126 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



of scientific taste, which in Germany as in England was wont to be 

 silenced by the more showy claims of literature and of art. The cluster 

 of Institutes, of which the Physiological Institute forms part, and 

 which to-day is still among the finest in Europe, was the direct out- 

 come of du Bois' personal influence with the Emperor of Germany ; 

 and in connection with the lecture theatre of the Institute a private 

 box for the accommodation of royalty signifies an interest which, when 

 not embarrassing, may be of considerable value to the advancement of 

 science. 



After 18 years' service as assistant to Miiller (in 1858) du Bois- 

 Keymond succeeded his master in the chair of Physiology. Nearly 20 

 years later (in 1877) the new Institute of Physiology, of which he re- 

 mained the active head for a further period of nearly 20 years, was 

 completed. Thus du Bois-Reymond's public career extends over 

 nearly 60 years, in three periods of 20 years each a first period as 

 Miiller's assistant, a second period as Miiller' successor in the incon- 

 venient laboratory of the old University building, a third period as 

 Director of the palatial Institute that he had urged into existence. 

 As a student of animal electricity, his activity was greatest during 

 the first period, which saw the publication of the " Thierische Elek- 

 tricitat." During the second and third periods, his duties as Secretary 

 of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, as Editor of the " Archiv fur 

 (Anatomic und) Physiologic," and as President of the Physical and of 

 the Physiological Societies, absorbed a large share of his time. From 

 first to last the delivery of his official course of lectures on Physiology 

 was a first charge upon his energies, and he spared neither time nor 

 trouble to maintain these lectures at their high intellectual level. The 

 more popular utterances to which from time to time he was bound by 

 official usage, and which are collected in two volumes, are marked by 

 literary excellence and broad learning. Among these essays perhaps 

 the most important were that upon the " Limits of Natural Know 

 ledge" (1872), concluding with his celebrated and much-criticised 

 " Ignorabimus," and the sequel eight years later published under the 

 title of the " Sieben Weltrathsel," and concluding with the less quoted 

 but hardly less misunderstood "Dubitemus." In these essays, du 

 Bois-Reymond speaks to the great thinking public as the exponent of 

 positive science, and in natural and inevitable ' reaction from the 

 " vitalistic " standpoint of Miiller, takes up a philosophic position of 

 which " materialistic " is the most frequently chosen adjective. He 

 did so in common with his three great contemporaries, Helmholtz, 

 Briicke, and Ludwig, and with them helped to introduce into physio- 

 logy further (but not final) physical and chemical analysis. 



But perhaps the essay which was most striking and characteristic 

 of the man himself in the full vigour of his maturity is the philippic 



