Meeting of the cultivators of natural science and medicine at Hamburgh, in September 1830 / [Jas. F.W. Johnston].

  • Johnston, Jas. F. W. (James Finlay Weir), 1796-1855
Date:
[1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Meeting of the cultivators of natural science and medicine at Hamburgh, in September 1830 / [Jas. F.W. Johnston]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    niversary. It seems indeed an unreasonable demand on the part of the Copenhagen men of science, and one which would greatly enhance the evils arising from distance, and want of access above alluded to, to ask a transfer of the place of meet¬ ing from Germany to the Danish islands. It is the king of Denmark who is anxious for a visit of so many learned men, in the hope that it may give an impulse to the science and education of his own dominions, which he is sincerely desirous to foster and encourage by every means in his power. But could the Danes and Swedes forget their mutual hostility,— and what have science and scientific men to do with national animosity,—it were better to institute a “ Scandinavian So¬ ciety,11 in imitation of the German, and such as we hope to see before long in the British islands- This society would embrace Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark proper,—and the Duchies might also be included ; and in this wide field, which has pro¬ duced so many of the greatest men in science, there are ample materials for the formation of a scientific anniversary of the most splendid description. Were Berzelius, Oersted, and Pfaff’ to unite their efforts, the matter would be accomplished at once. There are in each country able and promising men to second them, and the governments of Denmark and Sweden would not be slow in rendering them every necessary assistance. The meetings would not be so numerous as those in Germany now prove to be, but from that very circumstance they would derive an additional interest, and be doubly beneficial. I con¬ sider it one of the greatest objections to the German meetings, that they have now become so numerous as to defeat the great object for which they were instituted,—to enable men of science to cultivate an acquaintance with one another. It was only necessary, for example, to attend the late assembly at Ham¬ burgh, to see how impossible it was for such acquaintances to be formed to any extent. The pleasantest davs I spent there were at the commencement, when I had leisure to learn to know well a few men. When the crowd came, every body- accosted every body, and no particular person could be met with at any one time or place. You saw faces, and were in¬ troduced to people for whom you cared nothing, and when you had at last laid your hands upon a man whose conversation