CHAPTER XIX 



HELMHOLTZ AS A LECTURER 



DURING his whole life Helmholtz was in the 

 habit of giving occasional lectures of a popular 

 character. He did not consider that it was a waste 

 of his time or beyond his province, to lay before an 

 intelligent audience of men and women in the middle 

 ranks of life, the results of his own scientific enquiries. 

 Lectures of this description were not common in 

 Germany, and in this matter of popular exposition 

 Helmholtz was one of the first to attempt the ex- 

 periment. In a preface to a translation into German 

 of the lectures of Tyndall, Helmholtz alludes to the 

 fact that such lectures had long been given in 

 England, and he defends the practice as being likely 

 to stimulate thought and to awaken an interest in the 

 work of scientific men. There can be no doubt that 

 the so-called popular lectures of Helmholtz reach the 

 high-water mark in this class of literature. Prepared 

 with great care, fitly illustrated by experiment, 

 delivered with dignity, they made a great impression 

 in Germany, and indeed all over the world. The 

 s 



