482 Professor A. W. Pucker [March 8, 



who, by sheer force of the genius that was in him, passed on from 

 success to success till he was recognised by all as the admirable 

 Crichton of modern science, the most widely cultivated of all students 

 of nature, the acknowledged leader of German science, and one of 

 the first scientific men in the world. 



It is the more fitting that this evening should have been set aside 

 for the consideration of the work of Helmholtz, in that England may 

 claim some share in his greatness. Before her marriage his mother 

 bore an English name — Caroline Penn ; she was, as her name implied, 

 of English descent. His father was a Professor of Literature in the 

 Gymnasium at Potsdam, so that his early days were passed amid 

 that plain living and high thinking which are characteristic of in- 

 tellectual circles in Germany. The boy did well at school, and when 

 the time came for choosing a profession, his passion for mathematics 

 and physics had already developed itself. The course of his love for 

 these sciences did not run quite smooth. The path of his ambition 

 was crossed by the hard necessity which in some cases checks, in 

 others fosters, but in all chastens the aspirations of youth. He had 

 to make his livelihood. Science must be to him what the Germans 

 happily call a " bread-study." Medicine offered a fair prospect of 

 prosperity. Physics, in those days, was but an intellectual pastime. 

 And so the young man took his father's advice, and became an army 

 doctor. In this, as in so many other cases, " the path of duty was 

 the way to glory." 



It is possible that if von Helmholtz had been what — with a sad 

 consciousness of the limitations it implies — I may call a mere 

 physicist, he would Lave played a greater part in the development of 

 some of those subjects, the study of which he initiated or helped to 

 initiate, but did not thereafter pursue. It is possible that had he 

 been a biologist, and nothing more, he would have followed up the 

 early investigation in which he dealt a blow at the theory that 

 ptitrefaction and fermentation are chemical processes only, clearly 

 indicating, if he did not actually demonstrate, that the decay which 

 follows death is due to an outburst of low forms of life. 



He might thus under other circumstances have done work for 

 which he showed his competence, but which is now chiefly associated 

 with other names ; but it is certain that without the unusual combina- 

 tion of wonderful mathematical power and a professional knowledge 

 of anatomy, he would never have accomplished the special tasks 

 which it is his special glory to have achieved. 



His first three papers, however, hardly displayed the fusion 

 between his various powers which was afterwards so remarkable a 

 characteristic of his work. The first two were on biological subjects. 

 The third was the famous essay on the ' Conservation of Force.' I 

 have told elsewhere the story of the dramatic circumstances under 

 which it was given to the world, of the interest it excited among the 

 members of the Physical Society of Berlin, the refusal of the editor of 

 Poggendorff's Annalen to publish it, and the final triumph of the author 



