92 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



of the world, as much at home among princes and 

 grand-dukes as he was in his laboratory among his 

 students. Our two families became intimate, for the 

 Helmholtzes frequently came to England and stayed 

 either at my sister Mrs. Enfield's house in London, 

 or with us in Manchester. Frau von Helmholtz was 

 as charming in her way as he in his. She outlived 

 her husband by a few years, and died on December ist, 

 1899. A beautiful notice was written shortly after 

 her death by Marie von Bunsen, grand-daughter of the 

 Chevalier, which contains the following appreciation : 

 " A man leaves his mark on the world by works and 

 deeds, but a woman who neither courts publicity nor 

 attempts authorship cannot acquire fame, and yet Anna 

 von Helmholtz may truly be said to be one of the most 

 remarkable of German women." 



Frau von Helmholtz had a highly sensitive and active 

 temperament. I remember that on the morning of the 

 day on which he was to deliver the Faraday Lecture 

 she came down to breakfast and amused us by saying 

 that she had been so nervous about the success of 

 his lecture that she felt in the night as if she should 

 die ; upon which he remarked in his calm, equable 

 manner, " Ach, dass geht nicht so schnell." 



Helmholtz was a very temperate man ; he never 

 smoked, and I remember his saying that he found 

 that the smallest quantity of alcohol dispelled from 

 his mind " all his good ideas," as he used to express 

 it, by which he meant that if any great problem 

 had to be thought out, this was only possible when 

 his brain was free from alcoholic taint. 



Apropos of this, one of the most interesting facts 

 about the human body is its power of accommodation 

 as well as its sensitiveness to stimulant. Think of 

 the quantity of laudanum De Quincey used to take 



