Abstract
THIS is an intensely human document, not a book of natural history. Amalie Dietrich was the daughter of a leather worker, of Siebenlehn, in Saxony. She was almost uneducated when she married a ‘naturalist’, an affair of temporary passion on his part. She became his slave, educating herself, learning to collect and mount plants and animals, carting his vasculum and baskets. He lived in the clouds, mostly of his own conceit, happy over a new plant which perchance would be called after him. Excursions were made all summer, and in the winter they took the road, visiting town after town, finding out from chemists the addresses of naturalists who might buy their collections. Later Amalie writes: “I used to trail all over the country with dear faithful Hector [the dog]! The cart was so heavy and the road often so bad, we had to endure hunger, frost and heat, and ceaseless crushing anxiety as to our daily bread, and you [her daughter].” It is a vivid picture of the collecting craze and of the rivalry that arose out of the work of Linnæus, especially keen in the various State centres of Germany.
The Hard Road: the Life Story of Amalie Dietrich, Naturalist, 1821–1891.
By her daughter, Charitas Bischoff. Pp. 317. (London: Martin Hopkinson, Ltd., 1931.) 10s. 6d. net.
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G., J. The Hard Road: the Life Story of Amalie Dietrich, Naturalist, 1821–1891 . Nature 129, 455 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129455a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129455a0
