Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/687

Rh important discoveries in his dissertation entitled "Silvæ mycologicæ berolinenses" (1818), and in other essays. To the former he prefixed the motto, which became, as it were, the key-note of all his later labors and works:

While still a student, the novelty and exactness of his observations and researches, and the high order of his deductions, at once established their author's reputation; and many of the eminent scholars and professors of the Prussian capital encouraged and aided the rising investigator, among them Lichtenstein, Alexander von Humboldt, Rudolphi, Link, Klug, Von Schlechtendal, Adelbert von Chamisso, Carl Ritter, Kunze, E. Mitscherlich, and others. After having passed the state medical examination, he was proposed for a professorship at the University of Konigsberg, and also by the Berlin Academy of Sciences as a scientific attaché to an archæological expedition to the Nile countries, instituted by the Prussian General von Minutoli. He accepted the latter offer, together with his friend Dr. Hemprich, of Berlin. The expedition started from Alexandria in Egypt, in September, 1820, went through the Cyrenaica to the oasis of Jupiter Ammon, back to Cairo; in 1821 to Fajum, the pyramids of Sakhara, to Dongola in Nubia; in 1823 to the Sinai peninsula, to Syria, the Lebanon ranges, to Balbek and return by the way of Tripoli to Damietta. These expeditions were followed by others into Abyssinia, sailing down the Red Sea, stopping at and making trips to Tor, Djedda, Mecca, the islands of Gumfude, Ketumbul, Dalac, Farsan, etc. At Massauna the joint expedition came to an untimely end by the death of Dr. Hemprich in 1823. Ehrenberg then accomplished the plan of their mission alone.

To what hardships and dangers Ehrenberg was exposed for years while traveling through and exploring arid deserts, amid hostile tribes of marauding Arabs, during the prevalence of an epidemic of the plague, and unprovided with any of the comforts and conveniences of later expeditions, may be seen from the simple fact that the expedition lost seven of its members by death, and that of its scientific attachés Ehrenberg alone survived. He returned to Berlin in 1826, with magnificent collections of botanical, zoölogical, and geological specimens, embracing all departments of natural science, and an immense number of microscopical preparations until then unknown, and which remain for verification and ready inspection to this day. The extent and importance of these rare collections may be estimated by the mere statement that they included 46,000 botanical specimens, representing 3,000 species of plants; about 34,000 specimens from the animal kingdom, representing 4,000 species; while no less comprehensive were the