i88 3 J 
Analyses of Books . 
169 
luminous principle laid down by Galilei, that in astronomy and 
physics, and in like manner in geology and biology, the Scrip- 
tures merely embody the current notions of the day when they 
were written, and can claim no scientific authority whatever. 
Reinhold Buchholz Reisen in West Afrika , nach seinen hinter- 
lassenen Tagbiichern und Briefen , nebst einem Lebensabriss 
des Verstorbenen .* Von Carl Heinersdorff. Leipzig : 
F. A. Brockhaus. 
We have here to call the attention of our readers to the career 
and the researches of a most able and promising naturalist, lost 
to Science at the early age of 39. In his earlier history we find 
much which powerfully excites our sympathies. He was, so to 
speak, a born student of nature, and especially a zealous ento- 
mologist — not, be it understood, like so many boys, a mere 
collector, but an intelligent observer. He was, too, like ourselves, 
in early life an enthusiastic admirer of Oken, whose works he 
eagerly devoured. Both in his home at Juditten, a district 
famed for the richness of its flora and insedl-fauna, and afterwards 
at the house of his guardian, Herr Becker, in Konigsberg, where 
he became a pupil of the local college (Gymnasium), he enjoyed 
full opportunity for the prosecution of his favourite pursuits. 
Unhappily, his guardian, a government official, was transferred 
to Berlin, and placed young Buchholz in the Jaochimsthaler 
Gymnasium of that city. This was the most unhappy part of 
his life. He was not understood either by his companions or by 
the heads of the institution. It was, apparently, one of those 
narrow, Procrustean establishments, less common in Germany 
than in England, where the individuality of the pupils was 
ignored, aud where one inflexible curriculum was imposed alike 
upon all. The occupations of the boys even in the hours of leisure 
were, as far as possible, brought under an Adi of Uniformity, in 
a manner that reminds us of the compulsatory foot-ball and 
cricket in some of our English public schools. As an incipient 
naturalist, he was regarded as a black sheep, and some disorder 
having occurred in the establishment, he was advanced to the 
rank of scape-goat, and expelled without a particle of evidence. 
This injustice was, in reality, fortunate. He returned to Konigs- 
berg, where the head-master of the Collegium Fridericianum 
understood his disposition, and where he soon became the pride 
and the ornament of the college. Here he gained the friendship 
of Dr. Julius Schumann and Professor Zaddach, both naturalists 
* Travels of Reinhold Buchholz in West Africa, from his Journals and 
Letters, with a Sketch of his Life. 
VOL. V. (THIRD SERIES.) 
N 
