HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



microscope which aided him in the research for his 

 thesis. The incident throws light on the economy 

 and simplicity of his life at this period. 



We have now traced Helmholtz to the beginning 

 of his career as a contributor to science. From 1842, 

 when his first paper was published, and when he was 

 twenty-one years of age, on to 1894, the year of his 

 death, when he had reached the age of seventy-three, 

 papers flowed from his pen in almost uninterrupted 

 succession. With the exception of one year, 1849, 

 he always published at least one important paper, and 

 usually three or four, and occasionally more, each 

 year, so that, when his life's work was over, no fewer 

 -than 217 distinct papers and books represented his 

 labours. Such a life of incessant labour could not be 

 expected to be full of incident. It is, therefore, 

 difficult to portray his life step by step. There is 

 not much to lay hold of in following his career ; 

 we must be content with trying humbly to tread 

 in his footsteps in the pathways of science, and to 

 endeavour to grasp the scope and meaning of the 

 many discoveries he made. The great variety of 

 his work in so many sciences suggests the method 

 of classifying his discoveries and then attempting 

 to show the nature of his investigations in physi- 

 ology, in physiological optics, in acoustics, in 

 mathematics, in mechanics, in electrical science. 

 This method, while it would give coherence to 

 this work, would make a biographical sketch 

 16 



