HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



the charm of a great personality. The first time the 

 writer saw him was in 1872, in the Gewandhaus, in 

 Leipzig, during a performance of Mendelssohn's c Mid- 

 summer Night's Dream.' Near the orchestra he saw 

 a head of such splendid proportions, with the eyes 

 having a rapt expression, as the sensuous music 

 floated through the hall, and he thought 'that must 

 be Helmholtz ! ' It could be no other. A few days 

 later he saw the great physicist in his own laboratory, 

 and received kindly advice regarding the ophthal- 

 mometer and acoustical apparatus. 



Helmholtz was fond of mountaineering, and he was 

 an excellent swimmer. Du Bois Reymond says that 

 long walks, to which his father had accustomed him 

 in the beautiful surroundings of Potsdam, had more 

 than a hygienic value for him. Helmholtz himself 

 tells us that it was often during walking that the 

 solution of problems came before his mind. 



Volkmann, in his masterly estimate of the work of 

 Helmholtz, remarks that one of his chief merits was 

 to establish a harmony between the vast accumulation 

 of facts that characterised the period comprehending 

 the middle of this century and the more theoretical 

 studies. The necessity for so doing was early felt by 

 Helmholtz himself, for in 1874 we find him saying, 

 c It seems to me that it is not so much knowledge of 

 the results of natural science which the wisest and 

 best educated men seek, as an aspect of the mental 

 activity of the investigator, a view of his scientific 

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