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9 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CRAMPED QUARTERS The heart of physiology is the laboratory. —Michael Foster,“Progress of Physiology During the Last Thirteen Years,” 1897 In few places has the construction of a new laboratory of physiology run into as many difficulties as in Berlin. —Emil du Bois-Reymond,“Der physiologische Unterricht sonst und jetzt,” 1877 The first half of du Bois-Reymond’s life rewarded him with the signs of conventional happiness: recognition in his profession, love of wife and children, and wealth beyond concern. But convention never satisfied his ambition. He had always wanted to lead, and tenure made that possible.As professor of physiology at Prussia’s best university, he worked the remainder of his career to convert his social status into cultural authority. The scale of his success remains hard to gauge, since much of what he did and said has fallen into the oblivion of common sense. The task of this chapter, then, will be to retrace the paths that led du Bois-Reymond to the center of his society. Foremost among his professional concerns was the improvement of the university’s physiological laboratory. As du Bois-Reymond recounted in his own history of the institution, he had striven since the summer of 1851, the term he first assisted Müller in class, to reverse his discipline’s neglect.With only slight exaggeration, he described the official collection of electrophysiological apparatus in Berlin as “limited to a rusty Voltaic pile and a moth-eaten foxtail.” Working space consisted of two small rooms on the third floor of the university. A mansard above a spiral staircase served as du Bois-Reymond’s private laboratory; the area beneath housed the institute’s aquarium, cabinets, apparatus, and assistant.There was hardly room to move. Students had to cram, “often six at a time,” into “a long and narrow corridor, which was illuminated by two 172 CHAPTER 9 windows only, and which served as passageway for the staff of the anatomical museum.” Lectures were just as crowded.Du Bois-Reymond’s auditorium had room for 88 people; in 1869, 151 enrolled. He referred to the hall as a “Black Hole.”1 Such deplorable conditions prompted him to petition the Ministry of Education for remedy. His first appeal, dated 21 April 1856, contended that, insofar as “physiology had become to a large part applied physics and chemistry,” the university collections, and particularly those used for demonstration in lectures, would have to be updated. Seven weeks later the Ministry granted him 500 thaler “to round out the extant apparatus.” In April of 1858, encouraged by this subvention, du Bois-Reymond asked the Ministry for a fixed yearly budget, citing comparable support for physiological institutes in Vienna, Munich, and Göttingen. Müller’s death that month delayed the government’s reply, but negotiations recommenced after du Bois-Reymond was appointed a full professor in the fall.2 A seven-point plan awarded him the title of Director, 600 thaler for apparatus, chemicals, materials, preparations, books, cabinets, and tables, 300 thaler for an assistant, 240 thaler for a servant, and, in time, a new building.With the “New Era” thawing Prussian politics, du Bois-Reymond counted on Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg, now the Minister of Education, to honor this agreement. On 7 November he expressed his confidence to Ludwig:“Strokes of luck, like sorrows, come not single spies, and so my wife gave birth to a little girl the evening before last. I am thinking of working up a lot of old material this winter and so to close an epoch of my life with my fortieth year. Despite all our adversaries’ resistance the physical physiology that we founded is now emerging victorious:you and Brücke inVienna,Helmholtz in Heidelberg, I in Berlin, and presumably Pflüger and Heidenhain in Bonn and Breslau.”3 Du Bois-Reymond’s mood switched to alarm with the NewYear.The deans of the university had backed his proposal to the Ministry of Education on 15 December, and on 30 December du Bois-Reymond sent another reminder. Despite these entreaties, Bethmann-Hollweg remained silent. Urged by Ernst Brücke, du Bois-Reymond took his case to the Minister in person.After their discussion, he reiterated his disquiet in a private letter. The only optical equipment at his disposal was a mediocre microscope and a loupe; otherwise the lab possessed “no other splinter of glass.” There were no scalpels and scissors for preparations, and there was no...

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