PROFESSOR AT HEIDELBERG 225 



I broke off and left the tribune. But it was decided, at the 

 motion of General Sabine as President, that I should go on 

 speaking, and so I held forth on the movements of the human 

 eye, and their relation to visual perception, till half-past ten, when 

 I had pretty well done. It comforted me, however, to see that 

 several gentlemen rose after me, and made some confirmatory 

 observations. Sabine proposed a vote of thanks, in which he 

 praised my facility in English. I fear it flowed rather like a 

 mountain torrent from my lips, but I could hardly speak at all 

 at the end/ 



During his four-weeks' stay in England he also delivered six 

 popular lectures in London, ' On the Conservation of Energy* ; 

 the full report of which was sent to du Bois-Reymond from 

 Heidelberg on May 15, with the news that a daughter had 

 been born on April 24, who received the names of Ellen Ida 

 Elizabeth : 



' I stayed six weeks in England, most of the time in London ; 

 during Easter Week I went also to Oxford, Glasgow, and 

 Manchester. I saw a great deal that was interesting, and find 

 an occasional visit to London both pleasant and inspiring. As 

 to the popular lectures at the Royal Institution, I quite agree 

 with you that one would have to think a good while before 

 undertaking them again. I had no reason to be dissatisfied 

 with the apparent results in my own case, for I had a steady 

 audience of three hundred, and among them a number of scientific 

 men. But the competition of popular lectures in London is so 

 great that they are on the verge of degenerating into a mere 

 shop-window display. Tyndall, as a matter of fact, has a vast 

 talent for popular discourses, and is much appreciated by his 

 public. A spirit-rapping medium recently spelt out his celestial 

 name, which was " Poet of Science ". ... As I found the general 

 opinion to be that your experiments were too subtle to come 

 off as a certainty, I took the opportunity of showing a few of 

 your fundamental demonstrations at my last lecture/ 



The year 1865 brought Helmholtz a number of honours from 

 various sides : but what gratified him more than any of these 

 was the fact that a second edition of the Sensations of Tone was 

 called for, scarcely two years after its first publication. His 

 friend Ludwig was again the first to whom, in February 1865, 

 he sent the second edition of his book. While he expressed 



