MO Williclm II is 



vate sc'lmol in a t'ountrv town, he received a ii-aiiiing so rigorous that it 

 makes one sluulder to tliiiilv of it. At the age oi' tiiirteeii, he returned 

 to his home in Basel and entered tiic (i3'nmasiuni from wliieh he gradu- 

 ated five years later, in 1849/ During his years in the Gymnasium, His 

 rated only as an average pupil, for his bent toward physics and natural 

 history was great, and what spare time he had was devoted to these sub- 

 jects. He also photographed a great deal, the art then being still in its 

 infancy; he constructed his own camera and made his own plates. Tn 

 those days the professors of the University taught also in the higher 

 classes of the Gymnasium (the Pedagogium, as it was called), and it was 

 from them that he received his greatest inspiration. Especially grate- 

 ful was he to the Professor of German for a thorough training in the 

 use of the German language in which he had received such a good start 

 in his father's house. 



Throughout life the good command of language he had gained and the 

 marked technical ability he had ac(iuirod were of the greatest use to him 

 in furthering the cause of anatomy; it is interesting to note that these 

 powers were developed long before he entered the University. It was 

 fortunate for him and for anatomy that he came under the influence of 

 able men early in liis career. 



]\rost of his student friends had decided to study law and naturally 

 His thought that he must accompany them. JTis inward feeling was 

 drawing him towards natural history, but he felt that one's inclination 

 is to be viewed as a forbidden fruit and therefore he had nearly decided 

 to go with the stream of his fellows. Before taking the final step, 

 however, lie consulted his superiors, one of whom was Winscheid, later 

 one of the foremost jurists of Germany. Winscheid advised him to fol- 

 low his own bent and tins carried him into medicine. 



As soon as he became a student of medicine in the university, he found' 

 himself free to follow his own inclinations. For the first few years he 

 devoted most of his time to the sciences. Anatomy, physiology, natural 

 history, psychology, chemistry and geology were studied at Basel and 

 Bern under a variety of men. He soon learned that for the student, the 

 quality of the teacher is more important than the sul)ject taught; in 

 order to have a great teacher and tlic important subject together, he de- 

 cided to study anatomy with Johannes ]\riiller, in Berlin. 



The lectures of Miiller were a revelation to him and ho felt for the 

 first time the inspiration of a strong personality. His learned from 

 Miiller and later from Peniak, how great an inll nonce a teaelier can have 

 upon a pupil, when, as an authority, he presents his own line of work. 

 Then the teacher and pupil stand upon the common field of nature. The 



