HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



the analysis of the infinitely various states of sensation 

 of which we are conscious must consist in ascertain- 

 ing the number and nature of those simple sensations 

 which, by entering into consciousness each in its 

 own degree, constitute the actual state of feeling at 

 any instant.' r There can be no doubt that in this 

 and many other departments of physiological science, 

 Miiller awakened new ideas and stimulated teachers 

 of youth. Bowman, Sharpey, and Carpenter, in 

 England ; Allen Thomson and John Goodsir, in 

 Scotland ; Claude Bernard and Vulpian, in France ; 

 Bonders, in Holland, all felt his influence. Thus 

 he prepared the way, not only for the labours of 

 Helmholtz, and the other young men who were his 

 immediate students, but for the remarkable development 

 of physiological science that has taken place since 1840. 

 Helmholtz long afterwards wrote words that apply 

 with striking force both to his great master and to him- 

 self. * When one comes into contact with a man of the 

 first rank, his spiritual scale is changed for life. Such 

 a contact is the most interesting event that life can offer.' 

 In 1842, Helmholtz, at the age of twenty-one, pre- 

 sented his inaugural thesis, entitled De Fabrics 

 systematis nervosi Evertebratorum^ in which he made 

 an important contribution to minute anatomy. In 

 1833 Ehrenberg discovered in ganglia, which are 

 usually small, more or less rounded swellings on 

 nerves, often situated at the apparent junction of 



1 Clerk Maxwell on Helmholtz, Nature, vol. v., p. 389. 



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