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E. F. W. PFLUGER, 1829—1910. 



Eduard Friedricii AVilhelm Pfluger was born at Haaau-on-Main on 

 June 7th, 1829, and died at Bonn in April, 1910, in his eighty-first year. 

 Although his career appears to have been singularly uneventful, it is important 

 as a long record of untiring physiological research. He had few interests 

 outside of the laboratory where he spent the greater part of his active and 

 strenuous life. To those who knew him but slightly, it comes rather as a 

 surprise to hear that he was married and had children (four daughters), for of 

 no one can it be more truly said that he was " wedded to his work." 



He originally studied law in Berlin, but he soon went over to medicine ; it 

 was while engaged in qualifying himself as a practitioner of this art that he 

 came under the influence of Johannes Miiller and Emil du Bois-Eeymond, and 

 the work he performed under the direction of these two great masters 

 initiated the series of physiological investigations which has made his name 

 famous. 



In 1855 Pfliiger obtained his doctorate, three years later (1858) he was 

 " habilitiert," and in 1859 was appointed Professor of Physiology in the 

 University of Bonn, in which chair he succeeded Helmholtz, who was called 

 to Heidelberg. He was still holding this post at the time of his death, 

 for although he was offered the Chair of Physiology at Berlin after du Bois 

 Eeymond's death, he declined it; 1878 was the year in which the new 

 Institute of Physiology at Bonn was opened, and the next " red-letter day " in 

 his life was 1909, in which year he celebrated his eightieth birthday and the 

 jubilee of his appointment as Professor. He was elected a Foreign Member 

 of the Royal Society in 1888. 



The famous journal of physiology which he founded, and which soon 

 became famiHarly known as Pfliiger's Archiv, was bound up with Pfliiger's 

 life, and it was here that he published nearly all of his work ; he was its 

 most voluminous contributor, and 130 volumes had appeared before he died. 

 It rapidly became in Germany the physiological journal which had the largest 

 circulation, and, in consequence, there was never any lack of contributions. 

 Pfliiger, however, was a careful editor, and had to reject many of the papers 

 sent in to him. He was exacting in the manner authors set out their matter, 

 and they were bound to obey his rules on such small matters as to the way in 

 which they inserted their references, if they wished to get their papers 

 printed. This untiring diligence lasted to the end, and he was correcting 

 proof sheets as he lay in bed until within a few days of his death. 



On the occasion of his jubilee, Nussbaimi, one of the most celebrated of 

 Pfliiger's former pupils, compiled a complete list, which reached to some 

 hundreds, of the papers Pfliiger had written. Some of these are world-famous, 

 but many no doubt had been forgotten even by those whose duty it is to 



