AT THE PHYSICO-TECHNICAL INSTITUTE 419 



received the best medical attention, while the most affectionate 

 sympathy was tendered both to him and to his wife from 

 the entire city, and from the friends who hastened to them, 

 and others at a distance. After a stay of eight days they 

 were able to undertake the journey to Berlin. Although the 

 scalp wound was visible externally for a long while, Helmholtz, 

 thanks to the unremitting attention of Bardeleben and Renvers, 

 was so far recovered after a few weeks, that he was able to 

 resume his official duties in November. On December 4 he 

 writes himself to his friend Knapp about the accident : ' The 

 scalp wound has healed externally, and seems to be keeping so ; 

 and I can read pretty continuously, without getting vertigo or 

 headache. At the outset it was quite otherwise. I not only 

 felt great weakness and vertigo on attempting to walk, but had 

 to cut any attempt at reading very short, and my face was dis- 

 figured and suffused with blood. The loss of blood, estimated 

 by weighing me ten days after the accident in Berlin, must 

 have been four to five kilos. Dr. Morton (who travelled with 

 us at your suggestion) took the very greatest care of me, and 

 I am most deeply indebted to him. It seems to me quite 

 a moot point whether without his prompt and constant atten- 

 tions I might not have bled to death directly after the accident 



Viewed from this somewhat greater distance, the American 

 journey has left a very interesting and pleasant picture on 

 my mind/ 



Helmholtz frequently declared during the winter that suc- 

 ceeded his return from America that he required twice as 

 much time as before for any piece of work. He often com- 

 plained of seeing two different pictures with his two eyes, and 

 attributed this to a wrench of the muscles. During the course 

 of the winter, however, he was able to resume all his official 

 and scientific work. 



Hertz, meantime, had hardly completed three years (from 

 the spring of 1889) at the University of Bonn, when he had 

 been attacked by a painful disease of the bones, which after long 

 suffering prostrated him anew at the beginning of December, 

 1893. The announcement of his death, January i, 1894, was 

 a great blow to Helmholtz : it was the ominous commencement 

 of a fateful year for all his friends. 



' All/ said Helmholtz, ' who are accustomed to gauge the 



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