66 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



and physics. Helmholtz himself tells how a Professor of Physio- 

 logy, celebrated for his literary activity, and a witty speaker, 

 replied with annoyance when invited by a physicist, during 

 a discussion upon the images in the eye, to accompany him 

 to his home to see the experiment, that 'a physiologist had 

 nothing to do with experiments, though they might be well 

 enough for the physicists ' : while a Professor of Pharmacology 

 and academic reformer, who tried to persuade Helmholtz to 

 divide his physiology, taking the intellectual part himself, and 

 leaving the lower experimental side to a colleague, gave up all 

 hopes of him when he explained that he regarded experiment 

 as the true basis of science. 



When at last Johannes M tiller and A. von Humboldt were 

 convinced (before the full publication of the experiments) of 

 the correctness of his work, Helmholtz sent a short account 

 of it on March 29 to his father : 



* I have another six weeks* vacation, and am using this time 

 to prosecute my discoveries in regard to the transmission of 

 nervous activity, extending it to as many cases as possible, 

 and getting it ready for publication. Since my first note to 

 the Academies of Paris and Berlin I have been studying the 

 point in man also, and here too have found it possible to 

 demonstrate that the time required for a message from any 

 part of the body to reach the brain (e. g. ^V second from the 

 great toe) is longer in proportion to the distance it has to 

 travel, while another interval of time is required before the 

 process that excites contraction can be transmitted from the 

 brain through the nerves to a muscle. ? I expect to finish 

 the experiments, and get them worked up these holidays. My 

 first communication has been published in the Monatsberichte 

 of the Academy in Berlin, and the Comptes Rendus of the 

 Academic in Paris, and I have had two very appreciative letters 

 about it from J. Muller and A. von Humboldt. I call this 

 work a bit of good luck, for it will not fail to excite attention. 

 That it will be noticed in Paris, though perhaps not with a 

 very good grace, is shown by a scoffing article in the National, 

 by the reporter who has already been heckling du Bois- 

 Reymond. Unluckily I have not been able to get hold of 

 the article here. Don't let this distress you : one cannot 

 expect the French to take such things kindly from a German, 



