Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/53

HUMBOLDT Bonplnnd, and Kunth, in the following works, which form the sixth part of his "Travels:" Plantes equinoxiales, recueillies an Mexique, dam Pile de Cuba, &c. (2 vpls., 1809 et seq., with 144 plates) ; Monographic des melastomes et autres genres du meme ordre (2 vols., 1809-'23, with 120 colored plates); Nona Genera et Spe- cies Plantarum, &c. (7 vols., 1815-'25, with 700 plates) ; Mimoset et autres plantes legumineu- ses du nouveau continent (1819-'24, with 60 plates) ; Synopsis Plantarum, &c. (4 vols., 1822-'6); Revision des graminees (2 vols., 1829-'34, with 220 colored plates). The zo- ological results of his travels are contained in his Recueil d? observations de zoologie et d'ana- tomie comparee (2 vols., 1805-'32), in the pub- lication of which he was aided by Cuvier, Latreille, and Valenciennes. Another costly work, the Vues des CordilUres et monuments des peuples indigenes de VAmerique (1810, with 69 plates), contains elaborate pictures of the scenery of the Andes and of the monuments of the ancient civilization of the aborigines. The study of the great architectural works of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians led Humboldt to investigations of their languages, records, early culture, and migrations. In this de- partment his treatment was peculiar, for his Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nowcelle Espagne (2 vols., 1811) contained statistics united with the facts of natural history, and presented various doctrines of political econo- my from a new point of view. Especially ori- ginal and influential were his reflections on the culture of the soil under different climates and on its effects upon civilization, and on the cir- culation of the precious metals. Besides his general works, he made many special investi- gations, as his treatise on the geography of the middle ages, in which he appears at once as historian, astronomer, and savant, his chemical labors with Gay-Lussac, his system of isother- mal lines, his experiments on the gymnotus and on the respiration of fishes, and numerous contributions to physical geography. Soon after his return from America he gave a gen- eral sketch of the results of his inquiries in his Ansiehten der Natur (Stuttgart, 1808), in which he aimed to present a picture of the physical world, exclusive of everything that relates to the turmoil of human society and the ambitions of individual men; and in the evening of his life ho determined to give a sys- tematic view of the results of his investigation and thought in the whole domain of natural science. This was the design of his Kosmos (5 vols., Stuttgart, 1845-'62), which explains the physical universe according to its dependen- cies and relations, grasps nature as a whole moved and animated by internal forces, and by a comprehensive description shows the unity which prevails amid its variety. He lived to complete this work, but the last volume was published after his death. It was translated into almost all the European lan- guages, and has been without an equal in giving an impulse to natural studies. To his personal influence is due nearly all that the Prussian government did for science in the latter part of his life. Agassiz says of him : " The per- sonal influence he exerted upon science is in- calculable. With him ends a great period in the history of science ; a period to which Cu- vier, Laplace, Arago, Gay-Lussac, De Candolle, and Kobert Brown belonged." His personal habits were peculiar. He slept but four hours, rose at 6 in the winter and 5 in the summer, studied two hours, drank a cup of coffee, and returned to his study to answer letters, of which he received hundreds every day. From 12 to 2 he received visits, and then returned to study till the dinner hour. From 4 till 11 he passed at the table, generally in company with the king, but sometimes at the meeting of learned societies or in the company of friends. At 11 he retired to his study, and his best books are said to have been written at mid- night. Many of the works of Humboldt are now almost inaccessible on account of their great cost. A new edition of his select works was published in Stuttgart in 1874, in 36 num- bers, including Kosmos, with a biographical sketch by Bernhard von Cotta ; Ansiehten der Natur, with scientific explanations ; and Seue in die Aequinoctialgegenden des neuen Conti- nents, by Hermann Hauff, the only authorized German translation of this work. English translations of his " Travels," " Views of Na- ture," and " Kosmos " are contained in Bonn's "Scientific Library," of which they constitute nine volumes. The translation of "Kosmos" has been republished in New York in 5 vols. 12mo. The centenary of Humboldt's birth, Sept. 14, 1869, was celebrated in Germany and the United States, and eulogies were pro- nounced by many of the foremost scientific men of the day, among whom were Bastian, Dove, Ehrenberg, Virchow, and Agassiz. Many biographies of him have been published, the best being Alexander von Humboldt, eine wissenschaftliche Diographie, edited by Karl Bruhns, a joint production of Ave-Lallemant, Oarus, A. and H. W. Dove, Ewald, Grisebach, Lowenberg, Peschel, Wiedemann, Wandt, and the editor, aided by the friends and relatives of Humboldt, and by the Prussian government (3 vols., Leipsic, 1872 ; English translation by Jane and Caroline Lassells, "Life of Alexan- der von Humboldt," 2 vols., London, 1872). See also his Brief e an Varnhagen von Eme avs den Jahren 1827-'68, published by Ludmille Assing, with extracts from Varnhagen's diaries (Leipsic, 1860) ; and Les 'barons de Forell, by Alexandre Daguet (Lausanne, 1873), containing many letters of Humboldt and an interesting account of his negotiations in Madrid for the exploration of the Spanish possessions in both hemispheres. HMIIIOMIT, Karl ilhcliii von, baron, a Ger- man scholar, brother of the preceding, born in Potsdam, June 22, 1767, died at Tegel, April 8, 1835. In 1788 he went to the university of