THE INVESTIGATIONS OF HEBMANN VON HELMHOLTZ ON 

 THE FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES OF MATHEMATICS 

 AND MECHANICS. 1 



By Dr. Leo Koenigsberger. 



Distinguished assembly, we are met to celebrate the anniversary of 

 that day when an honored and enlightened ruler of this land infused 

 new life into our university, and. inaugurated that era of great scien- 

 tific achievements of which we shall shortly commemorate a completed 

 century. 



At such a time our thoughts naturally turn with veneration and 

 gratitude to our late illustrious rector, Von Helmholtz, who constantly 

 strove with keenest interest and most energetic effort to broaden and 

 strengthen the foundations of the prosperity and renown of this insti- 

 tution. Surely we can express our gratitude no more appropriately 

 than by revering that great scientist, who during his administration 

 was the pride and ornament of our university and our fatherland. 



Thus we dedicate these festal hours to the memory of one of the great- 

 est and most profound scientists of this century. I will ask you to 

 regard his achievements from the standpoint of the mathematician, a 

 science of which he was thoroughly fond, and which from this very 

 place thirty-three years ago today he so clearly and beautifully 

 described in these words: 



We see in the science of mathematics the conscious logical activity 

 of the human mind in its purest and most perfect form. While we are 

 impressed with the arduous labor of its procedure and the difficulty 

 of forming and comprehending its abstract conceptions, we at the same 

 time learn to confide in the security, reach, and fruitfulness of its rea- 

 sonings. 



It is but a short time since the whole world mourned the loss of 

 Hermann von Helmholtz, who was associated with our university from 

 1858 to 1871, when at the height of his fame, and who, with Bunsen 

 and Kirchhoff, made it a great center of scientific research. 



lecture delivered on the occasion of the distribution of academic prizes, Novem- 

 ber 22, 1895, the birthday anniversary of the late Grand Duke Karl Friedrich, by 

 Dr. Leo Koenigsberger, privy councillor of Baden, professor of mathematics and 

 prorector of the University of Heidelberg. Translated from the original German, 

 published by the University of Heidelberg. Universitiits-Buchdruckerei von J. 

 Horning, 1895. pp. 51. 



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