io HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



town, and got pretty tired. This morning at eight I commenced 

 my doctor's examination. I had to do my curriculum vitae 

 in German and Latin. There was not time to make a fair 

 copy of the Latin. The examination is all in writing. I don't 

 know how long it will last/ 



Helmholtz returned with the news of his success to his 

 delighted parents at Potsdam, and then gave himself up once 

 more to severe and regular study of the most heterogeneous 

 subjects, devoting himself to each in turn with the same interest 

 and enthusiasm, though he could not forbear to say in his 

 curriculum vitae a year later : ' quorum (veterum scriptorum) 

 cognitio quantum valeat ad conformandum animum, nemo est, 

 qui ignoret; deinde maxima atque plurima debeo Schmidtio 

 professori, quum aliis in disciplinis, turn in historiis, quibus 

 nihil est praestantius ad cognoscendam naturam hominum et 

 populorum. Pater meus artis poeticae et oratoriae praecepta 

 mihi dedit, quarum ilia et iucundissima est et utilissima ad 

 elocutionem elegantem et copiosam. Omnium disciplinarum 

 autem maxime iam a pueritia me delectavit physice et mathe- 

 matice, quibus eruditus sum a Meierio, viro harum rerum 

 peritissimo.' 



After a full year's work, in which he not only prepared 

 for the Abiturienten examination, but also, in view of his 

 medical career, embarked on the scientific studies that had 

 hitherto been outside his curriculum such as botany and 

 zoology, with the elements of anatomy from Oken's Natur- 

 geschichte fur alle Stdnde, and physiology from Magendie's 

 Textbook his father sent him off with some other boys of 

 his class to the Harz Mountains. They took long walks, 

 to the great benefit of his none too robust constitution, absorb- 

 ing the influences of Nature and Art at the various places 

 where they halted. 



Refreshed in mind and body by this expedition, Helmholtz 

 and one fellow-student embarked upon the written part of the 

 Abiturienten examination, which lasted from August 20-25. 

 His translation of sixty lines of the Hecuba of Euripides was 

 marked ' very satisfactory ' ; his French version of a piece of 

 two columns called Die Katakomben was * excellent ' ; while the 

 Hebrew professor gave him the highest praise for his Latin 

 commentary on Deut. ix. 1-3, which was not a compulsory 



