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HUGO KROXECKER, 1839-1914. 



Hugo Keoxeckkr was born on January 27, 1839, at Liegnitz, in Prussia. 

 His father was a merchant ; his elder brother, Leopold, the well-known 

 mathematician. Hugo studied Medicine at Berlin and at Heidelberg • at the 

 latter place he came under the influence of Helmholtz, and commenced 

 an enduring friendship with ELuehne. His graduation thesis was on 

 muscular fatigue, a subject which remained of permanent interest to him. 



Kronecker's original intention was to devote himself to clinical medicine ; 

 accordingly, in 1865, he accepted an Assistantship under Traube in Berlin. 

 But owing to a threatening of pulmonary disease he went to live for a 

 time in Pisa ; here he acquired a mastery of the Italian language and an 

 affection for things Italian which lasted throughout life. He was also an 

 accomplished Erench scholar, but although he knew English well he was 

 always somewhat shy of speaking it. 



The turning-point in his life came in 1868, when he started working at 

 the famous Institute of Physiology at Leipzig, where he became Assistant 

 in 1871, and Extraordinarius in 1874. In 1876 he was invited by du Bois- 

 Reymond to undertake the direction of Experimental Physiology in the 

 Berlin Laboratory, a position which he held until 1884, when he was 

 appointed to the Chair of Physiology at Berne. In Berne he completely 

 re-organised the department, and a new Physiological Institute, which he 

 termed the : ' Hallerianum," after the famous old Berne physiologist, Albrecht 

 von Haller, was erected under his auspices. Within the walls of this 

 Institute, and in a modest but delightful dwelling which he built for himself 

 close by, he passed the remainder of his life, happy in his work and in the 

 visits of his friends, to whom he loved to dispense a cordial hospitality ; 

 happy especially in the companionship of his charming wife and family, 

 which consisted of a son and daughter. 



It was in Leipzig, in 1876 (during the course of a summer semester spent 

 in Ludwig's laboratory), that the writer first came to know Kronecker ; 

 the acquaintance there formed grew into an intimate friendship. At that 

 period the Institute was in full activity ; a large number of investigators, 

 gathered from all parts of the world, were working there. Of those who 

 were present at the same time as the writer, the names of von Basch, 

 Baxt, Bowditch, Buchner, Cyon, Drechsel, Flechsig, von Frey, Gaskell, Gaule, 

 Hesse, Merunovicz, Mosso, and Schwalbe, spring at once into one's memory 

 and serve to gauge the scientific activity of the community which centred 

 around the genial master, Carl Ludwig, who personally directed all the 

 work of the Institute. But of its social activity Kronecker was the leader, 

 and much of the pleasure which those who were working in Leipzig 

 experienced was due to the tactful manner in which he contrived to bring 



