STUDENT LIFE 23 



He passed his oral examination at the end of June, but his 

 hopes of receiving the doctor's degree in the summer term 

 were disappointed. 



On August i, 1842, he writes to his father : ' I went to-day 

 to Professor M tiller with my thesis. He received me very 

 kindly, and after inquiring what my conclusions were, and 

 on what evidence they were based, declared the subject to 

 be of the greatest possible interest, since it proves the origin 

 for nerve-fibres that was conjectured in the higher animals, 

 but had never been determined. But he advised me to work 

 it out upon a more complete series of animals than I have at 

 present, so as to get more cogent proof than is possible from 

 the examination of three or four only. He mentioned several 

 animals as being the most likely to yield good results, and 

 invited me to use his instruments at the Anatomical Museum 

 if my own were inadequate. If I were not obliged to hurry 

 in taking my degree, he advised me to employ the vacation 

 for further work, so as to produce a fully-developed thesis 

 that need fear no future attack. As I had nothing reasonable 

 to urge to the contrary, and had said most of the same things 

 to myself already, you will have to give up your twenty-year- 

 old doctor, and content yourself with having him at twenty-one. 

 If this distresses you too much, send me a line, and I will 

 translate the discourse I delivered here at Easter, at the 

 Institute, and shall be doctor next week. The Potsdam 

 worthies will presumably conclude that I have failed in my 

 examination, and those in Berlin that I wanted to get oft 

 the doctor's banquet, but they shall all be satisfied sooner 

 or later. I was rather surprised myself, and did not like 

 the delay, but, as I said, I can find no good reason against it.' 



After a four weeks' tour in the Harz Mountains he returned 

 to Berlin on September 30, and was appointed house-surgeon 

 at the Charite. 



It was an arduous post, unsatisfactory 'on account of the 

 tedious and for the most part incurable diseases ', and occupied 

 him from 7 a. m. to 8 p. m., with only short breaks of an hour, 

 or even a half-hour ; but the work was congenial and instructive, 

 and Helmholtz found time to follow the advice of his teacher, 

 verifying and extending his previous researches with the aid 

 of the instruments provided at the Anatomical Museum. 



