HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



matter. If this notion were to be got rid of, it could 

 only be by prolonged investigation in a physico- 

 chemical direction. Such were the views of three 

 young physicists and physiologists, Briicke, Du Bois 

 Raymond and Helmholtz. As already narrated, 

 these three joined the physicists and chemists in 

 founding the Physical Society of Berlin. Here they 

 found sympathy and encouragement. Here papers 

 were read and frankly criticised. Here was de- 

 veloped, for the first time, an attempt to investigate 

 physiological phenomena by the methods of chemistry 

 and physics. Physiology, indeed, was regarded as in a 

 sense a branch of chemico-physics, and the phenomena 

 of nature chemical, physical, physiological were held 

 to be controlled by one general principle, or rather to 

 depend ultimately on the properties of matter. Some 

 of these enthusiasts took even a wider sweep, and 

 brought into their net the phenomena of psycho- 

 physics, and the physical and physiological foundations 

 of the arts sculpture, painting and music. 



Helmholtz was without doubt the most distinguished 

 of this group of young men. He was, to use Wiede- 

 mann's expression, and Wiedemann was a contem- 

 porary, head and shoulders above the rest. In each 

 department of scientific labour represented by the 

 members of this brilliant galaxy, he acquired, in after 

 life, marked distinction ; to each department he made 

 vast additions, while he elevated the whole body of 

 scientific knowledge. 



24 



