PROFESSOR AT KONIGSBERG 87 



many of the Vienna professors. The atmosphere was 

 pleasant and cordial, but they told a good many rather trivial 

 anecdotes. 



' Sunday. In the morning Rokitansky demonstrated his 

 splendid collection of specimens in pathological anatomy to 

 us, and we saw the famous museum of wax models. In the 

 afternoon a projected expedition to SchCnbrunn was frustrated 

 by the weather. Brucke, Wagner, and I therefore went to 

 look at two famous statues by Canova a monument of a 

 princess in the Augustinian Church, and the statue of Theseus 

 in the Public Gardens. Neither of them was the least com- 

 parable with what I had seen in Italy. Then we walked round 

 the city on the walls, which are rather pretty, fled to Wagner's 

 hotel in a storm, and had some wise talk with him/ 



Apropos of this conversation he writes a few days later to 

 Ludwig : ' Rudolph Wagner was there too, and wanted to know 

 what we thought about the relation between soul and body, 

 and other obscure points of physiology. He seems much 

 concerned with these points, about which one can hardly say 

 anything. Bunsen was also present, and urged me to go with 

 him to Breslau.' 



After fetching his family from Dahlem, Helmholtz returned 

 refreshed in mind and body with them to Konigsberg, and 

 at once resumed his experiments on the excitation of nerve, 

 the importance of which was being more and more recognized 

 by physiologists. On his father's birthday he sends him the 

 welcome news : 



'The French Academic inform me in a very courteous 

 manner that they have appointed a Committee to draw up a 

 report on my communications on the measurement of time- 

 relations. For the moment the Committee will not be in a 

 position to complete its report, since it will not be possible 

 to repeat the experiments ; but it shows that they are alive 

 to the thing. My official relations here are unchanged. 

 Only I hear privately, and beg you not to repeat, that my 

 Faculty have petitioned the Ministry to make me Ordinary 

 Professor. I hear no more of Heidelberg. A second 

 paper on time-relations is ready. In the Christmas holidays 

 I am to draw up a report on du Bois J work for the Kieler 

 Monatsschrifi! 



