Kurt, a learned botanist of Germany, was born on the 3rd of August 1766 at Boldekow, in Pomerania. His father, who was a clergyman, superintended his early education, and succeeded in laying a broad and solid foundation of scholarship, on which Sprengel in after years reared so much. In addition to the ordinary classical authors, he united a knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic, and had already begun the study of botany, as his small work, *Anleitung Zur Botanik für Frauenzimmer*, 1780, still testifies. He began his studies in theology and medicine in Halle in 1784, and took his medical degree there three years afterwards. In 1789 he was appointed extraordinary professor of medicine in Halle; in 1795 he was advanced to be ordinary professor in the same department; and two years subsequently was made professor of botany. Since he began his studies at Halle he had published his *Beiträge zur Geschichte des Pulses*, 1787; *Galen's Fieberlehre*, 1788; *Apologie des Hippokrates*, 1789; *Versuch einer pragmat. Gescl. der Arzneilunde*, 1792-99; and his *Handbuch der Pathologie*, 1795-97. The celebrity of these works brought Sprengel into notice, and he got numerous calls to fill various important chairs, both in and out of Germany. All such invitations he respectfully declined, and continued a close resident in his Alma Mater to the end of his life.

Learned societies vied with each other in bestowing honours on the learned botanist of Halle. Upwards of seventy academies, learned and otherwise, presented him with their honorary diplomas. Kings also conferred on him their royal badges of distinction. Sprengel's head was not turned by such amazing success; he continued industriously to ply his favourite studies, by which he ultimately became one of the most learned men in Germany.

The record of Sprengel's works is the story of his life. He published his *Antiquitates Botanicae* in 1798, which was followed by his *Geschichte der Medicin*, 1820, which had been begun in 1792. His *Historia Rei Herbariae*, 1807; his *Institutiones Medicae*, 1809-16; his *Flora Holsteinia*, 1806; and his *Von dem Bau und der Natur der Gewächse* 1811, form the most important of his works. Sprengel died of grief for the loss of his son, who had been professor of surgery at Greifswald, on the 15th of March 1833.