CHAPTER II 



STUDENT LIFE AND EARLY MANHOOD 



IT was the desire of Helmholtz to devote his life to 

 the study of physics, but his father, who had, 

 out of his limited means, to maintain a family of 

 four children, showed him that it would be almost im- 

 possible to earn a livelihood by cultivating or teaching 

 pure science, and he wisely counselled his son to 

 study medicine in the first instance. This advice was 

 supported by the practical assistance of a relative, 

 Surgeon-General Mursinna, who obtained for Helm- 

 holtz admission in 1838 as a bursar into the Royal 

 Medico-Chirurgical Friedrich-Wilhelm Institute in 

 Berlin, an academy for the medical education of 

 youths of promise, given freely on the condition 

 that they afterwards become surgeons in the Prussian 

 army. The students of this institution attended the 

 usual courses of instruction in the medical department 

 of the University, and were afterwards attached for 

 a time to the Charitd Hospital. Thus Helmholtz 

 was, by force of circumstances, led to enter the 

 medical profession, and in due time he obtained his 

 diploma and became an army surgeon. 



In after life Helmholtz often referred to the great 

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