investigations between 1828 and 1840, so far from being
obsolete, are the sources of our present knowledge, and from them every one must still draw who proposes to cultivate any portion of phytotomy. Meyen's views, in spite of the many
investigations which he made himself, are entirely confined
within the circle of thought represented by the Gottingen
essayists, though in his observations he went beyond them,
and even beyond Moldenhawer; but the phytotomical views
of these men were from the first no law to von Mohl; he took up
an entirely independent position at once with respect even to
Moldenhawer and Treviranus, though a longer time certainly
elapsed, before he succeeded in freeing himself wholly from
Mirbel's authority. For these reasons, and because Meyen's
work was interrupted by his death so early as 1840, while von Mohl aided to advance phytotomy for another thirty years, we will speak first of Meyen's labours in that department.
Meyen[1] is remarkable for the extraordinary number of his written productions. In 1826, at the early age of twenty-two, he wrote his treatise 'De primis vitae phenomenis in fluidis' two years later he published researches anatomical and physiological into the contents of vegetable cells, and in 1830 appeared his 'Lehrbuch der Phytotomie,' founded on his own investigations in every branch of the subject, with many figures on thirteen copper plates very beautifully executed for the time. His industry as a writer was then interrupted by a voyage round the world made in the years 1830-1832, but was again marvellously productive during the last four years of his life (1836-1840); it is difficult to conceive how he found
- ↑ Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen was born at Tilsit in 1804, and died as Professor in Berlin in 1840. He applied himself at first to pharmacy and afterwards to medicine, and having taken a degree in 1826 he practised for some years as a physician. In 1830 he set out on a voyage round the world under instructions from A. von Humboldt, and returned in 1832 with large collections. He was made Professor in Berlin in 1834. There is a notice of his life in 'Flora' of 1845, p. 618.
