Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Büchner, Frederick Charles Christian Louis
BÜCHNER, Frederick Charles Christian Louis, a German philosopher, born at Darmstadt, March 29, 1824, the son of a distinguished physician in that town. After a preliminary education, he was sent in 1843 to the University of Giessen, where he studied philosophy, though he subsequently turned his attention to medicine at Strasburg, in compliance with the wishes of his family. He took his doctor's degree at Giessen in 1848, and then continued his studies in the universities of Würzburg and Vienna. After practising medicine for some time in his native place, he settled at Tübingen, as a private lecturer, being also appointed Assistant Clinical Professor. He was deprived of this position, however, by the authorities, in consequence of the philosophical doctrines propounded in his famous book on "Force and Matter," 1855. He thereupon returned to Darmstadt, and resumed practice as a physician. In the work referred to—which is entitled in German "Kraft and Stoff" (Frankfort, 1855; 8th edition, 1864), and which has been translated into most European languages—Dr. Büchner explains the principles of his system of philosophy, which, he contends, ia in harmony with the discoveries of modern science. He insists on the eternity of matter, the immortality of force, the universal simultaneousness of light and life, and the infinity of forms of being in time and space. Dr. Büchner has further explained his system in "Nature and Spirit" ("Natur und Geist"), 1859; "Physiological Sketches "("Phis. Bilder"), 1861; and "Nature and Science" ("Natur und Wissenschaft"), 1862. He has also contributed to periodical publications various treatises on physiology, pathology, and medical jurisprudence.