CHAPTER VIII 



HELMHOLTZ IN K.5NIGSBERG THE MECHANISM OF 



ACCOMMODATION FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 



FROM 1851 to 1856, when he went to Bonn, 

 Helmholtz was mainly engaged in researches 

 in physiological optics. Now and again he entered 

 on electrical problems, two papers appearing in 1851 

 on the induction coil. In 1852 he gave an interest- 

 ing rlsumi) characterised by much critical acuteness, of 

 the progress of electro-physiology, or animal electri- 

 city, up to that date. It was in 1851 that he began 

 the systematic examination of the eye, both as regards 

 its anatomy and its physical constants, an examination 

 that culminated in his great work on physiological 

 optics ; and it was also in 1852 that he invented the 

 ophthalmometer. In this year he also wrote an im- 

 portant paper on the theory of heat as applied to 

 living beings ; a paper dealing with the relation of heat 

 to work appeared in 1855. Further, it was in 1852 

 that problems of a psychological nature first occupied 

 his attention. The publication of the results of his 

 investigations into these problems first began in 1852 

 with a short but fundamental paper on the nature of 

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