392 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



of the memoir covered the fundamental work in electricity and 

 in thermometry, capillary deviations, barometric determinations, 

 and estimations of expansions. The technical portion dealt 

 with the testing of clinical thermometers, of which some 25,000 

 had been examined and guaranteed at the Institute during 

 the three years of its existence, thermometers for scientific 

 work, photometric determinations with a view to establishing 

 a fixed unit, the manufacture of standard tuning-forks, and 

 an infinite series of other technical tasks. 



' Is anything more needed/ says du Bois-Reymond, ' to 

 show how erroneous was the assertion that he had been 

 favoured in his productive output by the quiet and uniform 

 nature of his professional duties ? ' 



He was also, as a Member of the Commission convened by 

 the Prussian Minister of Education, contributing to the dis- 

 cussion of the questions of higher education : his ' Remarks 

 on the Training preliminary to Academic Studies' being 

 published in the following year. When Konigsberger asked 

 in October, 1888, at the request of a colleague, if he would 

 sign the memorandum then circulating in academic circles 

 in favour of the Gymnasia, he replied : 



' I do not propose to sign the memorial. In the first place 

 I do not approve of these public manifestoes by private indivi- 

 duals, since, so far as I know, they are always without effect ; 

 and in the second place I hold that our Gymnasia have been 

 conducted on false lines, even if I do not want to see Greek 

 struck out of our first-class schools. Having no professional 

 inducement, I therefore see no necessity for entering the lists 

 with a voluntary and spontaneous declaration in favour of the 

 present trend of classical study at the Gymnasia, without at the 

 same time expressing my objections to the system/ 



He defines his position in these matters, in accordance with 

 the views already expressed in his Rectorial Address at Heidel- 

 berg, in noble and characteristic language : 



'The education of civilized nations has till now centred in 

 the study of languages. Language is a great instrument, the 

 possession of which essentially distinguishes man from the 

 lower animals ; by means of it the knowledge and experience 

 of his contemporaries, and of past generations, are at the dis- 

 posal of each individual ; without it every one would, like the 



