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5 REVOLUTION THE SOCIETY OF PHYSICS Carlyle once said,“Voltaire is the eighteenth century”; we may similarly say,“Du Bois-Reymond is physiology.” —Glasgow Medical Journal, 1897 What Darwin is to biology, du Bois-Reymond is to physiology. —S. S. Epstein, 1897 Du Bois-Reymond encountered the last of his academic hurdles in the spring of 1843. Having completed his course work and military service the previous fall, and having arranged for Alexander von Humboldt to pass a translation of his “Abstract” on to the French Academy of Sciences, he concentrated on finishing a short dissertation, something that was required of all medical students at Berlin.1 He chose the topic of collecting the most interesting classical references to electric fish but grew to regret his decision after encountering rude staff and limited resources in the library.“In the time I needed to acquire the materials for this paper,” he commented,“it would have been easy for me to have done a little microscopic study.”2 He did not say of what.The same irony showed in his attitude to his medical examinations.He hoped to wheedle through the tests with a mixture of flattery, bluff, and influence, a tactic that appears to have been so common among Berlin students that it incited a call for reform from two Saxon doctors angry at local bias.3 Du Bois-Reymond expressed equal irreverence in his dissertation defense. He picked four theses: “I. Division, which has been observed in the development of eggs, depends on the fact that cells which have been covered by other cells are stripped bare by the death of the cells that cover them. II. In nature neither organic nor inorganic forces exist, whose basic components are not either attractive or repellent. III. Pneumonia crouposa, in Rokitansky’s sense, does not exist. 78 CHAPTER 5 IV.Wars cause much detriment to the health of the human race.”“No. 1,” he wrote,“is to honor Reichert; . . . No. 2 is to be rebutted by Brücke, who will play dumb to the best of his abilities in order to make the opposing viewpoint seem ridiculous; I don’t understand a thing of No. 3—it’s about a controversy in the finer points of pathological anatomy and comes from Meyer, who’ll be in charge of cramming me; No. 4. is to be rebutted by my friend Lieutenant Techow; the dean will be Müller.” The examination took place on 11 February 1843. Du Bois-Reymond described his disputation with Brücke as “a loony-bin conversation on the horrible consequences of not believing in life forces, which could even result in civil war.”4 The end of his studies left du Bois-Reymond free to complete his investigations of animal electricity. Since there were virtually no positions for scientists outside universities and secondary schools,his plan was to use his research to launch an academic career. His father must have approved.Emil didn’t mention receiving an allowance in his letters at this time, but neither did he talk of the need to find work. Instead, gossip about Berlin’s scientists, doctors, and officials showed that he kept an eye on potential patrons. In this regard no invitation could have been more welcome than the one that arrived on 7 March from Alexander von Humboldt.5 At age 73, Humboldt played the grand old man of German letters the way Goethe had a generation earlier, but whereas Goethe accepted the role with a certain remove, Humboldt took it on with the warmest sincerity. His two decades in Paris and his years of travel lent him airs of refinement and erudition, and his fame, station, and connections surpassed even Goethe’s. But unlike his counterpart in Weimar, Humboldt didn’t retire to his family estate; he lived in Berlin, where he could stay in touch with society. To young scientists such as du Bois-Reymond his honor meant a great deal. Humboldt was a champion of the liberal cause. Ever since his bold address to the 1828 Congress of German Scientists and Physicians, which had been held in Berlin during the worst of Metternich’s oppression, he had been seen as the embodiment of Germany’s struggle against provinciality. If anyone could help du Bois-Reymond achieve his goals, it would be this man.6 Humboldt’s invitation didn’t come out of the blue. Du Bois-Reymond had called on him the week before, armed with his dissertation, several...

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