HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



physiological science in a manner that in some re- 

 spects resembled the great work of Haller, published 

 a century before, Johannes Miiller was the greatest 

 biological teacher of his time. In some ways he 

 resembles John Hunter more than any other naturalist, 

 but, owing to the circumstances in which he worked, 

 he left behind him what Hunter did not leave a school 

 of ardent disciples imbued with the spirit of the master. 



Miiller also gave a great impetus to the movement 

 that had already begun in Germany in the direction 

 of the investigation of biological problems by the 

 methods of physical and chemical science. The 

 principles of the Baconian philosophy took root and 

 influenced science much later in Germany than in 

 England ; and while in Germany there were, up to 

 the time of Miiller, many workers who were in- 

 fluenced by that school, the teaching of science, and 

 even its investigation, more especially of physiological 

 science, were still cramped by the speculative method 

 of metaphysics. The fundamental problem of the 

 nature of vital action was held generally to be 

 beyond the domain of experimental science ; the 

 doctrine of a vital force which modulated and held 

 in subjection all other forces held sway ; and the 

 great conception of the unity of origin of all the 

 tissues of the body, established by the cell theory of 

 Schleiden and Schwann, had not yet clearly dawned 

 on the minds of physiologists. 



The influence of Miiller was felt throughout the 

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