PROFESSOR IN BERLIN 349 



Manchester, 'with whom he had much to discuss in regard 

 to his latest work on the relations between heat and chemistry/ 

 In Glasgow, his old and well-loved haunts were open to him 

 in the house of Sir William Thomson, whom he found absorbed 

 in regulators, and measuring apparatus for electric lighting, and 

 for electrical railways. 



1 On the whole, however/ he writes to his wife, ' I have an 

 impression that Sir William might do better than apply his 

 eminent sagacity to industrial undertakings; his instruments 

 appear to me too subtle to be put into the hands of uninstructed 

 workmen and officials, and those invented by Siemens and 

 Hefner v. Alteneck seem much better adapted for the purpose. 

 He is simultaneously revolving deep theoretical projects in his 

 mind, but has no leisure to work them out quietly; as far as 

 that goes, I am not much better off! ' And he adds immediately 

 after : ' I did Thomson an injustice in supposing him to be 

 wholly immersed in technical work ; he was full of speculations 

 as to the original properties of bodies, some of which were 

 very difficult to follow ; and, as you know, he will not stop for 

 meals or any other consideration/ 



His wife replies : ' I am delighted to think of your being 

 with dear Sir William ; how you will revel in the fundamental 

 concepts of things. If only one was not pulled up by the 

 great query at the beginning and end of life, and obliged to 

 content oneself with that ! That is where you are so fortunate ; 

 the things that lie beyond our limits do not weigh upon you, 

 and there is enough of Eternity for you outside our little 

 human existence/ 



From Glasgow Helmholtz went on with Thomson to the 

 University festivities in Edinburgh, where he was assigned the 

 honourable task of replying for the foreign guests at the great 

 banquet, and of making a speech on a similar occasion at a recep- 

 tion of the students, where he was received with loud applause. 



On November 10, 1884, his daughter Ellen married Arnold 

 Wilhelm von Siemens, the eldest son of Werner von Siemens, 

 who was born on November 13, 1853. After nearly forty years 

 of close friendship this link brought great joy into the lives 

 of both men. 



Helmholtz's ' Studies in the Statics of Monocyclic Systems ' 

 (published in the Proceedings of the Berlin Academy, March 6, 



