JOHANNES MULLER 531 



edge of the appropriate both in speech and in action. In his domes- 

 tic life Miiller appears to have been a true husband and to his son 

 and daughters a good father. His home life was of the pleasantest 

 ■ — at least until the misfortune of ill-health in his later life. 



As Miiller's work as a whole is most comparable to Haller's, so 

 we can say that his personality must have had much in common with 

 that of Pasteur. In both we see the fine sensitiveness of mind, the 

 same modesty in self-assertion, the same love of simplicity, the tenac- 

 ity of purpose, the scrupulousness for details and the same religious 

 devotion to the hardest labor: these attributes make up a character 

 not altogether common in the general biography of the older school 

 of natural scientists. 



Miiller's address was characterized by that stiff formality peculiar 

 to the old school type of German professor; and yet with this he com- 

 bined the dexterity and activity of the more modern scholar. His 

 conversation was never productive. The constant consideration of 

 the various problems of his activity was usually uppermost in his 

 mind and, although he would talk pleasantly and interestingly of 

 many varied subjects, as art, architecture and music, it was to some 

 phase of his labors that the further discussion of these subjects almost 

 invariably led back. And yet, in the circle of his own family, in a 

 group of personal friends, or on his vacation and outings with his nets 

 and microscopes, he could be the most congenial fellow, entering with 

 enthusiasm into whatever duty, sport or pastime presented. Eecrea- 

 tion for its own sake, however, Miiller seems never to have desired. 

 Yet in his earlier years at Berlin, he was seldom seen exhausted. In 

 his later life, however, the intense nervous strain under which he 

 worked was a source of much regret to his many friends; and the 

 knowledge of his frequent use of opium and other alkaloids to bring 

 him sleep a deeper source of sorrow to those who knew and loved him 

 best. 



As a teacher in the anatomical theater and in the class room, as 

 also a guide of young investigators in the laboratory, Miiller possessed 

 an extraordinary ability. And yet, in the beginning he had no natural 

 gift of speaking, no eloquence and no talent for foreign languages. 

 Indeed, his early years as academic lecturer at the University of Bonn 

 were, in this particular respect, not in the least promising. With con- 

 stant practise, however, he was later able to develop a clearness in 

 speaking, and a straightforwardness of expression, which, in itself, 

 approximated to the gifts of eloquence, so that at Berlin he was con- 

 sidered one of the best of university lecturers. His delivery was never 

 of the demonstrative sort, which held an audience spellbound by its 

 bubbling vivacity, its ravishing fire of words, or through a kaleido- 

 scopic blending of current witticism with scientific truth. He never 

 went rambling in a lecture, either in thought or in person. His de- 



