162 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



left, all expecting to see more or less of us, and we had no 

 peace. The Congress itself was very successful (about 1,000 

 members), and there were many interesting and distinguished 

 visitors although the most important did not turn up more 

 in fact than one could profit by, so that I did not see a good 

 many I wanted to forgather with. The meeting was very 

 interesting, but a fearful rush for me, and I avoided most of 

 the social things. Olga was quite upset, because she had to 

 receive a number of visits in my absence. Only two of our 

 rooms were occupied. Prof. Dove of Berlin and v. Wittich 

 from Konigsberg came to us. They were both out all day 

 like myself. Wittich and I usually came in for meals. I could 

 not have stood public dinners on the top of the mental excite- 

 ment. I did go to the first, but it upset me for the whole 

 of the next day. We did not entertain much either, only having 

 a few men to tea one evening. 



1 1 gave an address on the Telestereoscope at a general meeting 

 in the Riding School, and put up two different instruments 

 first in the Hall, then in the Anatomy School, and eventually 

 in my own house, and had enough to do in demonstrating 

 them to every one. At the Anatomical Section, which was 

 well arranged, and well attended, I put up and demonstrated 

 experiments with the myograph on Time Measurements in 

 Nerve, because these experiments have been too little seen 

 and repeated. I also gave a short lecture on the movement 

 of the auditory ossicles, illustrated by a few preparations. 



' In the Physical Section I spoke on Combination Tones. 

 Besides this I joined in the debate on Expenditure, in which 

 I was in the minority, as you will have seen by the papers, 

 but my minority had the most authority all the same. And 

 I had another unexpected pleasure. I received a letter im- 

 mediately after from Munich, from the King of Bavaria, who 

 is willing to apply a considerable annual sum to the very 

 objects I proposed to the Congress, i.e. to endow such 

 scientific undertakings as exceed the powers of private persons, 

 and asks my advice as to expenditure. Of the social things 

 I only took the expedition to Coblentz, and went to the concert 

 with Olga. It was given by the city of Bonn, and crowned 

 the functions. Beethoven's works alone were given/ 



Helmholtz's experiment in Acoustics had been reported to 



