; and each 

 person, during the period of his stay, had an invitation to dine at least once 

 in the palace. They now began to reckon their number by hundreds ; and 

 the amount and variety of subjects brought forward at their public meetings 

 having increased beyond expectation, it was found necessary to break them- 

 selves up into sections, of which the botanists, an amiable and enthusiastic 

 race of men, first set the example. Thus time was gained ; men of like 

 tastes and pursuits brought more frequently and more closely together; and 

 every one spared the infliction of dissertations and discussions upon the 

 thousand and one subjects in which he felt no earthly interest : for, though 

 all cultivators of natural science rejoice in the advancement, and admire those 

 who successfully cultivate any one department, yet each one has his own fa- 

 vourite branch or branches, beyond which he has little anxiety to roam, and 

 unconnected with which, discussions, however learned, are often only tire- 

 some. It was a judicious plan, then, to make the separation into sections, and 

 thus to permit the shell and jiy men to discuss the mysteries of their several 

 ologies, without scandalizing the more grave and weighty pursuits of medi- 

 cine and oryctognosy. This practice, begun at Munich, assumed a more ex- 

 tended and definite form at Berlin, and was finally arranged and consolidated 

 at Heidelberg." 



But the most splendid meeting was at Berlin in 1828. The 

 number of strangers from Germany and the northern countries 

 amounted to two hundred and sixty-nine, for whom lodgings were 

 provided in good and convenient situations, gratis. Humboldt 

 presided, and the king and the royal family graced, with their 

 presence, some of the entertainments given to them. The dis* 

 tinguished reception the meeting received in this scientific capi- 

 tal, raised the Deutscher JVaturforscher Versammlung to the 



Vol. L— 36 



