CHAPTER XIII 



HELMHOLTZ IN HEIDELBERG MINOR PHYSIOLOGICAL 

 RESEARCHES 



IT must be remembered that, both at Konigs- 

 berg and Bonn, Helmholtz lectured on anatomy 

 as well as physiology, and in Konigsberg he had 

 general pathology in addition. This makes it more 

 wonderful, that he should have been able to find 

 time for so much physiological research, while it 

 explains his familiarity with human anatomy. Even 

 in the latter science a region one would suppose so 

 harvested as not to leave a straw for the most indus- 

 trious gleaner he found something to contribute to 

 human knowledge. 



In 1856, his first year in Bonn, Helmholtz com- 

 municated two short papers to the Medical Society 

 of the Lower Rhine, both of an anatomico-physio- 

 logical character. The first related to the anatomical 

 structure of the thorax. He first showed that the 

 ribs are attached behind to the vertebrae and in front 

 to the sternum, and, during a state of rest, the 

 anterior ends are on a lower plane than the posterior. 

 When the ribs rise during inspiration, the sternal 

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