38 Anniversary Meeting. [Nov. 30, 



not scientific geologists, in what he did in his exploration of Kent's 

 Cavern, Torquay. Romanes, full of zeal, fighting to the end with 

 the most difficult problems that have ever occupied the mind of man ; 

 and devoting his health and his wealth to promote not merely philo- 

 sophical speculation but also the experimental research by which 

 alone philosophy can have a foundation, left us at the early age 

 of 46. 



A year ago, in my anniversary address, I called your attention to 

 Hertz's experimental demonstration of electric waves, which he 

 found in working out an experimental problem originally proposed by 

 Helmholtz to him when he was engaged in experimental researches 

 in the Physical Institute of Berlin in 1879. An English translation 

 by Jones, of Hertz's book describing his work on electric waves, 

 dedicated "with gratitude " to Helmholtz, was published in England 

 and America in December, 1893. On the first day of the new year 

 the disciple died, and within the year the master followed him. Of 

 the whole of Helm hoi tz's great and splendid work in physiology, 

 physics, and mathematics, I doubt whether any one man may be 

 qualified to speak with the power which knowledge and understand- 

 ing can give : but we can all appreciate, to some degree, the vast 

 services which he has rendered to biology by the application of his 

 mathematical genius and highly trained capacity for experimental 

 research to physiological investigation. 



In his interesting autobiographical sketch he tells us that his early 

 natural inclination was for physics, which he found more attractive 

 than purely geometrical and algebraic studies ; but his father could 

 only give him the opportunity of studying physics by his learning 

 medicine to earn a livelihood, and he himself was by no means averse 

 to thus entering on the study of living matter instead of confining 

 himself to the physics of dead matter. I think we may now feel that 

 the world has gained largely by this early necessity for a young man 

 of great genius and power to choose a practical profession. 



One early result was his careful examination, while still a student, 

 of the theory of animal heat, and a little later (1847) his great essay,' 

 CTeber die Erhaltung der Kraft,' Conservation of Energy as we now 

 call it, communicated to the Physical Society of Berlin on the 3rd July, 

 1847, of which he said in 1891, "My aim was merely to give a critical 

 investigation and arrangement of the facts for the benefit of physio- 

 logists." As a student he had found that Stahl's theory, ascribing to 

 every living body the possession of the property of " The Perpetual 

 Motion" as an essence of its "Vital force," was still held by most 

 physiologists. His essay on the "Conservation of Energy," giving 

 strong reasons for rejecting that theory, though looked upon, at first, 

 by many of the physical and philosophical authorities of the time as 

 a fantastic speculation, was enthusiastically welcomed by younger 



