46 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



of botany in Tubingen ; Maurice, who was high in 



the Wurtemberg diplomatic service ; and Jules, the 



Parisian Orientalist of world-wide fame, and the 



husband of the equally well known Madame Mohl. 



In fact the whole family was " ein eroberendes Ge- 



schlecht." The eldest daughter of the Heidelberg 



professor married a distinguished Austrian statesman, 



von Schmidt, and Anna, the other daughter, became 



the second wife of my friend Helmholtz, to whom I 



shall have occasion to refer later. I shall never forget 



the kindness and hospitality which we received from 



the Mohl family. We used to take tea with them, for, 



unlike many of the Germans of the time, they always 



drank tea in the evening, and I remember on one 



of my first visits I addressed Frau von Mohl as 



" Madame," and Anna at once informed me that I 



must never say this to her mother, as that was how 



they spoke to the market-women ; I must address her 



as " Gnadige Frau." 



The Mohls used to give dances in the salon of 

 their house in the Hauptstrasse, and I was very 

 much surprised at one of my first balls to see 

 the belle of the room take a little comb out of her 

 pocket and arrange her hair in front of one of the 

 ball-room mirrors ; but to this I got afterwards quite 

 accustomed. They occupied the first ttage at an oil 

 merchant's, and I remember an amusing story about 

 this man, who was disputing with one of his brother 

 burghers as to which was the heavier, a cask of oil or 

 a cask of water, and insisted that the oil cask weighed 

 more than the water cask, to which his friend replied : 

 " Why, don't you know that oil swims on the top of 

 water, and that therefore it must be lighter? " " That 

 is just it," said he ; "the oil is so heavy that it pushes 

 the water down." 



