Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/425

Rh one else. He found time to compose papers on the silk manufacture of Berlin, on insects and parasites, which were illustrated with his own drawings, and to begin an extensive work on birds. He was a student of the Slavic languages, and through his Latin dictionary, which one of the Grimms said would not grow old, contributed very much to German lexicography. As a student of chemistry he greatly improved the famous Berlin blues. In 1703 there were 22 members of the academy residing in Berlin, 19 in 1707, 20 in 1711, and at this time there were 32 foreign members. During the sixteen years which he led the academy, Leibniz wrote between five and six hundred letters on its behalf. This was in addition to the papers he contributed to its sessions and to the work he did on the two or three volumes it published. The death of the queen, on February 10, 1705, was a serious loss to the academy as well as to Leibniz, Work on the building to be used as an observatory proceeded so slowly that the astronomer labored at a great disadvantage. Still he discovered a comet and made some valuable observations. He died after ten years' service and was succeeded by his assistant, John Henry Hoffmann, who was followed by the younger Kirch, who endeavored to carry forward and greatly extend his father's work. But the academy was cramped through lack of means. These were so small that it could only publish a brief report of an eclipse of the sun, and of a few meteorological observations made in Belgrade by Schutze. Fifty thalers ($37.50) were sent Christian Sturm, of Frankfurt a. O., for scientific observations which proved of little value, and seventy-five dollars were set aside for the purchase of a Hebrew Bible found in China.

As early as 1705-6 it looked as if the academy could not survive. Its condition was desperate. Leibniz came to Berlin on its behalf and was more successful than usual in securing the favor of the king, who at this time gave it twenty-one hundred thalers ($1,575) for the purchase of ground on Dorotheen Street which it still owns. Volume L of the Berlin Miscellanies, edited by Leibniz and Cuneau, appeared in 1707. Yet in 1709 La Croze, the royal librarian, said the academy was 'a society of obscure men,' but its fame was soon increased by the