Ferdinand von Mueller

1

For a printed version of this letter, see Home & Maroske (1997), pp. 44-5.

5/8/95

Best thanks, dear Chevalier Dejardin for sending the two pages, on which the information is given, concerning the Institut.

2

Letter not found.

Altho' I had last year from Prof Chatin (you saw Prof Chatin's letter last year)

3

Letter not found.

the official information of my election, there seems to have been a technical obstacle as in the place of Alphonse de Candolle his son Casimir, illustrious also since many years was elected.

4

M's understanding is incorrect; he was not elected in 1894 and his not being elected had nothing to do with Casimir de Candolle, who was never elected to the Académie. The Botany section of the Académie had positions for ten, not six, corresponding members. Several places were customarily allocated to botanists from other parts of France; leading international figures filled the remainder. Nathanael Pringsheim, professor of botany at the University of Berlin, died in October 1894 and M was elected as his replacement on 1 July 1895. Alphonse de Candolle's death in April 1893 had not created an opening for a new Correpsonding Member of the Botany section, since he had for many years held the much more exalted rank of Associé étranger.

Prof Duchartre (who died since as an octogenarian) wrote me,

5

Letter not found.

that there was no vacancy on the list of corresponding Members, 6 like the 6 ordinary Members for Botany. (The names of the Correspond. Members of the Institut are not given in your Almanac.) The six were Prof Pringsheim in Berlin, Count Saporta, Sir Jos Hooker, Dr Masters, Dr Treub (Java). Of these this year Prof Pringsheim died, and I received a telegram

6

Telegram not found.

from Prof Cornu a month ago that I was elected in his place, and by the last french mail the formal letter from the Institut signed by the two permanent secretaries, Bertrand

7

J. L. F. Bertrand.

and Berthelot, I learn that I was elected unanimously .

8

Letter not found. M's election was not unanimous: of 37 votes cast at the ballot, he received 34, Julius von Sachs 1, and two were blank; see Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, vol. 121, July-Dcember 1895, p. 39, where it is said that M was elected 'ayant réuni la majorité absolue des suffrages' [having received the absolute majority of the votes]. M may have misunderstood 'la majorité absolue' as meaning 'unanimous'.

Count Saporta died also this year, and in his place as corresponding Member was elected Prof Sachs of Würzburg who holds one of the highest position for physiologic Botany.

9

M's understanding is incorrect again. Following his death in January 1895, Saporta was replaced by Ferdinand Cohn (1828-98), professor of botany at Breslau, who was elected a week after M. Julius von Sachs (1832-97), professor of botany at Würzburg from 1868, was never elected to the Académie.

I feel deeply indebted to the French Savants.

Would it be possible for you without much trouble to obtain the newest record of the present Status of the Institut? My friend, Sir Rich Owen, Prof Helmholtz

10

Both Richard Owen and Hermann von Helmholtz had held the rank of Associé étranger in the Académie.

and some others are also dead since the print submitted by you, was issued.