HELMHOLTZ IN KONIGSBERG 



Donders, in a brilliant speech, made the presentation. 

 After a brief survey of Helmholtz's career, he con- 

 cluded thus : ' And now, twenty-eight years after 

 that memorable day, highly esteemed and honoured 

 von Helmholtz, I turn to you in the name 

 of that society for which von Graefe then spoke, 

 and so to say, in his name, in the name of our 

 master and patron, offer you the first honorary medal 

 instituted in his memory. May this gift hereafter, 

 when following the first modest tribute which our 

 society long since ventured to offer you, Science 

 from its highest circles, and your Emperor, whom 

 you reverence and esteem, shall have heaped upon 

 you all the distinctions suitable to great endowments, 

 associated with great deserts ; may this gift still 

 remain to you a gratifying symbol of the privilege 

 you enjoy of living in a generation that honours you 

 as its benefactor. May this happy knowledge, which 

 is not granted to every man of genius, illumine with 

 its gentle light this evening of your life, in which 

 you may see yourself always surrounded in unfading 

 freshness of mind and body by the love of all that 

 are dear to you.' 



Helmholtz replied, and gave an interesting sketch 

 of his contributions to science in the domain of physio- 

 ^ogical optics. He referred with great modesty to 

 the invention of the ophthalmoscope, and to its im- 

 portant uses in the hands of ophthalmologists, in the 

 following beautiful words : ' Let us suppose that up 

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