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CHAPTER XI 



HELMHOLTZ AS PRESIDENT OF THE PHYSIKA- 



LISCH-TECHNISCHE REICHSANSTALT 



1888-1894 



DURING the closing winter months of 1887 and the whole of 

 the following summer Helmholtz gave his entire thought, time, 

 and energy to the arrangement and organization of the Reichs- 

 anstalt, more particularly in regard to the scientific and technical 

 questions with which it had to deal; and with the valuable 

 assistance at his disposal everything was brought into order with 

 surprising rapidity. 



After some months of uninterrupted work he was, however, 

 compelled to pause on account of his health, and to abate his 

 activity. At the beginning of August, 1888, he went with his 

 wife to Bayreuth, and gave himself up once more to the enjoy- 

 ment of * the incomparable charm of the Meistersinger ' ; and his 

 wife did but interpret his emotions, when she wrote to her 

 daughter : 



' Bayreuth, dear ones, was icy cold, and its enjoyment purely 

 intellectual . . . that, however, was immense, and it is beautiful 

 to be able to put earthly considerations so entirely into the back- 

 ground. What the hohe Frau, as Robert calls her, has accom- 

 plished in these marvellous representations passes imagination. 

 Her great artistic will stands behind all her fellow workers, and 

 her taste prevails everywhere. All the artists are at one, and all 

 are good friends/ 



From Bayreuth, Helmholtz went on once more to Pontresina, 

 to seek the refreshment it never failed to bring him. The warm 

 tone of his letters betrays his delight that his son Robert should 

 have made a name for himself, oy his various experimental 

 researches, among the physicists, and that his inclination was 

 increasingly directed to the study of mathematical physics. On 

 August 18, he writes to him from Pontresina : 



