528 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the article was in the hands of the printer. Miiller's manuscripts are 

 said to have been the " terror " of all typesetters. 



There was one peculiarity of this man of genius which, though 

 perhaps a fault, no doubt favored the high degree of productiveness 

 which Muller manifested throughout his life. This was his indiffer- 

 ence to the formal completion of his written works. At the culmination 

 of a certain line of investigation, in which he had arrived at definite, 

 and usually important, results, he found too attractive the conclusions 

 and speculations dependent upon these results, to spend his precious 

 moments preparing or finishing his manuscript for the general reader. 



Although Muller took, in the earlier part of his life, a certain 

 interest in art, literature and music, it was usually the practical alone 

 which was of consequence to him; and if this phase of the subject 

 were once assured, he went forward in his work without much regard 

 for the polishing or the agreeable rounding-off of his subject. And 

 yet, had Muller lived under different influences and if he had dedi- 

 cated to the superficial side of his work the same carefulness, we are 

 bound to say that, like Cuvier, he too would have been a master of 

 scientific style. But in spite of this tendency, in what Muller did 

 write he was usually most thoughtful of the manner of his expression. 

 He would sometimes read to members of his department, without dis- 

 closing the object, descriptions of certain forms to see whether or not 

 he could awaken in his hearers the conception which it was his desire 

 to implant. He was accustomed to enhance the value of his descrip- 

 tions by forceful comparisons wherein the wealth of his imagination 

 is readily recognizable. The dredging apparatus which worked before 

 his laboratory window, the hood-like cap of Frau Martha, the little 

 dagger of Cornelius, the sketch of Faust — all these common objects 

 of his sight while hanging on the walls of his study were employed, 

 as much else, for the elucidating of certain phases of the problems 

 which occupied him at the time. 



When we come to consider the nature and actual value of Miiller's 

 scientific work, it appears that in general he has more developed the prin- 

 ciples set in motion by others, than himself given to the world epoch- 

 making discoveries. In his teachings of the glands, of the voice, of 

 the sense of sight and of the tumors, he has, with a tremendous power of 

 work, heaped up an amount of raw material which not only became 

 united in his own system, but has furnished a basis for much of the 

 work in physiology since his time. It was Muller who first clearly 

 recognized the interrelation of psychology and physiology. We remem- 

 ber that in his doctor's thesis he defended the position : " Psychology 

 is nothing without physiology." In this regard Miiller's own investi- 

 gations, wherein he formulated his doctrine of the specific energy 

 of the sense organs, demonstrated how fully dependent psychology 

 might be upon physiology — a conception which in more recent times 



