100 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
one of the most unhealthy of all the German hospitals—so
unhealthy, it had been a question whether it should not be
completely closed; but since my uncle's method of treatment
of wounds had been adopted, the conditions had totally changed,
hospital diseases had been banished and the wards had become
models of healthiness. No wonder he felt enthusiasm on first
meeting the man by whose discoveries he had been able to
achieve so much for the welfare of his patients.
At a large public dinner given in Munich in my uncle's
honour we ladies were allowed to look down on the scene from
a gallery. I remember my uncle standing up to give his speech
in German, and the ringing and repeated cries of "hoch" with
which he was greeted amid clouds of tobacco smoke. From
Munich he visited hospitals in Wurzburg and Leipzig where he
was welcomed with equal enthusiasm. This was at a time when
his work had not received full recognition in England.
It was at University College that he first studied plants
under John Lindley, the professor of botany. I have often
heard him speak with admiration of the lucid discourses Lindley
gave his students; his definitions of botanical terms and the
simple formulae by which the larger natural orders of plants
could be recognized were never forgotten by my uncle, and were
passed on by him in the delightful lessons he gave in later years
to some of his nephews and nieces. The students were
encouraged to make herbaria. Battersea Fields was mentioned
as the locality where wild fritillaries could be gathered. My
uncle's collection of plants, made largely in the neighbourhood
of his home at Upton, Essex, between the years 1844 and 1848,
is still in good preservation and shows the care he took in the
choice of specimens and in pressing them. It has been presented
to the museum of the Essex Field Club, and possesses considerable
historical interest in illustrating the change that has taken
place within the last eighty years in what was then pleasant
country but which is now a densely populated district.
My uncle always kept his love of flowers. From each
expedition made abroad a collection of wild flowers would be
brought back, carefully pressed in paper prepared beforehand
by being dipped in a weak solution of corrosive sublimate;
this had the effect of warding off insects and mould. Every
specimen had a label marked with the name, the locality and