Jacob Henle
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE
 
 The Medico-Historical Writings 
 
 of VICTOR ROBINSON, PH.G., M.D. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON HASHEESH (1912) 
 
 An historical and pharmacological study of 
 Cannabis Indica, including observations and 
 experiments. 
 
 PATHFINDERS IN MEDICINE (1912) 
 
 Biographic sketches of Galen, Aretaeus, Para- 
 celsus, Servetus, Vesalius, Pare, Scheele, Cav- 
 endish, Hunter, Jenner, Laennec, Simpson, 
 Semmelweis, Schleiden and Schwann, Darwin. 
 
 DON QUIXOTE OF PSYCHIATRY (1919) 
 
 A chapter in the history of American medicine, 
 containing information not elsewhere available. 
 
 PIONEERS OF BIRTH CONTROL (1919) 
 
 The first volume dealing with the history of 
 Neo-Malthusianism in England and America. 
 
 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE (1921) 
 
 The first biography in the English language of 
 one of the makers of modern medicine.
 
 I 
 
 JACOB HENLE
 
 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 By 
 Victor Robinson, M.D. 
 
 Formerly Editor of the Medical Review of Reviews; 
 Editor of Medical Life. 
 
 1921 
 MEDICAL LIFE COMPANY 
 
 12 MOUNT MORRIS PARK WEST 
 NEW YORK, N. Y.
 
 Copyright 1921, by 
 Medical Life 
 
 Edition limited to five hundred copies
 
 ' 
 
 100 
 
 H3S1R 
 
 Prefatory Note 
 
 Cordial thanks are due Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Fielding H. Garrison, of the Surgeon General's 
 Office, for the circumspection with which he read 
 this manuscript in spite of the inroads made 
 upon his private leisure and for his courtesy in 
 offering many helpful suggestions. 
 
 G90149
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 ttta 
 
 I. BOYHOOD DAYS .. 13 
 
 II. THE MEDICAL STUDENT 25 
 
 III. ADVENTURES IN BERLIN 37 
 
 IV. THE ZURICH PERIOD 49 
 
 V. ELISE EGLOFF 59 
 
 VI. PROFESSOR IN HEIDELBERG 71 
 
 VII. THE CALL TO GOTTINGEN 81 
 
 VIII. THE JUBILEE 91 
 
 IX. CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE . ..101
 
 TO EMILIE RECHT: 
 
 If ever I had an inspiration, it was on the day when I first spoke to 
 you about Jacob Henle. I explained that although he was one of the 
 greatest medical scientists of modern times, practically nothing about 
 his career had appeared in the English language. Not being a medical 
 woman, you had never heard of Henle, and were naturally and properly 
 bored. But since it is impossible for you to be unsympathetic, the sub- 
 ject was again broached, and somehow we decided to "do Henle" as 
 an experiment. Your share of the work was to consist in translating all 
 the available German data, after which I was to use your translations 
 as a basis for my own work. 
 
 The first article you undertook happened to be desultory and tedi- 
 ous, and after being engulfed in its discursiveness and battling with its 
 technicalities, you would have abandoned your self-appointed task, but 
 for two reasons; in the first place, you were probably curious to see 
 what I could accomplish with such unpromising material; and in the 
 second place, you are no shirker. So the work went on, and you trans- 
 lated the notices by Leyden, Flemming, and Pagel, the essay by Wal- 
 deyer, and Kussmaul's witty chapter in his Memoirs from the Youth of 
 an Old Physician. By this time, the greatness of the man had grown 
 upon us, and the experimental stage was over. 
 
 In the foregoing sketches, there were several references to Merkel's 
 comprehensive life of Henle, and it may appear strange that we had 
 not yet come across this work, but the reason is simple: in no book- 
 store or library in New York could this volume be obtained, and it 
 became necessary to apply to the Surgeon-General's Office for this 
 authoritative biography of one of medicine's noblest figures. 
 
 When you opened Merkel, Henle was resurrected. The real en- 
 thusiasm for Henle now began, and it added a new thrill to our lives. 
 In those days, no friend spoke to us without first inquiring about Henle.
 
 With what devotion you entered into the work, and how vividly your 
 comments and exclamations brought the man before me! When some 
 characteristic trait or incident stirred you to speak about Henle, I en- 
 tered his home, observed him in all moods, wondered at his versatility, 
 watched the humorous corners of his mouth, saw the movements of his 
 eyes, and learned to know his very mannerisms. 
 
 In the following pages I have followed portions of your version 
 more freely than I would feel warranted in doing if Merkel had ap- 
 peared in English. For some unaccountable reason, however, this splen- 
 did biography has remained untranslated until now, and the English- 
 speaking profession is indebted to you for making accessible to them 
 the life and letters of Jacob Henle. The field of medico-historical in- 
 vestigation is my chosen work; there is rich reaping, and I do not know 
 what abundant harvests I may yet find, but I never ask for a better 
 yield than was gathered in the days when you and I did Henle. It was 
 an unforgettable privilege to be associated with you in this work, and 
 in dedicating this book to you, I feel that I am only returning what 
 already belongs to you, for over every page of Merkel you cast the 
 glamor of your own rare spirit. 
 
 VICTOR ROBINSON. 
 
 New York.
 
 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE
 
 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 I. 
 BOYHOOD DAYS 
 
 Let us begin this chapter with a simple declarative sen- 
 tence : The book of Genesis and the writings of Lester Ward 
 do not always agree. 
 
 According to the ancient author, man was created first 
 and foremost, and later woman was fashioned to help the 
 man but the modern writer says : 
 
 The female is not only the primary and original sex but continues 
 throughout as the main trunk, while to it a male element is afterward 
 added. The male is therefore, as it were, a mere afterthought of 
 nature. Moreover, the male sex was at first and for a long period, 
 and still throughout many of the lower orders of beings, devoted 
 exclusively to the function for which it was created, viz., that of fer- 
 tilization. Among millions of humble creatures the male is simply 
 and solely a fertilizer. 
 
 But even among the highest creatures, nature needs the 
 male for only a moment. When a child is born, its father 
 may be in another country, or in the arms of a strange woman, 
 or preoccupied, or dead. In the summer of 1809, when the 
 Baiersdorf rabbi's daughter, Helene, gave birth to her son 
 Jacob, no father stood at the bedside. Months passed, and 
 still the growing infant did not learn that a father is a part 
 
 13
 
 14 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 of life's scheme. In the long evenings, the mother developed 
 into an introspectionist, living her romance over and over, 
 vividly recalling the most trifling incidents. 
 
 She was a member of a large family with a slender purse 
 which means that she early became a student of domestic 
 science. Her proficiency in this branch evidently became 
 known, for Helene was invited by her aunt, Frau Henle of 
 Furth, to come to that flourishing little town and help to 
 manage her household, which consisted of a husband and 
 seven sons. If it be admitted that such a household requires 
 expert management, it must further be acknowledged that a 
 sprightly girl, in the midst of seven male cousins, is not apt 
 to be neglected. The cousins appear to have wooed Helene 
 en masse the elder ones with the ease which comes from 
 experience, and the lad Wilhelm with the bashfulness of a 
 first love. "Faint heart never won fair lady," has been dinned 
 into our ears until it has become a platitude; indeed, certain 
 sociologists gravely maintain that even the most civilized 
 woman has a secret craving for the cave-man who comes 
 a-wooing with a club but this is simply a picturesque theory, 
 of value to writers of fiction. As a matter of fact, it often 
 happens that the masterful courtship of practiced veterans 
 cannot compete with the awkward devotion and mute adora- 
 tion of a shy lover. Women appreciate modesty in their 
 wooers, but no man is modest after his first conquest. 
 
 When Helene and Wilhelm were betrothed, she was 
 twenty-one, and he was eighteen hardly five feet high, with 
 no money, and his school-books still on his desk. The uncer- 
 tain future darkened unexpectedly, for the boy's father died
 
 BOYHOOD DAYS 15 
 
 suddenly, and through the legerdemain of unfaithful admin- 
 istration the family estate vanished. So Wilhelm Henle put 
 away his unfinished text-books, and went out into the world. 
 In those days the shadow of Napoleon lay over Europe, 
 and militarism was everywhere. Wilhelm, like many others, 
 began his career by obtaining employment in the supply- 
 department of the army. He had not the Midas-touch of a 
 Rothschild, and no carrier-pigeons brought him fortunes from 
 the air. But he hummed and whistled at his task, for the 
 goal was clear before him. Wilhelm worked, while Helene 
 waited and after six years they were married in Leipzig. 
 Then the young husband hurried off to business, absenting 
 himself for considerable periods, leaving his wife alone to 
 enjoy the countless literary and musical associations of Ger- 
 many's cosmopolis. But neither the high-pitched vault where 
 John Sebastian Bach had played the organ, nor the house 
 where Klopstock wrote passionate odes to his disdainful cousin 
 Fanny, nor the Hof, unforgettably portrayed in Goethe's 
 Faust, could save the bride from loneliness and homesickness. 
 Amidst the distractions of myriad-minded Leipzig, she wept 
 for her little room in Furth. 
 
 She prevailed upon her husband to bring her back to the 
 parental home, so that Jacob was born in Furth instead of 
 Leipzig thus losing his opportunity to be Richard Wagner's 
 town-brother. The event occurred during one of the mer- 
 chant's business-trips, and he did not meet his offspring until 
 nine months later. A mother loves her child at first sight, 
 but a father must become acclimatized. When Wilhelm first 
 looked at Jacob, he saw before him a dressed-up child instead
 
 16 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 of a naked fetus smeared with vernix caseosa, and yet he 
 could not escape the initial shock which comes to so many 
 fathers. He frankly pronounced the youngster ugly to the 
 mother's amazement and dismay. But on closer inspection 
 the critical sire modified his opinion to the extent of declaring 
 the little fellow passable, and before again departing for busi- 
 ness he had made the discovery that the sunshine lay in his 
 baby's smile, and that his eyes were big and brown and 
 beautiful. 
 
 Other children followed, and Jacob accepted it as a matter 
 of course when he found himself surrounded by four sisters 
 Marie, Rosalie, Johanne, and Helene. They developed 
 under the direction of their mother, as the traveling father 
 was not sufficiently familiar with the family to be its task- 
 master. The father who is home nearly all the time naturally 
 assumes the role of disciplinarian, but the father who visits 
 his hearth at rare intervals is usually as indulgent as a grand- 
 mother. It is among the traditions of the Henle family that 
 Frau Helene was capable of serious procedure, yet seldom 
 was compelled to resort to chastisement, as all the children, 
 although lively, were gentle and easily managed, having in- 
 herited their father's gracious nature. The most vivid recol- 
 lection the Henle children retained of their father was his 
 constant humming and whistling, for this merchant was a 
 musical enthusiast. He was not a performer himself, but 
 there were few operas or concerts which he missed, and after 
 the first bars of any selection, he could finish the melody. 
 Herr Henle cultivated business because it is necessary to live, 
 but he didn't live until the opening notes of the overture.
 
 BOYHOOD DAYS 17 
 
 While Jacob Henle was growing up, Johann Peter Frank 
 was growing old. The founder of modern public hygiene had 
 reached eminence, but the ascent was terrible: when Frank 
 was less than a year old, his inhuman father, enraged at his 
 cries, threw him out of doors; the little outcast survived in- 
 fancy, but at the age of four was almost murdered by some 
 boys; at nine he was taken to Italy by the Piarists to be 
 castrated because of his fine voice, but he escaped to write in 
 indelible ink the name of Johann Peter Frank on the annals 
 of German medicine. He climbed to the mountain-peaks of 
 fame, but when he looked backward along the trail, the ghosts 
 of his childhood memories arose, all tear-stained and blood- 
 beclouded. How different was the childhood of Jacob Henle ! 
 Guided by loving and discerning parents, he imbibed only the 
 good and beautiful, ripening in an atmosphere of peace and 
 culture and music. 
 
 Moving day, although greatly dreaded by adults, is much 
 relished by youngsters. Children are natural nomads, and 
 delight in changing their habitats. During his sixth year, 
 Jacob had the opportunity of informing his companions that 
 he was going to move. Fiirth had become too limited for 
 the Henles, and they were bound for Mainz the Rhine-city 
 which gave the printing-press to mankind. In 1815, moving 
 was not an art, and accompanied by a female servant, a pri- 
 vate tutor, and their baggage, the Henles rolled along for 
 many a weary day in a hackney-coach before they sighted the 
 steeples of Mainz. 
 
 Comfortable days followed, for the star of economic pros- 
 perity shone over the Henles. They lived in a good house,
 
 18 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 employed a male servant, kept horse and carriage that badge 
 of respectability discharged the private tutor and engaged 
 better ones, among them being Monsieur Hugier, who is 
 credited with laying the foundation of Jacob's excellent 
 French. Jacob studied the violin under Kreuser and Marie 
 took lessons on the piano, and soon brother and sister could 
 play duets. It was found that Jacob inherited his father's 
 musical memory, and could reproduce entire acts of even 
 infrequently performed operas. His musical ability, however, 
 could not overcome his boyish passion for noise, for among 
 Jacob's earliest compositions is this appeal : 
 
 Dear Mother, I have heard that there will be a beautiful per- 
 formance and thinking that you will perhaps attend, I beg you to take 
 me along. Herr Majot tells me that there will be fighting and shoot- 
 ing, and you know this is my only joy. I hope that this is not a bold 
 request; should you, however, not be in favor of it and should not 
 consent, you may nevertheless count upon my sincere filial love. 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 J. HENLE. 
 
 The parents had long planned the family's conversion 
 to the dominant religion, one of their motives in leaving their 
 native town being its essential Jewishness, Furth owing its 
 prosperity to Jews who had fled from persecution in Nurem- 
 berg. In Mainz it was easier to undergo Christian trans- 
 formation, since it is the seat of a bishop. Having decided 
 to become Christians, it was next necessary to decide what 
 brand of Christian to become, whether Papist or Protestant,
 
 BOYHOOD DAYS 19 
 
 and then select the denomination. The two elder children, 
 Jacob and Marie, had to write out the reasons for their choice, 
 and there was much solemnity in the household but over 
 the ceremony of changing one theology for another let us 
 draw the charitable veil of silence. To discard the trammels 
 of an outworn creed is splendid, and it is unfortunate when 
 expediency requires the re-riveting of similar fetters. How- 
 ever, we will close this episode by simply remarking that in 
 his twelfth year, Jacob Henle passed through an experience 
 which seldom befalls a rabbi's grandson he became a mem- 
 ber of the evangelical faith. 
 
 Business dictates where men should go, and when Herr 
 Henle's affairs drew him toward the French border, the fam- 
 ily contemplated removal to Coblenz. In order to make the 
 preliminary arrangements, the father preceded his flock, and 
 the mother prepared to follow under the protectorate of 
 Jacob. The little man felt the importance of his office, and 
 was keyed up with excitement over the prospect of the jour- 
 ney. He thought the day of departure would never come, 
 but it finally arrived, and caused Jacob Henle to wonder at 
 the perverseness and unreasonableness of life. He did not 
 feel well ; his leg was hot and it ached, but he tried to hide his 
 condition, for he was afraid of having to remain at home, and 
 he was resolved, boy-like, to enjoy himself at all hazards. 
 The carriage rattled on, every moment intensifying the aching 
 and the swelling. The mother, engrossed with her plans, 
 failed to notice that her son was unnaturally subdued. At 
 last Coblenz was reached, but Jacob did not jump down in 
 eagerness. He could not walk, and it was necessary to carry
 
 20 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 him to bed, where he spent a night of suffering. So the day 
 which was anticipated with joy, brought with it nothing but 
 sorrow. 
 
 Dr. Settegast diagnosed the case as periostitis, and for 
 weeks Jacob lay in Coblenz, while his mother kept traveling 
 back and forth from Coblenz to Mainz, to divide her attention 
 between her scattered brood. Professor Leydig, the foremost 
 surgeon of Mainz, was summoned to Jacob's bedside, and 
 eased the patient with an incision; another period of exile 
 followed, and when Jacob was able to be conveyed to Mainz, 
 Leydig removed the necrotic areas with favorable results, 
 although recurring attacks of periostitis plagued Henle at 
 spasmodic intervals throughout his career. During his pro- 
 tracted convalescence, Jacob demonstrated Leydig's operation 
 to his astonished sisters with the aid of his father's strop 
 and a button-hook. Unfortunately, the invalid's recollection 
 of the operation was vivid enough, for 1821 was in the pre- 
 chloroformic days. 
 
 Jacob's illness upset the family plans for a time, and it 
 was not until 1824 that the Henles settled at Coblenz. Jacob 
 was now fifteen, alive to everything, but interested chiefly 
 in music and drawing. As he looked out of his new home, 
 he saw a plain-looking house opposite. There was no gold 
 within for thieves to steal, yet its unpretending walls held 
 priceless treasures. Many youths and certain elders passed 
 that humble door-step with desire, and accounted it a privilege 
 to be permitted entrance. That rickety stairway led the 
 pilgrim to a shrine, for here dwelt Herr Zeiller and his five 
 charming daughters.
 
 BOYHOOD DAYS 21 
 
 The blend of male and female voices was often heard in 
 that home, mingling with the voice of the violin and piano, 
 for the lives of the Zeillers were consecrated by music. Nat- 
 urally the Henles drifted in , and the two families were 
 mutually delighted with each other, passing many wonderful 
 hours in song and play. 
 
 Among those who visited the Zeillers was a cobbler's son 
 who neither sang nor played; sometimes his eyes flashed, 
 but he seldom spoke or smiled; yet he came whenever he 
 could, and watched Nanni Zeiller. Johannes Miiller looking 
 at Nanni Zeiller science worshipping beauty. 
 
 Nanni's younger sister, the fascinating Malchen, had many 
 admirers ; she and Jacob formed the habit of singing together, 
 and the world will not be surprised to hear that the young 
 man's passion for music was complicated by a passion for 
 Malchen. One of the symptoms of love is the desire to 
 bestow gifts upon the object of adoration, but a boy's purse 
 and his impulses are usually at variance, and Jacob was 
 reduced to the necessity of stealing his mother's blossoming 
 plant which he presented to Malchen with the cautious stipu- 
 lation not to place it upon a window fronting the street. 
 In return, Malchen brought him a plateful of dumplings, but 
 it is not stated whether he was enjoined to eat these in secret. 
 Jacob's record in mathematics and the classics now suffered 
 a decline, but the blissful hours spent with his first sweet- 
 heart compensated him for lowered scholarship. 
 
 The lad looked forward to the summer as the time when 
 release from school would give him more leisure for Malchen, 
 but in the summer his idyl was over. For Malchen, lovely
 
 22 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 but poor, was abruptly engaged to marry a gentleman, elderly 
 but rich. Young Henle now passed through a period familiar 
 to so many adolescents, when a feeling of suffocation clutches 
 the heart and the grey world is all ennui, when the brooding 
 melancholy of the oppressive day is followed by the deeper 
 anguish of the endless night, and to the memory of lost pleas- 
 ures is added the realization that these joys have vanished 
 forever. 
 
 In this stage, much of the world's poetry is born, and 
 Henle wrote this lamentation to the summer: 
 
 Summer, thou hast taken from me 
 All my happiness, 
 
 And brought me nothing 
 
 But sadness and sorrow. 
 
 Shall I rejoice with the swallows 
 
 Who returned to us, 
 
 When a beautiful bird 
 
 Has flown from me forever? 
 
 Sing, O sing, thou nightingale, 
 
 Sing your songs in the bushes; 
 
 The sound of one sweet voice 
 
 1 shall never hear again. 
 Shalt thou, sweet air of spring, 
 Caress me with thy flowery fragrance? 
 Sweeter than all the flowers' scent, 
 Was the breath of my sweet one. 
 
 O heavens, with your azure blue, 
 Cover yourselves with rainy clouds! 
 For her eyes too swam in tears, 
 When our ways were parted.
 
 BOYHOOD DAYS 23 
 
 What care I for the green forest, 
 
 Since no longer she walks beside me? 
 
 Can I enjoy the flowery meadow, 
 
 When she is no longer with me? 
 
 O Summer, thou hast taken from me 
 
 All my happiness; 
 
 O thou cruel summertime 
 
 Hadst thou never, never come! 
 
 Many other lamentations fell from the sufferer's pen, and 
 Henle closed the cycle of his love-songs with this dirge to 
 the flames : 
 
 To the Fire do I consecrate my songs, 
 Which I sang in my happy days; 
 With each spark that goes out, 
 My sweet hopes go to their graves. 
 So burnt my heart in bright flames 
 For Thee; thou scornedst it, then it broke; 
 When, oh when, will come the time 
 Which will disperse its ashes? 
 
 On the day of Malchen's wedding, Henle's tortured spirit 
 would not permit him to remain in town, and he received 
 his parents' permission to visit some of his friends in Mainz. 
 A boy's love is acute, but rarely fatal, and Henle recovered. 
 With the re-opening of school he returned calmly to his 
 benches, and graduated peacefully. 
 
 At eighteen, he stood at the cross-roads of life, undecided 
 which way to turn. His friend, Ludwig Lindenschmitt, who 
 even then was an antiquarian enthusiast, urged the talented 
 youth to study the Germanic authors, and become their his-
 
 24 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 torian. Henle was impressed with this suggestion, but he 
 thought too of law, and was also inclined to become a preacher. 
 At this critical juncture, Johannes Miiller again crossed the 
 young man's path, and the decision was made. Not litera- 
 ture, nor jurisprudence, nor theology, but medicine was to be 
 Jacob Henle's life-work.
 
 II 
 
 THE MEDICAL STUDENT 
 
 In the autumn of 1827, Jacob Henle matriculated at the 
 University of Bonn he was no longer a boy at home, but an 
 academic citizen. The day after his arrival in the university 
 town, he received a dinner-invitation from Johannes Miiller 
 and his wife for Johannes Miiller had not looked at Nanni 
 Zeiller in vain. Their housekeeping was unpretentious, as the 
 professor's salary was meagre, and Nanni's dowry was nothing 
 but a song-book. They plied Henle with questions about the 
 folks in Coblenz, and were very friendly. After dinner, Henle 
 and Frau Nanni sang together and perhaps he thought of 
 the days when he used to sing with Nanni's sister. Reticent 
 and introspective, Johannes Miiller was a man apart; he did 
 not join in the festivities held in his home, but his face lit up 
 when he heard his wife singing. Henle came frequently, relish- 
 ing the scientific talks with Miiller, and the duets with Nanni. 
 
 Henle thoroughly enjoyed his introduction to university 
 life: he subscribed for a season-ticket to the theatre, became 
 expert in dancing, took riding lessons, and never refused to 
 attend an affair that promised to be jolly. He was proud of his 
 social debut, and wrote to Marie : 
 
 25
 
 26 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 Can you imagine, dear heart, little Jacob in a frock coat and cravat, 
 holding a teacup gracefully, alone among seven ladies, conversing 
 politely about balls in Bonn and Coblenz can you imagine your 
 stiff brother like this, at Professor Treber's? I did not feel exactly 
 comfortable as long as there was no other masculine being in the 
 room, but I was sufficiently composed to bow properly, and without 
 dropping anything or smashing any crockery, I managed to sip 
 down two cups of tea. 
 
 Even in the midst of accident, Henle exhibited a serene 
 countenance to society. Once, while standing up and convers- 
 ing vivaciously with the lady of the house, his piece of cake 
 fell from the cup and saucer which he was holding in his 
 hand. In stooping to recover the delicacy, the treacherous 
 spoon also fell. Instead of being flustered and offering a thou- 
 sand apologies Henle said to the hostess, "Now that the cake 
 and spoon are already on the floor, may I place my cup there 
 also?" and thus the situation was saved by laughter. 
 
 Henle was among those scheduled for Professor Bischoff's 
 grand ball, but he found his raiment inadequate for the occa- 
 sion. His comrades came to the rescue, and from one he bor- 
 rowed a hat, another loaned him a cravat, a third came forward 
 with a collar, and a fourth furnished a vest. It always rains 
 at the wrong time, and Henle hesitated to expose his faultless 
 outfit to the Bonnian mud and the threatening weather. A 
 fifth friend, however, permitted Henle to mount his back, and 
 off they went in the darkness of the night. Any honest horse 
 would have halted in front of Bischoff's house, but this human 
 steed refused to drop his rider and galloped with him among 
 the assembled guests, creating what he expected a sensation. 
 
 Henle joined the famous student society, the Burschen- 
 schaft, and the members hailed the merchant's son with joy. 
 They liked his tobacco, and smoked his cigars; they ordered
 
 THE MEDICAL STUDENT 27 
 
 coffee at his expense, and showed a preference for his beer and 
 wine; they praised his ham, and were enthusiastic over his 
 sausages. In fact, Henle found himself so popular, that he 
 soon withdrew from the Burschenschaft, and expected to hear 
 no more of it. 
 
 College life appears to be unusually expensive, for noth- 
 ing is more characteristic of students than the persistency with 
 which they write home for money. Some students are prosaic, 
 and simply say they need more money for food and rent, while 
 others are inventive and announce they require an extra al- 
 lowance to purchase a celiac axis. As evidence that Henle was 
 a regular fellow, let us submit the following document which 
 he transmitted to his parents : 
 
 MoneyS Money! Money! I have nothing, and I owe my friend 
 Mathieu ten dollars. Money! I paid forty-six dollars for tuition, 
 much for books, and twenty dollars for housekeeping. Money! Other- 
 wise things are well with me, but Money! Money! Money! Last 
 Sunday I visited Muller who grows more congenial and friendly 
 from day today. He gave me some good advice. I remained there 
 until evening. Professor Pugge, with his wife of eight days who 
 has a very nice voice, came in the afternoon and invited me. But 
 Money! Money! Yesterday evening I visited Pugge, where I met many 
 fashionable students, and the professor's parents-in-law, Hasse and 
 his wife Hasse is one of the most prominent Jurists here. I sang sev- 
 eral songs with the lady of the house and remained until half past ten. 
 I also made the acquaintance of Prof. Hasse's son, a young man of my 
 age, and Fuchs too, I learned to know. I think we shall become friends. 
 Money! Money! 
 
 You see now that I could live here in dulci jubilo if only I had 
 money, only Money! Money! but quick! Although I am screaming 
 for money, I must also write about something else. I really cannot
 
 28 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 use my cloak, and when I assure you of this, you will simply have 
 to trust me and take my word for it. I need eight yards and a fur 
 collar. When you send this, also send a pair of shoes, also my 
 calendar which I left at home by mistake, a few pounds of sugar 
 for the evening tea, and a good Mainz ham. But above all Money! 
 Also forward to me Biot's Experimental Physics in four volumes. 
 The next time I shall write you about the university. Money! Money! 
 Money! Cloth! Fur Collar! Calendar! Biot's Physics! Ham! Sugar! 
 Money! Money! Money! Money! Ham! Money! Cloth! Money! 
 Fur Collar! Money! Calendar! Money! Physics! Money! Sugar! 
 Money. Your eternally loving, Jacob. 
 
 While we were recording instances of Henle's social suc- 
 cess, a suspicion might have been born in the reader's mind 
 that the matriculant was unfaithful to the curriculum. The 
 passageway to medicine is through the labyrinth of anatomy, 
 and many turn away in despair, but Henle entered with ease. 
 He wrote his parents: 
 
 I derive so much pleasure from these studies that I cannot un- 
 derstand how my good genius permitted me to waver so long, be- 
 fore it brought me upon the right path. What others regard as dry 
 stuff such as the necesary, thorough and almost minute observation of 
 all the parts fills me with astonishment and joyous admiration of 
 the manner in which it leads up with one end in view, even in thj 
 smallest particulars. I know of no better food for imagination than 
 the beautiful formation of the human body, constructed of indi 
 vidual bones and muscles, which I know accurately and can pu- 
 together. I know I shall learn something sensible, I shall positively 
 not be a bungler. 
 
 From the first, he began to think anatomically and physi- 
 ologically ; in the second semester he illustrated Miiller's work 
 on glands, and became active in the master's laboratory.
 
 THE MEDICAL STUDENT 29 
 
 Vacation time approached, but instead of packing his be- 
 longings, Henle lay in bed with a wounded cheek. As a duel- 
 ist he was not a success. It is true, he was once victorious, but 
 as he stood there with legs apart, proudly lowering his rapier, 
 its point pierced his shoe and cut his foot. When Henle finally 
 presented himself at home, nothing seemed so conspicuous 
 about him as the schmisse; his parents were horrified and did 
 not permit the mutilated student to show himself in the streets 
 of Coblenz. For the first time in his life, Henle felt the weight 
 of parental wrath his mother was especially shocked and 
 angry although it is difficult to see how a German student 
 could have avoided the inevitable mensuren. Saint-Beuve once 
 fought a duel under an umbrella, but Henle found himself 
 under a cloud. Perhaps if he had been more lucky, his parents 
 would have been less indignant. At any rate, there was a rift 
 in the Henle lute, and with impatience the household awaited 
 the coming of the new semester which would call the student 
 away to new duties. 
 
 Henle continued his studies at Heidelberg, and was de- 
 lighted with his teachers: Naegele, whose description of the 
 obliquely contracted pelvis one of his specimens was that of 
 an Egyptian mummy is still known as the Naegele pelvis; 
 Chelius, who introduced the surgical and opthalmological clin- 
 ics into Heidelberg, and whose Handbook of Surgery was 
 translated into six languages and reprinted many times with- 
 out criticism until Stromeyer pointed out that it didn't contain 
 a single original idea; Puchelt, who adhered to the School of 
 Natural Philosophy, and whose reputation disappeared with 
 the School ; Arnold, after whom a dozen structures have been
 
 30 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 named, such as Arnold's canal, Arnold's ganglion, Arnold's 
 nerve; Tiedemann, who was Heidelberg's first professor of 
 anatomy and physiology, but whose chief claim to remem- 
 brance is perhaps the monograph on digestion which he wrote 
 in collaboration with Gmelin. 
 
 Anatomy was Henle's favorite subject. He prepared ani- 
 mal and human specimens, frequently corresponding with 
 Miiller, who stimulated his young friend by keeping him 
 informed of his work and writings. Henle practised assidu- 
 ously in the clinics, and experienced the felicity of being called 
 Herr Doctor by charity patients. He tried out his first blood- 
 letting on a female, and relates that although on account of 
 the roundness of her arms the veins were hardly visible, yet 
 he completed his venesection without any misfortune. After 
 having cupped three times, he permitted himself to cherish 
 the hope that if he should fail in medicine, he could be a suc- 
 cessful bathkeeper. 
 
 A medical student is apt to complain that his course con- 
 sists of an excess of quizzes and a scarcity of clinics, but Henle 
 wrote : 
 
 The professors surpassed my expectations in diligence, polite- 
 ness and affability, and everyone under whom I study understands 
 his subject thoroughly. However, I have no occasion to regret that 
 I did not come here earlier, for while the practical end isl well rep- 
 resented, the preparatory and theoretical courses are poor. Without 
 laying a scientific foundation, everyone rushes into practice, and 
 the results of this superficial and empirical method will come to the 
 surface as soon as the guiding hand of the teacher is withdrawn. 
 The machine-like prescription-writing is certainly not our highest 
 goal, and whatever such a mechanical man appropriates through many
 
 THE MEDICAL STUDENT 31 
 
 years of experience can soon be equalled if we are willing to seek 
 reason and ground. This is the only way by which we will be able 
 to accomplish something independent, and will not be compelled to 
 follow blindly what others tell us from their experience. The prac- 
 titioner who is merely concerned about practice, may through some 
 luck and savoir faire, attain a decent income, but he will never ac- 
 complish anything for his science, and I do not call him fortunate, 
 who is satisfied with just that. 
 
 Toward the end of his stay in Heidelberg, irresolution 
 again assaulted Henle. Vacation arrived, and he was still 
 undetermined whether to plan a clinical or academic career, 
 but he expressed his indecision charmingly: 
 
 I am still undecided regarding my future. Much draws me to 
 the practical, especially the position of a physician who knows how 
 to make friends and inspire confidence. On the other hand, I have 
 the knowledge that I can pursue the career of a teacher, and to sit 
 in a lecturer's chair with believing open-mouthed youngsters in 
 front of me, devouring with pointed pens every word as though it 
 were an oracle, and laughing at every poor joke which I surely will 
 not fail to make ex officio this is not a bad picture. But the years 
 of a privat docent! the years of dependence and huddling! and on 
 the other hand, the seven first lean years of practice! In short, I 
 am and remain undecided. 
 
 In such a crisis, Johannes Miiller was the man to whom to 
 appeal, but the inspired teacher was away in the land of 
 Leeuwenhoek and Swammerdam. Upon Miiller's return, just 
 before the re-opening of classes, Henle hastened to his mentor, 
 and laid his problems before him. There was no wavering in 
 Miiller's devotion to pure science ; in the presence of a talented 
 youth, his flaming enthusiasm swept aside all hesitation and 
 Henle followed Miiller to Bonn, with the settled purpose of
 
 32 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 dedicating his life to anatomico-physiological research. The 
 comfort that comes from resolution is evident from Henle's 
 communication to his parents : 
 
 Recently I had the good fortune of making an anatomical dis- 
 covery, which when I introduce it into the medical world, will 
 make for me somewhat of a name. Miiller to whom I spoke of it 
 is much pleased and he confirms my opinion, so I may now call him 
 as witness. If Miiller goes to Paris this fall, as he expects to, I 
 shall make my further investigations and write down my findings 
 partly in Coblenz, and am looking forward with much pleasure to 
 spending several weeks with you. 
 
 Since my arrival here, I have become convinced that I should 
 take up the teaching profession. Since my renewed intercourse with 
 Miiller, my desire for anatomy, which I will be able to pursue only 
 as decent, has awakened once more. I find that I know much 
 more about it than I gave myself credit for, and the investigations 
 which I conduct upon Muller's instigation convince me that I do not 
 lack talent. Furthermore, there are other conditions which draw 
 me to this career. First, Muller's friendship, which can be of so 
 much help to me. Second, I can make good use of my skill 
 in drawing. Third, although I cannot deny that it will take some 
 years before I become independent, yet I need not hurry especially. 
 And now, that I have once more gained self-reliance, and hope to 
 accomplish something worth while, I also have the courage to ask 
 for your parental love. Fourth, I see too, how my entire being in- 
 clines me more and more to the life of an instructor. I am daily 
 growing more sedate, more quiet, more one-sided, and am losing 
 more and more the qualities necessary to the practical physician. 
 I should not like to choose a profession that would make it necessary 
 for me to take off my dressing-gown before eleven o'clock in the 
 morning and allow my pipe to go out. Fortunately, I find the 
 other reasons which I am giving you conclusive enough, otherwise
 
 \ 
 
 ADOLF KUSSMAUL
 
 THE MEDICAL STUDENT 33 
 
 you might blame this last one for my decision. Finally, there is not 
 a single one of my acquaintances, either wise or unwise, who does 
 not recognize my plan as a very good one, while Miiller greets my 
 decision with hearty joy. 
 
 Now that I am clear regarding this important question, I have 
 decided to remain here over this winter. The reason for this I 
 need not explain 'to you. The rich clinics in Berlin do not attract 
 me any more; I intend to devote myself exclusively to anatomical 
 studies and researches, and where can I do it better than here? I 
 can do my work under the very eyes of Miiller, and call upon him for 
 advice whenever I am in the slightest doubt; his instruments, micro- 
 scopes and books are entirely at my disposal. 
 
 I am also on good terms with Weber, and he has already spoken 
 to me about some preparations for his lectures, and in return has 
 promised me as much material for dissection as I need. I am 
 therefore looking forward to a very pleasant period, where I can 
 lay aside all examination-studies, and busy myself entirely with my 
 favorite occupations. In the morning I shall do anatomy, the after- 
 noon I shall devote to dissection, either 'for myself or for Miiller, 
 and in the evening I shall read. I cannot tell you with what expecta- 
 tions I am looking forward to this time. And still more. Miiller 
 proposed to me material upon which I can work and perhaps submit 
 to a Journal; in fact, Miiller asked my co-operation in a larger work, 
 which it would not be advisable for one person to perform, and then 
 I shall allow myself to be led into the world by "him and shall hang 
 my name to his, and let him drag me along. This is all really too 
 beautiful, and I don't know iwhether I am right in telling you every- 
 thing, as I myself fear that Fate will not permit me so much bliss. 
 
 My life plan, at present, is as follows: At the beginning of 
 vacation, I contemplate taking my doctor's examination; during vaca- 
 tion I shall write my dissertation, and around Christmas I will 
 permit the doctor's cap to be placed upon my head. I shall stay 
 here throughout this winter and work hard, and after Easter I shall
 
 34 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 go to Berlin to prepare for the State Examination. I shall next look 
 for a place and try to advance as rapidly as possible, then shall 
 marry a young, beautiful, wise and rich girl, who speaks French, 
 plays the piano and knows how to manage horses. 
 
 Now I beg you to let me have your opinion regarding these 
 plans. If I, perhaps, am a little broad or confused in my explana- 
 tions, you must forgive me, for I am writing this note in the class 
 of Professor Bischoff, whose monotonous phrases ring into my ears 
 from time to time. 
 
 The keen edge of remorse over wasted hours never cuts 
 more deeply than on the student's day of reckoning the day 
 of final examinations. But destiny is not always decided in 
 class rooms. A student who passes his examinations magna 
 cum laude is not necessarily successful in the postgraduate 
 school of life. What happens to all the valedictorians? Many 
 of them become employees of men who failed in college. It 
 would be piquant to recite a list of celebrated individuals who 
 were the despair of their forgotten teachers. Nevertheless, it 
 should not be considered discreditable to pass with the highest 
 marks. An examiner who perused Henle's papers, expressed 
 himself to the effect that during his lifetime he had not seen 
 their equal, and Johannes Miiller was so impressed that he 
 invited the brilliant graduate to accompany him on his long- 
 planned visit to Paris. 
 
 It is a prize platitude to say that there is something about 
 a trip to Paris which appeals to everyone. It is not difficult, 
 therefore, to imagine Henle's joy; he was naturally of an en- 
 thusiastic temperament, and to travel with Miiller was the
 
 THE MEDICAL STUDENT 35 
 
 rarest of privileges. Arrived in Paris, the two Germans con- 
 versed only in French, and swelled the applause at numerous 
 operas and theatres. Henle was not pleased with the French 
 that is, with the male portion, but he chanted paens of praise 
 for the French girls, asserting that in grace, dress and poise, 
 they could serve as models for all Europe. 
 
 At Miiller's approach, the laboratories and cabinets of 
 the French naturalists opened in welcome. Cuvier, who was 
 then the potentate of French science, placed his own work- 
 room at the disposal of Miiller and Henle. Miiller, who 
 achieved immortality on a frog's back, had proved the cor- 
 rectness of the Bell-Magendie theory of the spinal nerve-roots, 
 and he invited several distinguished Frenchmen to witness his 
 demonstration. Alexander von Humboldt, who was in Paris 
 at the time, was also invited, and Henle, who of course as- 
 sisted in the experiments, has left us this glimpse of his illus- 
 trious countryman: 
 
 Humboldt has gone again bien satisfait des jolies manoeuvers 
 which we had the honor to perform before him. He claimed to be 
 delighted at having made my acquaintance, which, probably, was 
 just prattle, and he told me the story of a young man, whom I 
 didn't know, that he had married, regarding which I expressed in- 
 human joy. At the end he left five francs, most probably a tip for 
 me. I, however, brought the money proudly back to him, and in 
 return for this I received my handkerchief, which he pocketed by 
 oversight. He brought with him a number of other prominent sci- 
 entists, whom I now know personally, and upon my return to Bonn, 
 I shall have something to boast of. You should have seen the way 
 we fixed up our poor room for the reception of these important
 
 36 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 guests. First of all we put everything in order. But then we 
 found that a hole in a chair, there a tear in the table-cover, had 
 to be covered with books, and so we chose the system of artistic 
 disorder, as we preferred to appear careless rather than poor; it 
 of course would have been differently arranged, if dear mother had 
 announced that she would visit us. His Honor, the Minister, was 
 placed upon an armchair covered with red flowered velvet cloth, 
 the other gentlemen on similar chairs only filled with feathers, so 
 their dignity might sink a little deeper. Miiller and I camped on 
 two cane chairs, which together numbered seven legs. We two 
 were dressed entirely in black, including our linens, as our femme 
 blanchisseuse disappointed us perfidement. 
 
 Upon his return to Bonn, Henle worked with such dili- 
 gence upon his doctor's thesis that some of his friends were 
 neglected but when evening came, he found time to sing 
 with Frau Nanni. Henle's increasing intimacy with Miiller 
 may be sensed from certain passages in his description of 
 his graduating exercises: 
 
 Graduation has occurred, and was very solemn. I appeared in 
 Muller's breeches and my own calves, which excited general admira- 
 tion The dissertation met with much approval, and I myself, 
 
 am satisfied with it. As I remarked, I am getting always friendlier 
 with Miiller, and our mutual tenderness is reaching the stage of mush. 
 
 Instead of the usual graduation dissertation an academic 
 review of ancient and modern opinions on a given subject 
 Henle presented his teachers a research-essay based on his 
 own dissections of the optic membranes in man and various 
 animals. Henle's De membrana pupillari aliisque oculi membranis 
 pillucentibus was not a thesis wrung from an unwilling student 
 by the exigencies of graduation, but a contribution to science 
 that foretokened a future discoverer.
 
 Ill 
 
 ADVENTURES IN BERLIN 
 
 One obstacle still lay in Henle's path the State Exami- 
 nation. The young man sighed as he thought of it, for this 
 meant an enforced renewal of his acquaintance with subjects 
 which no longer interested him symptoms, diagnosis and 
 treatment. Dr. Henle had nothing to do with practical medi- 
 cine. The clinic was now foreign territory to him his home 
 was the laboratory. Besides, the State Examination could 
 be taken only in Berlin, and thus it was necessary to part from 
 Miiller, whose note of farewell lay before him: 
 
 It is true, then, my dear Henle, that you are to go. I miss 
 your dear society, but I know that you have left us that you may 
 progress further. I hope to hear from you real often. I shall cer- 
 tainly not let you wait for an answer. Go then, accompanied by 
 a thousand good wishes and by our love, and return to us the same 
 affectionate friend. 
 
 Henle entered Berlin a stranger, but armed with Miiller's 
 letters of introduction to such scientists as Rudolphi, Schlemm, 
 Dieffenbach and Romberg; from his father, Henle carried 
 letters to commercial and juristic groups. A man who relies 
 upon letters of introduction for his friendships, is apt to be 
 solitary but Henle was always a social animal. Merkel says 
 
 37
 
 38 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 that when Henle was a short time in Berlin, the circle of his 
 acquaintances changed considerably, for the families to whom 
 he had been recommended, receded into the background, and 
 the friends he found for himself, stepped into their places. 
 
 Among these friends was a certain Fraulein whose charms 
 effaced the memory of Malchen. It is asserted that Henle was 
 infatuated at first sight "a glance from her was lightning and 
 j. thunderbolt at the same time" and he was fully determined 
 to ask her in marriage as soon as he obtained an income. Some 
 women wait, and others don't. While Henle wooed and post- 
 poned, a landed proprietor wooed and proposed with the 
 usual success of wealthy men. This was Henle's second shock, 
 but Wertherism was antiquated, and suicide did not follow. 
 On the contrary, within a short time he wrote that he experi- 
 enced the sensations of a bird on a branch who peeps into the 
 room where stands his late cage. 
 
 Another friend of this period was Felix Mendelssohn. It 
 was Henle's privilege to witness the origin and development 
 of some of his compositions, and the musician became so at- 
 tached to the scientist, that when he passed through Coblenz, 
 he paid a special visit to Henle's family. Sister Marie's talent 
 for music eclipsed even her brother's, and Mendelssohn en- 
 chanted her with a private performance of the overture to 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, which he had composed in his 
 seventeenth year, and which carried him to fame's pinnacle. 
 Some years later, Henle and Mendelssohn might have been 
 related by marriage, but when Henle proposed to one of the 
 Mendelssohn girls, he discovered she was already secretly 
 betrothed.
 
 ADVENTURES IN BERLIN 39 
 
 In spite of the imposing examination which loomed before 
 him, Henle entered into the social life of Berlin with zest. He 
 was always good company; he could chat superficially on 
 trivial topics, knew how to play whist with the ladies, how to 
 drink tea leisurely, and how to smoke a pipe comfortably. 
 
 He would have been content, if only Miiller could have 
 been with him and then, with dramatic suddenness, Miiller 
 did come to Berlin, for Rudolphi, the professor of anatomy and 
 physiology in the University of Berlin, unexpectedly died, and 
 Johannes Miiller was appointed his successor, thus becoming, 
 in his early thirties, the central figure of German 
 medicine. Miiller and Henle hailed each other with joy and 
 a renewal of their friendship meant a renewal of work. 
 Miiller now founded his epoch-making Archives of Anatomy, 
 Physiology, and Scientific Medicine, familiarly called Miiller's 
 Archiv, which was the most influential journal of its kind 
 until displaced by the periodical founded by one of Miiller's 
 pupils Virchow's Archiv. Henle's name appeared conspicu- 
 ously in the prospectus of Miiller's Archiv; he was, in fact, 
 the managing editor. Miiller drew Henle still closer to him 
 by appointing him his assistant at the anatomical museum. 
 Henle went through the state examination without mishap, and 
 soon celebrated his release by writing articles for medical dic- 
 tionaries and encyclopedias, and by immersing himself in 
 research. 
 
 Now that Henle was a teacher, every academic upheaval 
 interested him he might be appointed. When Ratke was called 
 from Dorpat to Halle, as successor to the deceased Meckel, 
 Henle reasoned as follows :
 
 40 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 Through this the professorship in Dorpat is open, and as Russia 
 likes to recruit from here, and as there is hardly a surplus of physi- 
 ologists, it is possible that I will get the place at Dorpat. 
 
 While waiting for a stray professor's chair, Henle deemed 
 it expedient to utilize his artistic talent by offering his ser- 
 vices to the academy of art, and he wrote his parents an ac- 
 count of his adventures in pursuit of this position : 
 
 I was glad to give you pleasure by my appointment as prosector, 
 especially as the joyous expectation of the other post may not be 
 realized. I shall have to tell you the entire procedure, so not to 
 have you think that I am as frivolous as may appear. When the 
 place became vacant about three months ago, I foresaw but one 
 who could contest it with me, and that was my friend Froriep. I 
 went to him and spoke as Abraham spoke to Lot: If you wish 
 to apply for this position, let us not be enemies; you have the quali- 
 fications for it, you are a good draughtsman and a pater familias, 
 and therefore, I shall step aside, although I have been requested to 
 apply. My behavior at the time was considered noble. After much 
 controversy Froriep wrote to his father it must be said a real poli- 
 tician who advised him not to apply that is, never mind the 400 
 thalers. Froriep confessed to me that he was heartily pleased over 
 this, as he need not consider the income, and the work at the 
 academy would distract him. I apply and all is well. I leave, I 
 return, I inquire, and Privy Councellor Schultz, Professor Rauch, 
 and Director Schadow, all assure me that I will be successful. Only 
 the matter proceeds slowly, for the Minister needs time, as always. 
 All of a sudden, old Froriep appears, calls upon the Minister and 
 the Councellors, and my friend sadly informs me that he is com- 
 pelled to make an application for the post 
 
 My view of the affair, as f ar ;as I am able to judge, is this: old 
 man Froriep informs the authorities that his son has been professor
 
 ADVENTURES IN BERLIN 41 
 
 for three years, and still receives no salary. The Minister recognizes 
 his complaint as Just, and even if he does not, he agrees with old 
 Froriep, with whom he is on good terms. The Minister, however, 
 as always, has no money to dispose of. Then he reminds himself 
 of the yet unfilled post at the academy of art, with 400 thalers at- 
 tached. I, the only applicant, am a young unmarried man, who has 
 just entered into State service, and already has a salary of 500 
 thalers, and I ought to be satisfied with this. The academy's 400 
 may be utilized to stop the mouth of some one else for the time 
 being, and Papa Froriep brings home with him a request and, most 
 probably, a promise of success. Whether it is right for Froriep to 
 take back his promise and compete with me, I shall not try to judge. 
 If it is a crooked way, then it is the old man's fault, and 'I have set 
 my pride upon it, that our friendship shall not be shattered on this 
 rock. I told Froriep that I shall pursue my course as I have begun, 
 as I may be able to use even a negative answer for the future. I 
 have not, however, attempted to use any subterranean means, and 
 our applications lay fraternally together before the Minister. You 
 can readily understand that under these circumstances there is little 
 hope for me. 
 
 My relationship with Mttller is such as I imagined it, and that 
 is saying a great deal, as I imagined something very beautiful. I 
 always seek to do more than is expected of me. ... I see more and 
 more, what an invaluable treasure, the tested friendship of this ex- 
 cellent man really is. I now have an assistant, r in the person of 
 little Friedlander, whom you know. He assists me with my work 
 when necessary and in return for this, he enjoys my special instruc- 
 tion in dissection, and in return for this again I enjoy an occasional 
 dinner with his parents. He is very industrious and modest, and I 
 think we shall be satisfied with each other. 
 
 The diplomacy of the elder Froriep was successful, and 
 Henle reported to his parents :
 
 42 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 The academic affair is finally decided, and it has brought me a 
 great deal of disquietude and some pleasure. I realized very soon 
 that this was not the time to indulge in high-minded sentiments, and 
 without giving myself any false hopes, I determined to bring my 
 competition with Froriep into the open. I, therefore, submitted my 
 drawings to the academy, and personally called upon the individual 
 members of the senate, and found that they were unanimously in 
 my favor, as they considered me especially qualified for the post, and 
 they requested the Minister to appoint me. 
 
 In the meantime, the Minister, paying no attention to their wishes, 
 appointed Froriep temporarily. The entire academy resents this act, 
 and there is talk of protest. That of course would be futile, as 
 the Minister will not alter his decision. It is, however, enough 
 satisfaction to me, and in other respects may prove very useful, as 
 you can readily see that the Minister will have to make good this 
 injustice done to me. In fact, when I called upon him recently, he 
 was very cordial and promised to see to it that I should better my 
 position through a more scientific occupation, than that which was 
 recently vacant at the art academy. According to this, I can even 
 demand an extraordinary professorship, and that certainly would 
 be more advantageous to me than the little distracting by-office. 
 On the whole, I can say that my old luck has not deserted me. I 
 gained, if not in money, in prestige, and I can step forth with un- 
 sullied pride, side by side with my successful competitor, and the 
 fact that our friendly relationship has not suffered through this 
 affair, is something which, all who know the circumstances, count 
 in my favor. Miiller says he is glad for his and my sake that I did 
 not appeal, and that too is of importance. 
 
 When Henle applied to the authorities for formal habili- 
 tation as privat decent, he expected a routine confirmation in 
 due course of time. In reply he received an unpleasant re- 
 minder that he was an ex-Burschenschafter, and he was in-
 
 ADVENTURES IN BERLIN 43 
 
 formed that his political past was under investigation. This 
 attitude of the State was entirely unexpected, and filled Henle 
 and his parents with consternation. But a calm review of the 
 situation relieved their panic, for they saw no genuine reason 
 for alarm. Of course, the present misunderstanding was dis- 
 turbing, but after all, Henle's participation in the Bonn Bursch- 
 enschaft had been so slight, his exit so speedy, his subsequent 
 devotion to science so complete, and his career so promising, 
 that it was unthinkable that he should be condemned to any 
 punishment severer than a reprimand. 
 
 But society must be saved, and church and state must 
 be protected, and prosecutors must prosecute and there- 
 fore the criminal inquiry proceeded apace. As the evidence 
 was being sifted, exciting rumors leaked through the sieve: 
 one day the academic circles of Berlin heard that both Miiller 
 and Henle had been arrested, but those who sought veri- 
 fication of the story, found the professor and his prosector 
 at work in the Anatomical Museum. After a comparative lull, 
 Henle would persuade himself that danger was over until 
 the sudden imprisonment of one friend after another, no more 
 guilty than himself, stirred new terror in his heart. During 
 this unsettled period, torn between hope and fear, uncertain 
 whether the morrow would find him a state teacher or a 
 state prisoner, Henle's scientific output was naturally dimin- 
 ished, but he produced at least one essay which won the en- 
 thusiastic admiration of Alexander von Humboldt. 
 
 In the meantime, there came to Henle, a friendly and 
 highly respectful letter, from the Ministry of Dorpat, offering
 
 44 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 him the professorship of human and comparative anatomy, 
 zoology, physiology, general pathology, and pathological anat- 
 omy. However, there was compensation for this work, for 
 the letter explained that after twenty-five years of service, 
 the professor is retired with full salary, "which he may spend 
 where he pleases," and after his death, his widow receives 
 a pension. 
 
 The latter item held little lure for a bachelor, and Henle's 
 reply was indefinite. Early in the morning of the second of 
 July, 1835, as Henle lay comfortably in bed, dreaming per- 
 haps of the Dorpat proposition, unexpected visitors entered 
 his room. In that summer dawn, they affixed seals to the 
 door, and took Henle with them. Throughout the day, Miiller 
 waited in vain for his prosector, for he had been transferred 
 to the most famous institution in Berlin the Hausvogtei. 
 His cell swarmed with vermin, there was nothing to read ex- 
 cept the Bible, no one came to see him, and he did not have 
 a cigar. 
 
 A landlady is usually ubiquitous, but unfortunately, the 
 sympathetic Frau Hegel failed to live up to the tradition ; when 
 the police arrested Henle, instead of being present, she was 
 out of town, and the deed was witnessed only by the servant- 
 girl. Now this servant-girl, in spite of her humble position, 
 possessed a mind corresponding with that of certain eminent 
 jurists she recognized no distinction between a political 
 prisoner and a common prisoner. She knew that no good man 
 is carried off at dawn by the police, and she shuddered when 
 she thought how often she had swept this criminal's room un-
 
 ADVENTURES IN BERLIN 45 
 
 aware of any danger. As the day advanced, callers began to 
 inquire for Henle, but ashamed to acknowledge that an inmate 
 of her house was in the hands of the authorities, she covered 
 the official seals on the door-knob with her apron, and persist- 
 ently announced that the doctor was out. It was due to the in- 
 tervention of this well-intentioned servant-girl truly, a pillar 
 of society that Henle passed many weary hours in the Haus- 
 vogtei without seeing a friendly face. As soon as his new resi- 
 dence became known, numerous friends, with attentions and 
 gifts, made his position as bearable as the authorities permitted. 
 
 During this episode, the Dorpat officials pressed for an 
 answer, and were startled to learn that their intended pro- 
 fessor was a prisoner. Efforts to have Henle released from 
 his lice-laden cell, pending the result of the Burschenschaft 
 investigation, were long unsuccessful. Miiller, impracticably 
 lovable, did not help matters much by his constant reiteration 
 that Henle was indispensable as a prosector; the Gustav 
 Magnus family rendered more effective aid by their pressure 
 upon the proper authorities, but it was probably due to the 
 powerful intercession of Humboldt that Henle was liberated. 
 
 After four weeks of prison-life, the genial young man 
 again joined his many friends, and the rejoicing was great. 
 Unnumbered visits were received and returned, congratulations 
 flowed in from all sides, champagne ran like water for him, 
 Berlin pancakes were stacked in hills before him, men em- 
 braced him, women wept with emotion, and in the midst of a 
 large assemblage, a pretty woman came forward and kissed 
 him and with characteristic male exultation, Henle notified
 
 46 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 his parents that for rewards like this, he would gladly spend 
 another month in prison. Miiller informed him that his four 
 weeks in the Hausvogtei brought him more popularity than if 
 he had written a thick book. The climax came when a car- 
 riage stopped in front of the released prisoner's door, and a 
 gentleman accompanied by a liveried footman mounted the 
 three flights of stairs that led to Henle's apartment. The caller 
 was one of the European powers Alexander von Humboldt. 
 His wishes altered the decisions of governments, and kings 
 bored him with their society. To have Humbolt climb three 
 flights of stairs to see you, was an epoch in a man's career. 
 But this drama did not end with the climax it was followed 
 by a farce. In the liveliest thoroughfare of Berlin, the prose- 
 cutor Kamptz greeted Henle affably, and explained for an 
 hour that he personally was convinced of the innocence of the 
 Burschenschafter and how differently all would have been 
 if he had the sole authority and passers-by could hardly trust 
 their eyes when they saw this peaceful promenade. 
 
 Yet the investigation was by no means over, and in the 
 harassing months that followed, Henle's mother went to her 
 grave without knowing what fate was in store for her son. 
 It must have been the extenuating circumstances of the case 
 which kept the judges so long at their task. The problem was 
 indeed a delicate one, for it required due exercise of the judicial 
 mind to determine a fitting penalty for a student who had 
 joined a students' organization, but instead of remaining to 
 plot against the government, had withdrawn when he noticed 
 his fellow-conspirators were too generous with his tobacco. 
 It was not until the fifth of January, 1837, that this verdict was
 
 ADVENTURES IN BERLIN 47 
 
 delivered : deprivation of state office, and six years' incarcera- 
 tion in a fortress. If the sentence seems severe to us, we may 
 console ourselves with the reflection that in every city through- 
 out civilization today, there are judges eager to impose similar 
 sentences upon those whom they deem guilty of intellectual 
 insubordination. Had Henle been without protection, his 
 career would have been blasted at its outset, but powerful 
 influences among them being Humboldt, worked for his pardon, 
 and on the second of March, the shadow was lifted. 
 
 Then began a remarkable period of productivity in which 
 Henle became one of the chief builders of modern medicine. 
 His contributions to Miiller's Archiv were sufficient to 
 make the reputation of a dozen professors. In those days the 
 Berlin presses printed monographs, signed J. Henle, which 
 opened up new paths to science. Had he never accomplished 
 anything beyond his researches from 1837 to 1840, the name of 
 Jacob Henle would still rank with the foremost investigators 
 of modern times. Yet Henle was not happy in Berlin. Unable 
 to forget the vermin and the Prussian officials, he itched for 
 a professorship in another land. When Henle's co-worker in 
 Miiller's laboratory, Theodor Schwann, was appointed pro- 
 fessor in Louvain, Henle watched the departure of his young 
 friend with envious eyes. 
 
 In the early months of 1840, came Henle's turn: he re- 
 ceived the offer of a professorship in Ziirich and a hint not 
 to interest himself in Swiss politics. With eagerness, he ac- 
 cepted the proposition, and set out for Switzerland and Des- 
 tiny waited across the border.
 
 IV 
 THE ZURICH PERIOD 
 
 The Switzerland of the present is a well-ordered tourist's 
 paradise over which shines an array of Baedecker stars, but in 
 Henle's time the beauty of its lakes was defiled by politics, and 
 wrangling men impaired the majesty of its mountains. In 
 Zurich, the controversy was precipitated by D. F. Strauss, the 
 storm-petrel of theology, whose Leben Jesu Englished by 
 George Eliot is one of the classics of freethought. The lib- 
 erals of Zurich, being temporarily in the ascendant, were dar- 
 ing enough to appoint Strauss to the chair of theology, but the 
 threatened invasion of the Tubingen rationalist aroused such 
 protests, that although the administration pensioned Strauss 
 before he commenced his duties, the forces of reaction were 
 not appeased, and in the upheaval that followed, the conserva- 
 tives rode into power with the determination to punish the 
 young university in revenge for the invitation to Strauss. 
 From this imbroglio, Henle was glad to retreat to the calmness 
 of his dissecting-room. 
 
 When Henle arrived in a new town, before settling down 
 to work, he found it necessary to relax. During his first win- 
 ter at Zurich, he spent more time in the tavern than at his 
 
 49
 
 50 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 books. His evenings were a succession of balls and entertain- 
 ments, followed by concerts and theatricals. In one of his 
 letters, Henle describes the Swiss system of chaperonage: 
 
 Everyone dances. Old ladies, mothers and aunts are seldom pres- 
 ent, and if they are, they go home at eleven, and consign their daugh- 
 ters to the care of a young man who is not too much of a stranger. 
 On the way to the ball, a servant precedes with a lantern, so that the 
 stockings should not be soiled. On the return, this foresight is dis- 
 pensed with, and with it the servant. Is this not idyllic? 
 
 The deluge of merriment was tinctured with adversity 
 when Henle found himself compelled to change his 
 lodgings because his landlord Hagenbuch expected him to 
 court one of his daughters. However, Henle had fallen in 
 love with women in Coblenz and Berlin, and he was not in- 
 susceptible in Zurich. He was irresistibly attracted to an 
 army captain's daughter: he proposed, and was accepted, but 
 the first cold embrace appalled him. It soon transpired that 
 the girl already had a lover whose passion was on the wane, 
 and she resorted to the expedient of winning him back by 
 arousing his jealousy; after success had crowned her efforts, 
 Henle was quietly dismissed, and the guileless professor thus 
 found himself a victim of one of the oldest tricks in love's 
 tangled game. 
 
 The ardent-hearted Henle was deeply wounded, and 
 sought solace in music. Already skilled on the violin, he 
 now took lessons on the violincello, and after mastering the 
 bass member of the family, became conspicuous in the mu- 
 sical circles of Zurich as singer, violinist and 'cellist. The 
 same fingers which. could dissect a cadaver so adroitly, knew 
 also the wondrous secrets of four strings of catgut. Upon
 
 THE ZURICH PERIOD 51 
 
 one occasion, a theatrical company to which Henle belonged, 
 prepared for a public performance, and among the names 
 posted on all street-corners of the town, was that of the ver- 
 satile professor of anatomy. Sober-minded citizens, including 
 Henle himself, felt that this was carrying virtuosity too far. 
 
 Throughout the career of Henle, the golden thread of 
 friendship ran unbroken, and it gathered its richest strands 
 in Zurich. For many years that boorish genius, Johann Lucas 
 Schonlein, made medical history in the Swiss city. Typhus 
 abdominalis and typhus exanthematicus are terms of his de- 
 vising; he described peliosis rheumatica so well that we call 
 it Schonlein's disease; he discovered the cause of favus to be 
 achorion Schonleinii, and as he disliked writing, he described 
 his discovery in twenty lines. But in 1840, the mighty Schon- 
 lein, founder of the Natural History School of Medicine, re- 
 tired from Zurich to reap homage and money in Berlin, and 
 into his chair climbed the young clinician, Carl Pfeufer. Pfeu- 
 fer's arrival in Zurich coincided with Henle's, and before long 
 the two new teachers became acquainted. It was friendship 
 at first sight, and with joy Henle wrote : 
 
 Pfeufer is one of the most charming men I ever met, merry, ex- 
 ceptionally witty, yet genial, modest and full of ambition. He is young 
 and advanced enough to be able to discard the obsolete in other 
 words, he is the man I need. 
 
 The anatomist and the clinician talked matters over, and 
 decided it was time to revolutionize science. Accordingly 
 they founded the School of Rational Medicine, and its fearless 
 mouthpiece, "The Journal of Rational Medicine," trumpeted
 
 52 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 abroad the progressive ideas of its editors, and blasted many 
 venerable hypotheses which had survived from the days of 
 Stahl. But Henle's most important literary undertaking, dur- 
 ing the Zurich period, was his "Handbook of General Anat- 
 omy." 
 
 Every university should be a capital of the Republic of 
 Arts and Sciences which recognizes neither frontiers nor par- 
 tisans but the University of Zurich lay in the political path. 
 Perhaps the study of anatomy promotes impartiality, for 
 Henle complained without bias: 
 
 Rankling with fresh hatred, the two antagonistic parties, the aris- 
 tocratic-religious and radical, face each other, and both are tearing us 
 apart: the reactionaries inquire whether the university is worth its 
 expense, and the radicals, who consider themselves the enlightened 
 ones, resent our non-partisan attitude .... Even with diligence, patience 
 and ability, it will never be possible to make anything out of our 
 university in the face of such a struggle.. There is only one good side 
 to the situation, and that is that we all stand solidly together. Many 
 little animosities and much raillery have been forgotten in the face 
 of the common foe, and we spend the beautiful summer evenings and 
 Sundays out in the open, and amuse ourselves by scolding and jests 
 at the expense of the powers that be. 
 
 Henle's passage through the university was marked by 
 series of calms and tempests, but each time he triumphantly 
 reached his goal. When entering upon his duties, he was 
 much pleased with the new and practical anatomy-building, 
 but was disconcerted to learn that one microscope had to 
 serve for all students. The authorities came to the rescue 
 by permitting him to order another, and they placed at his
 
 THE ZURICH PERIOD 53 
 
 disposal the sum of 480 Swiss francs to be spent exclusively 
 upon instruments. 
 
 Henle was greeted a trifle pompously, yet affably 
 enough, by his prosector, and this assistant would have suf- 
 ficed for most professors, but Henle never considered a pre- 
 tentious demeanor a substitute for anatomical knowledge. 
 During a certain semester, he intimated that his prosector be 
 removed to another department, and after adding a few other 
 suggestions in the form of an ultimatum, Henle went upon 
 his summer vacation little expecting to resume his chair, for 
 authorities are usually deaf in the presence of requests. Upon 
 his return in the autumn, to his surprise he found that all his 
 wishes had been met: the appropriation for the collection of 
 comparative anatomy had been secured, and not only had the 
 prosector been transferred, but in his place was Albert K61- 
 liker. 
 
 From that moment Henle became a great teacher, because 
 he had a great pupil. Kolliker was a Ziiricher with a Heidel- 
 berg diploma, but his real education was gained in Berlin 
 where he had sat at the feet of Johannes Miiller, and during 
 his prosectorship under Henle he contributed to Miiller's 
 Archiv a monograph in which he carried the Schleiden- 
 Schwann cell-theory into embryology, being among the ear- 
 liest investigators to recognize the ovum as a single cell, and 
 treating segmentation simply as normal cell division. Henle 
 had discovered unstriated muscle in blood-vessel walls, but 
 Kolliker was the first who succeeded in isolating it, and demon- 
 strated that smooth muscle is composed of nucleated muscle- 
 cells. In the seventeenth century, Leeuwenhoek described
 
 54 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 the spermatozoa, but it was left for Kolliker to explain their 
 true development, and he again recalled Leeuwenhoek when 
 he increased our knowledge of the branched muscle plates of 
 the heart which had first been seen by the Delft microscopist. 
 
 Kolliker extended Corti's discoveries in the histology of 
 the ear, and was the first to supply a satisfactory description 
 of the fibrous layer of the substantia propria of the iris. K61- 
 liker's proof that nerve-fibres are continuous with nerve-cells 
 was sufficient to establish an immortal reputation, and it is 
 perhaps in the minute anatomy of the brain and spinal cord 
 that Kolliker accomplished his most valuable work: the neu- 
 roglia is known as Kolliker's reticulum, the ganglion-cells are 
 spoken of as Kolliker's tract cells, and the gray matter sur- 
 rounding the spinal canal is eponymized into Kolliker's nu- 
 cleus. The journal of zoology which he edited for half a cen- 
 tury, his treatise on comparative embryology, and his text- 
 books on microscopic anatomy and human histology the 
 first comprehensive works on the subject were replete with 
 his unnumbered researches and discoveries. 
 
 It has truthfully been said of Kolliker or von Kolliker, 
 as he became in his age that "there is no fragment of the 
 body of man on which he did not leave his mark," and that 
 "he knew more by direct personal observation of the micro- 
 scopic structure of animals than any one else who has ever 
 lived." He was one of the greatest histologists of all time, 
 and one of the chief creators of its modern phase. With the 
 exception of his prosectorship, and later professorship, 
 in his native Zurich, Kolliker's academic life was passed in
 
 THE ZURICH PERIOD 55 
 
 Wiirzburg. He has not lodged in the imposing palace whose 
 walls took twenty years to complete, built for Bavarian 
 bishops and grand-dukes in imitation of Versailles, but with 
 the microscope which he brought to the archaic town, Kb'lli- 
 ker built temples of science where succeeding generations 
 shall dwell. 
 
 The only time a professor feels really independent is 
 when he receives a call from another university, and when 
 Henle was invited to Tubingen it was a signal for another 
 ultimatum, although on this occasion his demands were more 
 on behalf of his colleagues than for his own department. 
 Zurich, which had lost Schonlein, determined to keep Henle, 
 and so prompt was its compliance with Henle's wishes, that 
 he leaned back in satisfaction and wrote : 
 
 I decide to remain. I would have to give up dear friends, a mag- 
 nificent country, pleasant neighbors in Bern and Basel, and a brand- 
 new anatomy, a large hospital, surplus of cadaver, good beer, an excellent 
 servant, a prospect of numerous visits, leisure for work and much else. 
 
 Here was a profusion of reasons for remaining on Swiss 
 soil, and yet Henle left unnamed the prime reason Pfeufer. 
 The friendship between these two men had grown until it 
 could no longer be uprooted; socially and scientifically, the 
 founders of the School of Rational Medicine were indispensa- 
 ble to each other. Pfeufer, the practitioner, could keep 
 abreast of all anatomical and physiological researches by 
 merely consulting Henle; and Henle the scientist, could un- 
 dertake an elaborate treatise on general pathology without
 
 56 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 visiting a sick-bed, as long as he had the benefit of the 
 clinical experience and diagnostic keenness of Pfeufer. 
 
 So Henle sent to Tubingen a letter of declination, and 
 its ink had hardly dried when Pfeufer received a letter which 
 caused fresh excitement a call to Heidelberg; and the situa- 
 tion was further complicated when Tubingen answered that 
 it would not consider Henle's refusal as final. Once more 
 arguments were weighed and plans measured, and again they 
 tried to read the secrets of the future, but mature delibera- 
 tion simply served to bring the two friends back to their 
 starting-point: the thought of separation was unthinkable: 
 Henle said No to Tubingen, and Pfeufer said No to Heidel- 
 berg. 
 
 The students of Zurich expressed their gratification at 
 the decision by a torchlight procession in joint celebration of 
 the two professors. Leaning out of his window, Pfeufer 
 thanked them for their speech, while the genial Henle 
 descended to the street, and expressed his joy that he was 
 in the midst of sympathetic colleagues and of students who 
 were not merely concerned to acquire the superficial ability 
 to practice, but desired to lay a scientific foundation under- 
 neath the superstructure of medicine. The flaming torches 
 and the full-throated cheers replied with enthusiasm, and 
 Henle and Pfeufer seemed destined to become the veterans 
 of the Zurich faculty. 
 
 A few years previous, Henle had vainly scanned the 
 academic horizon for a chair, but now alluring seats were 
 offered him. Tiedemann, the ageing anatomist of Heidel-
 
 THE ZURICH PERIOD 57 
 
 berg, was anxious to secure Henle as his associate, but know- 
 ing that Henle would not stir without Pfeufer, it occurred to 
 Tiedemann to bring Pfeufer along too. Together the friends 
 were invited, together they accepted, and in 1844 they became 
 members of the Heidelberg faculty.
 
 V 
 ELISE EGLOFF 
 
 Confidential as was the relationship between these men, 
 Pfeufer could not guess that Henle was motivated to leave 
 Zurich at this time because there was a woman in the case. 
 During a considerable portion of his Swiss sojourn, Henle 
 lived in the house of his friend Loewig the chemist, in whose 
 employ was a pretty nursemaid, named Elise Egloff. A man 
 frequently imagines that a girl yearns for him when she only 
 finds him ridiculous, and when a girl really loves him he is 
 apt to overlook it until some one tells him. 
 
 Henle had proposed marriage to several women who 
 despised him for his meagre pocket-book, and he did not see 
 that Elise Egloff trembled with joy whenever she was per- 
 mitted to serve him at table, and he could not know that when 
 he played the piano or raised his voice in song, behind the 
 closed door stood a woman listening with tears of passionate 
 rapture. Elise guarded her emotions as carefully as she could, 
 and Henle himself probably never would have stumbled upon 
 the truth, but the girl's condition could not escape the vigi- 
 lant eye of Frau Loewig. 
 
 59
 
 60 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 One day she informed Henle that her maid was in love 
 with him, and then impersonally called his attention to Elise's 
 goodness and unusual beauty, never imagining that anything 
 could ever bridge the social chasm which separated the young 
 servant-girl from the great scientist. But as the man listened 
 to the words of Frau Loewig, the heart within him leaped, 
 and he was eager to begin an affair with Elise Egloff. Cer- 
 tainly he did not contemplate marriage, in fact, he could not 
 explain what he expected, but his aroused instincts responded 
 to sex-lure. Smilingly he entered into a light flirtation, but 
 after the first careless step he could not retreat, for the fires 
 of love blocked his path. In his graphic and matchless man- 
 ner, Henle described the unexpected turn of events: 
 
 My Lisette, was a dear prattling Gretchen; I was learned and ripe 
 enough for Faust, and bewitched enough. But Mephistopheles was 
 missing, and there occurred the most ludicruous thing that could ever 
 happen to a worldly cavalier in a relationship of this kind. I 
 interested myself not only in the girl's beauty but also in her soul. 
 I was won by her honesty, her kindness, her warmth and also her 
 pride, which was doubly becoming to her because she felt her depend- 
 ent position and bore it with resignation. 
 
 Since it is not considered proper for unwedded lovers to 
 dwell under the same roof, Elise left the service of the Loe- 
 wigs, and supported herself as a seamstress, and in this capa- 
 city still came occasionally to Frau Loewig. The intensity of 
 her feelings caused her such deep suffering, that the alarmed 
 Henle instituted himself her protector, and sought to deliver 
 fatherly advice: he assured her that the most sensible thing
 
 ELISE EGLOFF 61 
 
 she could do would be to forget him, and he pointed out that 
 it would be best if she secured a position with a reliable 
 family in some other town. So they agreed to part, but in 
 spite of their repeated resolve never to meet again, their mu- 
 tual passion swept them closer and closer together. The abyss 
 that divided them was wide, and seemingly impassable, while 
 the whirlpool of society's prejudice eddied underneath ready 
 to engulf all who approached but it was bridged by Elise's 
 gentle hand. From the tender clasp, Henle could not with- 
 draw, and in an illuminating passage he explains the situa- 
 tion: 
 
 It was too late, and the gayly-made acquaintance now became a 
 deep fountain of doubt for her and a great distress for me. For weeks 
 I would avoid her; but when I saw her again, pale and thin, and I 
 heard from the Loewigs how changed she was, and that they feared 
 she was in a bad way, then I sought her out again and thought of 
 nothing else but of consoling her and of trying to convince her to 
 accept the untroubled present without thinking of the future. We 
 had seen each other a few times again, when I received a letter from 
 her friend, in which she implored me to leave EKse, and described her 
 deplorable condition. 
 
 I had never experienced anything so humiliating, or that shamed 
 me so much, and I decided that things must change at any price. We 
 agreed that she was to leave Zurich, and I advised her to go to the 
 French Switzerland and later to take a position with a good family. 
 A few days later, when I saw her again in the Botanical Garden the 
 place we had appointed for our rendezvous sne had upset all these 
 plans: she could not leave Zurich; as long as she was able, a few times 
 a week to pass by my hearth and see the fire burning there, she would 
 be happy.
 
 62 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 In the meantime Henle received the call to Heidelberg, 
 and out of his confused sensations arose one clear inspiration : 
 Elise already possessed more charm and beauty than many a 
 high-born dame ; she was untaught but intelligent, and though 
 she knew how to suffer, she loved life. Why not take this 
 charming creature to Germany with him, and have her min- 
 gle with well-bred folks until she acquired the education and 
 proprieties that would fit her to become Frau Professor? It 
 was a hazardous experiment, but Henle felt that only in this 
 way could he assure himself of a happy, or if the experi- 
 ment failed at least, of an unreproachful future. 
 
 Henle was accustomed to solve physiological experiments 
 by his own resources, but in this present problem, with its 
 human entanglements and uncertainties, he turned helplessly 
 to his sister Marie, announcing to her that he had a protege 
 in Traben for whom he felt a philanthropic interest. A portion 
 of this statement was true, for in the spring of 1844, Henle had 
 placed Elise in the little town on the Moselle to undergo her 
 preliminary training before passing into Marie's hands, but he 
 neglected to inform Marie that some day he intended to many 
 Elise. However, he confessed his secret to Marie's husband, 
 Mathieu, and indeed it was his friendly brother-in-law who 
 helped to locate Elise in Traben-on-the-Moselle, and rendered 
 further aid by concocting a fantastic story regarding Elise's 
 origin. 
 
 Henle knew Mathieu from the days when they were boys 
 together in Coblenz, and Malchen Zeiller's rosy face seemed 
 to young Jacob the sweetest thing in the world. Mathieu was
 
 ELISE EGLOFF 63 
 
 interested in art to the extent of nailing classical prints upon 
 his door, and after Henle explained this circumstance to Mal- 
 chen and heard her comment, "That must be nice," he begged 
 her to wait a few moments. He was a knight who lived only 
 to gratify his lady's whims, and running at full speed to 
 Mathieu's room, he lifted the door from its hinges, placed it 
 upon his back, and carried it down the flights and across the 
 streets exhibiting masterpieces of Diirer and Holbein to 
 passers-by until breathless but triumphant, he showed the 
 pictures to his beloved. Mathieu would have been incapable 
 of such a feat, for he evaded the opposite sex so scrupulously 
 that he was considered a woman-hater, but the sophisticated 
 reader will understand that he was simply bashful. Whenever 
 he visited Henle, he scrambled hastily up the steps in order to 
 avoid meeting any of his friend's sisters, but it must be record- 
 ed that though Mathieu mounted the stairway three steps at a 
 time, he evidently met Marie at the head of the stairs once 
 in a while, for in the years that followed, when the gallant 
 Henle was endeavoring to throw away his bachelorhood in 
 three cities, the shy Mathieu was blissfully married to Henle's 
 eldest sister. 
 
 Henle's second brother-in-law and intimate friend, the 
 Hofrath Schoell, also knew of Henle's relationship to Miss 
 Egloff , and after visiting the girl, related his impressions : 
 
 She made an exceedingly favorable impression upon me. I found 
 her very charming and was greatly moved. Then as it happens to 
 everyone who stands face to face with her, I realized her peculiar 
 position and I felt deep compassion for her. The thought that the
 
 64 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 situation may become extremely painful, if it should last much longer, 
 troubled me. The fact that she was among strange people in a strange 
 place, who had to remain strange to her, despite all their friendliness, 
 because they were not permitted to know anything about her life, then 
 the stress of her belated education, the change of conditions, the long- 
 ing and secret passion, and the unknown future all this is too much. 
 If her lover had been of a less sentimental turn of mind, a more 
 prosaic but for the girl a more practical way could have been found, 
 which would have led to the same goal 
 
 Apparently, Schoell did not know that Marie was not in 
 the secret, for it was some chance words of his which first 
 disclosed the actual state of affairs to Frau Mathieu. Natur- 
 ally, she was indignant at the deception, and it is on record 
 that she could not suppress the remark that she would have 
 been far better pleased if her brother had revealed the truth 
 to her before. But Henle managed to pacify her, and there 
 was no interruption in their devotion to each other. That 
 Henle did not belong to the international army of unapprecia- 
 tive brothers, may be seen by the following letter which he 
 sent Marie concerning Elise : 
 
 I do not, of course, lay stress upon history, mythology, etc., but 
 I wish that my protege should acquire poise and deportment, which 
 can come only through association with cultured people, and I wish 
 her to learn to appreciate the finer shades of feeling and taste, which 
 ennoble life. The school should merely round out the rough edges so 
 as to make her capable of entering into select circles, where she can 
 develop further. 
 
 In whom, but you, dear sister, can I place my hopes! You remem- 
 ber that I told you a long time ago, at a time when it did not sound 
 like intentional flattery, that of all women I know, I should like to
 
 
 
 WILHELM WALDEYER
 
 ELISE EGLOFF 65 
 
 choose a wife who would resemble you in every respect. I was also 
 convinced that you are capable of making sacrifices, great and small, 
 in order to help me to reach happiness, which you know well how to 
 value, and that you would be the last in the world to lose patience 
 should the result not meet with expectations, and that you would be 
 the first who would frankly, and free from prejudice, either approve 
 of my decision or dissuade me, without any emotionalism, from the 
 step I am about to take, depending entirely upon your judgment of 
 your charge. 
 
 Marie now traveled to Traben to see Elise, and when these 
 two women met, both were embarrassed. Later, Miss Egloff 
 moved into Marie Mathieu's home, where everything possible 
 was accomplished for her advancement. Herr Mathieu enthu- 
 siastically read to her the classic poets, while Frau Mathieu 
 instructed her in the labyrinthine intricacies of social inter- 
 course. Marie performed her duties faithfully, and her exam- 
 ple was of inestimable advantage to Elise, but no one should 
 be surprised to learn that Miss Egloff was more at ease with 
 gentlemen like Mathieu and Schoell, who welcomed her cor- 
 dially, than in the presence of Marie, who obviously could not 
 help thinking that it was a trifle unreasonable for Miss Egloff 
 to have fallen in love with her distinguished brother. 
 
 Since music was a necessity to Henle, a course of lessons 
 in this branch was mapped out for Elise, but though she re- 
 mained at the pianoforte with the assiduity of a child prac- 
 tising for a much-desired reward, she made little progress. 
 There was rhythm in her walk and music in her smile, but she 
 could not master bars and scales. Aside from this failure, the 
 experiment was such a brilliant success that within a short 
 time Elise Egloff was transformed into a lady of the world
 
 66 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 who moved becomingly, amid general approbation in circles 
 bristling with cleverness and repartee, yet she made no breaks 
 and she violated no commandment in the decalog of etiquette. 
 A certain moralist laid it down as an axiom that all women 
 should act as seamstresses for their own families, but Elise did 
 not discuss the art of needlework. The impoverished poet who 
 was invited to the home of a lady of wealth, and began the 
 conversation by asking his hostess if she had noticed the differ- 
 ent colors of pawn-tickets, had no counterpart in Elise Egloff . 
 Her feverishly acquired education, added to her native sense 
 and delicacy, served to pilot her through society's breakers, 
 and though there were dangers which threatened at times to 
 wreck her peace, high above the foam gleamed the beacon of 
 her faith in Jacob Henle. 
 
 Events now moved rapidly. In 1845, Henle asked his 
 father's permission to many, the betrothal was announced in 
 the early months of 1846, and during the caster vacation Elise 
 became Henle's wife. The honeymoon was spent in Vienna, 
 where Henle was warmly greeted by the foremost medical men 
 of the day, including Rokitansky, and especially by his friend 
 who "spoke like Cicero and wrote like Heine" the incom- 
 parable Hyrtl. In the celebrations and banquets that were 
 accorded them, Henle noticed that not all the admiration was 
 directed towards his learned self, but that a generous share 
 was lavished upon his wife's charms. 
 
 On the return journey, the bridal couple passed 
 Weimar, where Elise attended the theatre. The Grz 
 was one of the audience, but did not give his undivided'
 
 ELISE EGLOFF 67 
 
 tion to the play, for he looked long at young Elise, and finally 
 sent his adjutant from his court-box to inquire who was the 
 beautiful stranger who so fascinated him. And Henle, the 
 ex-Burschenschafter, the dangerous demagogue who faced six 
 years in a fortress because of his democratic principles, was 
 overjoyed at this mark of royal favor. Perhaps he reasoned 
 that if the Grand Duke knew nothing else, at least he knew a 
 handsome woman when he saw her. The ladies of fashion 
 who crowded around Elise, would have been either amazed or 
 enraged to learn that two years ago she might have been their 
 seamstress. 
 
 On reaching Heidelberg, Elise's defective education be- 
 came evident, for she was forced to stand by while her husband 
 fixed up their home according t j a man's ideas, and the results 
 were sometimes incongruous. Merkel admits that as a re- 
 former in science, Henle was more successful than as a re- 
 former of the household he objected to curtains because they 
 cut off some of the light. But in Henle's defence it may be 
 urged that even if he did serve the roast on an earthenware 
 platter, he bought the largest and most comfortable chairs and 
 lounges obtainable. 
 
 Henle's most frequent guest, of course, was Pfeufer; one 
 day when the clinician was visiting his friend's home, his eyes 
 opened wide with alarm, for he heard Elise cough. An hemop- 
 tysis confirmed his suspicions, and Pfeufer diagnosed pul- 
 monary disease. A period of rest improved her condition, and 
 during the fall vacation Henle prepared to take his wife to 
 Zurich. Henle loved company, managed to persuade sister 
 Marie and brother-in-law Mathieu to come along, and made
 
 68 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 arrangements to meet Pfeufer on the way. It gave Henle 
 pleasure to anticipate the look of wonder on the faces of the 
 townspeople who had speculated over Elise's sudden disap- 
 pearance, and would now find her a different being. But 
 hardly had the merry pilgrims reached Zurich when Elise's 
 malady awoke, and instead of a holiday companion, Pfeufer 
 assumed his familiar role of physician. 
 
 As the days went on, repeated messages from Heidelberg 
 called Pfeufer in consultation regarding some aristocratic per- 
 sonages, but he would not move from the sick-bed of Elise. 
 It was due largely to his efforts that she returned home in 
 such health that she was able, in the month of December, to 
 undergo her first confinement without complications. The 
 child was named Carl, and Henle reported: "Immediately he 
 began to suck his thumb and to put out his tongue, from 
 which I conclude that as far as his appetite and temperament 
 are concerned, he will take after his father." 
 
 As Henle could not be content without frequent social 
 gatherings, Elise arranged many parties and feasts for him. 
 She proved to be one of those hostesses whose characteristics 
 are a puzzle to men. Often she would get up in the morning 
 pale and tired, and all day would be out of sorts and complain 
 of depression, but as soon as the guests began to arrive, her 
 features grew animated, beauty bloomed in her cheeks, and 
 she radiated life. To entertain was easy for her, for she was 
 the center of attraction. 
 
 It was a happy household, but tuberculosis draws a line 
 from the home to Badenweiler. In the summer of 1847, 
 Pfeufer ordered Elise to the famous health resort, but from its 
 climate and springs she borrowed no relief. She returned to
 
 ELISE EGLOFF 69 
 
 Heidelberg an invalid, and after several sad months gave pre- 
 mature birth to a daughter, named after herself. Then dark- 
 ness settled over the house of Henle, and life and death waged 
 their never-ending battle. The infant hovered between the 
 two antagonists, and it became difficult for Henle to reach the 
 bedside of his wife or child, for his old affliction assumed such 
 aspects that the doctors debated whether amputation was in- 
 dicated. During this critical period, Henle's sisters made 
 splendid nurses, and Pfeufer was as efficient as an entire hos- 
 pital staff. 
 
 As the days passed, the issue of the battle became appar- 
 ent. Henle improved and was able to walk again, and baby 
 Elise smiled at its first victory over death, but the lips of 
 mother Elise were closed forever. Henle was inconsolable; 
 for a long time he refused the distractions of society, and the 
 sight of a woman was especially unnerving. He could not 
 bring himself to visit the cemetery where Elise lay buried, 
 and those who have read his private letters in which he be- 
 moans the loss of so much grace, beauty and nobility of soul, 
 say that their pathos is beyond words. 
 
 Her portrait was painted by Eduard Magnus one of 
 Henle's most important friends throughout the Berlin excite- 
 ment and the sculptor Meyer perpetuated her in marble. 
 Berthold Auerbach, the distinguished novelist, was a daily 
 visitor to Henle's shattered home, and later utilized Elise's 
 life-story for one of his tales. Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, the 
 famous actress and playwright, whose collected productions 
 number twenty-six volumes, brought Elise upon the stage. 
 Henle was deeply hurt at the manner in which these writers
 
 70 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 handled their theme, but the life of Elise Egloff was essentially 
 dramatic: the secret passion and despair, wisdom captivated 
 by beauty, the transformation from seamstress to hostess, the 
 triumph followed by tragedy these emotional situations could 
 not escape the authors. 
 
 In her brief career she added a fragrant chapter to biog- 
 raphy, for a sweeter figure than Elise Egloff never strayed 
 across the annals of medical history she is one of those who 
 enriched the world with a romance it can never forget.
 
 VI 
 PROFESSOR IN HEIDELBERG 
 
 The most vivid description of Henle in Heidelberg was 
 drawn by a student who did not follow the Henlean path, but 
 became one of the greatest clinicians of the century Adolf 
 Kussmaul. In his old age, recalling the memories of his youth, 
 Kussmaul devoted a chapter to Henle from which we extract 
 these picturesque passages : 
 
 Henle's lecture was like a fresh, clear brook, upon whose lightly- 
 stirring surface merry lights were playing. Although he framed his 
 sentences in a simple manner, and retained his poise and calm, he was 
 always entertaining, and his remarks, his humorous comparisons, and 
 his sudden and unexpected flashes of thought, permitted of no ennui. 
 When he said a witty thing, there was a smile upon his lips, he touched 
 the tip of his nose with his finger, and threw his head a little to one 
 side, as though he wished to shake off this idea which escaped him while 
 off his guard. Within a short time, the youthful professor won the favor 
 of his audience. His academic and political past contributed to it that 
 the students loved and honored him. A small sword-cut upon his left 
 cheek reminded them that he had belonged to the Burschenschaft, and 
 was therefore arrested and confined in the Hausvogtei. There, too, 
 shone about his head the halo of a romantic love. 
 
 Henle's marriage with a charming girl from the lower classes he, 
 however, had his sister educate her corresponded with the social tone 
 
 71
 
 72 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 of the time. It was the medical men who arrived at the conclusion that 
 the anatomical equality of Eve's daughters should extend to social equal- 
 ity as well. Several of my acquaintances, and two honored professors 
 of the faculty of medicine of Strassburg, stepped down from academic 
 heights to take back with them untutored daughters of the people. A 
 story reached me, in the spring of 1847, how a Heidelberg teacher and 
 anatomist, a pupil of Henle, was given his conge by a pretty child of the 
 merry Pfalz. He wished to follow his adored master not only in the 
 study of medicine, but in the choice of a wife as well. His young, fresh 
 waitress appealed to him, and he made her a proposal of marriage with 
 the proviso that she should first be educated in a private ladies' school 
 at his expense, so as to be fitted for the position which she was to occupy 
 as his wife. But he fared badly. She flared up and demanded to know 
 whether he was in his right senses; she told him she already had a 
 sweetheart for whom she was well enough educated; a trim butcher, 
 who outweighed two such lean doctors. 
 
 In the forties, science had not secured its divorce from 
 superstition, for their union was upheld by many professors 
 who were better versed in piety than in pathology. The name 
 of Obermedizinalrat Ringseis means little to the present gen- 
 eration, but in his day he was a power in Germany ; the filling 
 of numerous posts depended upon his judgment, and this mai? 
 firmly believed that disease was due to sinning against God 
 and could be cured only by the grace of the church. Moreover, 
 a host of system-spinners performed no experiments, but built 
 up fanciful little cults into which they attempted to fit the 
 science of medicine. Across these winding mazes beginning 
 in involved hypotheses, and ending in an interminable network 
 of classifications and sub-divisions Henle cut a bold new 
 road, and the academic youth of Germany followed the path- 
 finder. They swarmed to his lectures, and the venerable mem- 
 bers of the faculty found themselves neglected for the new
 
 PROFESSOR IN HEIDELBERG 73 
 
 favorite. Shortly after Henle's arrival in Heidelberg, an inci- 
 dent occurred which brought back the Zurich period. The 
 night grew alive with light, and music blended with the up- 
 raised torches and then a student stepped forward and spoke : 
 
 We are assembled here this evening, that we may show a slight 
 mark of our appreciation of one whom we esteem as a thinker and re- 
 search-worker, whom we admire as a teacher, and whom we love as a 
 man. As a discoverer, he struggles untiringly and indefatigably at the 
 head of those who oppose the wretched empiricism of medicine. The 
 frost which had covered our science has been broken by his efforts, and 
 already the tree bears spring-blossoms for the cure of suffering 
 humanity. 
 
 With pride, the German nation points to the astronomer Kepler, 
 who through telescopic research guided us into the immeasurable starry 
 infinite, and so has our teacher's microscopic research opened to us the 
 organic infinite. We admire him I say, as a teacher, for he has pre- 
 sented to us the truth, simply and convincingly, free from the nimbus 
 of exaggerated erudition. I repeat, we love him as a human being, for 
 science did not extinguish in him the desire for the well-being of man- 
 kind and for the fatherland. From a full heart, let us call a thousand- 
 voiced Hoch to this honored man. 
 
 Henle's answer, which was hailed with loud rejoicing, was 
 simple and inspiring a model of what such replies should be/ 
 
 Gentlemen, I accept this unexpected mark of your appreciation with 
 thankfulness and pride. I shall not say, as is so often done, that this 
 honor is impersonal. I say, this is done to me personally. But what 
 may be the reason for this appreciation? I believe it is nothing else 
 but that I am one of you. Much rubbish is at hand, which we have to 
 clear away. With united forces, we are endeavoring to do this. We are 
 commilitants truly a wonderful name. Comrades-in-arms are we, in 
 the campaign in which we are going to make new discoveries. Let us 
 call a Hoch to the comaraderie of our science and to our university. 
 The significance of this ovation lay in its spontaneity, for
 
 74 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 it was not Henle's birthday nor the anniversary of anything, 
 and the whole celebration was the instinctive tribute of youth 
 to a new leader. The Easter of 1845 witnessed an even 
 stranger event: Henle utilized this vacation to call upon his 
 publisher in Braunschweig, and upon his return, visited Leip- 
 zig, where Felix Mendelssohn invited him to dinner and music ; 
 next he turned toward Halle, where he had an appointment 
 with some scientific friends, and let Henle relate what hap- 
 pened at Halle : 
 
 On the second evening, I was surprised by a serenade by a deputa- 
 tion of medical students; one of them made a beautiful speech and they 
 cheered me, to which I replied from the window with the calm and self- 
 possession of a man quite accustomed to such occurrences. The speaker 
 said among other things that fault had been found with the medical 
 men of Halle for following practice to the exclusion of theory but they 
 simply kept at a distance from the poor theories of the past. Now, 
 however, that I constructed a new basis, founded upon physiology, they 
 were just as zealous as any one to follow this path, etc., etc. My reply 
 was not exactly beautiful, still it was fluent I was somewhat embar- 
 rassed as Halle's professors were standing by, and had to witness this 
 boosting of a stranger. 
 
 How frantically some men have worked to become a 
 Hofrath, how ceaselessly they have schemed for it and how 
 easily it is thrust upon others who never coveted the aulic 
 counselorship. When the Government of Baden conferred 
 this distinction upon Henle and Pfeufer, the former wrote to 
 his father: 
 
 You know what I think about this. I am not exactly overjoyed 
 that I shall no longer hear my beautiful and well-earned Professor's 
 title; under the present condition, however, and as we did not behave 
 very tamely to the administration and did not take one single step to
 
 PROFESSOR IN HEIDELBERG 75 
 
 reach this honor, and as hardly a year has elapsed since our appoint- 
 ment, we have to acknowledge it a mark of recognition, which promises 
 a certain influence for the future, and this is in no way desirable to our 
 cringing colleagues. My chief regret is that I have no longer any right 
 to tease Schoell. I spent a few enjoyable days in Halle, and was re- 
 ceived by the students with a serenade there, which gave me more 
 pleasure then the so-called favor of the lordships. 
 
 The year of destiny, 1848, opened inauspiciously for Henle. 
 His Elise lay on her death-bed, and on the twenty-first of 
 February, death took her. Quiet had come to her, but the 
 world was in revolution, and Heidelberg was the center of the 
 cauldron. From the public turmoil which naturally agitated 
 Henle, he could not escape to a home of peace and comfort; 
 after the day's labor, no hearth awaited him where he could 
 throw off his cares with his overcoat eventful 1848 was the 
 unhappiest year of his life. 
 
 As the weary months wore on, his sister Helene deter- 
 mined to come to his rescue. She had a friend named Marie 
 Richter, the daughter of a Prussian army officer, and elo- 
 quently she sang Jacob's praises to Fraulein Marie. Fourteen 
 months after his wife's decease, Henle visited his father and 
 sister Helene at Coblenz, and there he met not only his rela- 
 tives but was guided to the vicinity of Miss Richter while 
 Helene watched and waited. Her patience was not severely 
 tried, for Helene's brother and Helene's choice fell in love with 
 each other at once. Within a few days, the scientist proposed, 
 and was eagerly accepted. Frau Mathieu now visited the girl 
 and the letter of sister Marie is full of praise for sweetheart 
 Marie, but it reveals also the writer's own nobility: 
 
 As far as human insight goes, we can be pleased over this union,
 
 76 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 for Marie Richter possesses all the qualities from which we can expect 
 that she will adorn the family hearth, and from the very first meeting 
 with our brother she seemed to have become heartily attached to him, 
 and affection is to him a life's necessity. She is a charming well- 
 appearing girl, and will, according to all indications, be a good mother 
 to his children. 
 
 Unlike poor Elise, Marie Richter was proficient in music. 
 After an engagement of a few months, Henle and Marie were 
 married, and they made the fairy-tale come true by living 
 happily ever after. In due time, a merry daughter, Anna, was 
 born to them, and she was followed by little Sophie. With 
 children and honors and the pages of his Handbook of Rational 
 Pathology periodically increasing, Henle seemed rooted to 
 Heidelberg. Contentment reigned at his fireside, but with his 
 colleagues he was at constant war. When Henle was a Heidel- 
 berg student, Chelius, Tiedemann, Naegele and Puchelt were 
 of the faculty : years later, on returning to Heidelberg as pro- 
 fessor, Henle found the faculty unchanged. Science had 
 marched on, but Tiedemann, Puchelt, the stately Chelius, and 
 their confreres, still sat in their well-worn chairs, untouched 
 by the new era. Upon their doors the young generation 
 knocked loudly, for the modern Dioscuri as Henle and 
 Pfeufer were called had valiant hands. Henle's opinion of 
 his venerable colleagues may be plainly seen in the following 
 letter, brief but bristling with invective: 
 
 I am still somewhat strange here, and hope to remain so unless new 
 elements appear. To feel at home among these boresome antique uni- 
 versity-pigtails, would, as Pfeufer and I tell each other, be for us a 
 degradation. Here nothing remains but to allow the old to die out, 
 and to found a new colony. Both the government and the students
 
 PROFESSOR IN HEIDELBERG 77 
 
 seem to wish to help us as much as possible. The government, whose 
 eyes have now been opened, is astonished how the faculty utilizes Hei- 
 delberg's reputation and its wonderful location, to fatten in comfortable 
 calm and lock themselves in from intruders. Everything except the 
 residences, country houses and vineyards belonging to the old gentle- 
 men, is in a wretched condition. But the students are already begin- 
 ning to see that something new, something capable of development, is 
 offered them. They are full of enthusiasm for our rational medicine, 
 and consequently enraged at the backwardness of affairs here. 
 
 Even Henle's friends have blamed him for the bitterness 
 here displayed, but whether justifiable or not, the letter ex- 
 presses Henle's attitude and it did not soften with the pass- 
 ing years. The hostile relationship between the Henle-Pfeufer 
 group and the elder members was further strained by a power- 
 ful series of unsigned articles in the recently-founded Deutsche 
 Zeitung, praising the progressive elements in the university, 
 such as Henle, Pfeufer, Vangerow, Jolly and Rau, and lashing 
 the "reactionary periwigs." But though these articles were 
 anonymous they were not the production of a nameless jour- 
 nalist, but of Georg Gottfried Gervinus. He was one of the 
 famous seven who left the university of Gottingen when the 
 king of Hanover tore up the constitution, and he became pro- 
 fessor of history at Heidelberg in the same year that Henle 
 was appointed professor of anatomy. Gervinus wrote the first 
 satisfactory History of German Literature, and after a venture 
 in practical politics from which he soon retired in disgust 
 he devoted his time to the thesis that his favorite poet, Shake- 
 speare, and his favorite musician, Handel, were very much 
 alike intellectually, because of their common Teutonic origin. 
 
 As already indicated, it was the anatomist Tiedemann
 
 78 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 who had opened the gates of Heidelberg to Henle, but after 
 their first personal contact, the elder man took no pride in his 
 protege, and the younger felt he owed the other no gratitude. 
 They represented different viewpoints, and between them 
 there could be no sympathy. Oddly enough, it was a question 
 of architecture that fanned Tiedemann's smouldering ani- 
 mosity into a wild paroxysm. The new Anatomical Institute 
 was then nearing completion, and as its nominal director, 
 Tiedemann gave certain orders for the furnishing of its interior 
 during the absence of his associate. Henle was an inde- 
 fatigable worker, but he was so human that he went off on a 
 vacation every time he had a holiday; upon his return, he 
 criticized Tiedemann's plans, and was especially displeased 
 with the arrangement of the auditorium, which he pronounced 
 unserviceable. When leading architects confirmed Henle's 
 statements, old Tiedemann's anger was uncontrollable: not 
 only did he accuse Henle of a dastardly lie, but he shouted that 
 his young colleague was a shameless Jew. 
 
 Tiedemann's shriek reached farther than he expected, for 
 Zurich heard that Henle had resigned, and cordially offered 
 him his chair again. Henle was undecided whether to accept, 
 and it is interesting to note that at this period he was so adrift 
 that he even contemplated emigration to America. But Hei- 
 delberg would not let Henle go : the ministry rebuked Tiede- 
 mann for his insult, demanded that he apologise in writing, and 
 conveyed a hint to Henle that the director would soon retire. 
 Henle's friends, such as Pfeufer, Gervinus, Vangerow and Jolly 
 thereupon met in supreme council, and having decided that his 
 honor had been sufficiently vindicated, they induced him t^
 
 PROFESSOR IN HEIDELBERG 79 
 
 Fate practised its crudest tricks upon Tiedemann's de- 
 clining years; his adored son was one of the revolutionists of 
 1848, and when the wonderful year was dead and retrogression 
 again assumed its ancient throne, the young man was court- 
 martialed and shot. Then the old professor resigned from the 
 university where he had become a tradition, and at last Henle's 
 heart went out in sympathy toward his fallen antagonist. 
 
 But the same forces which murdered young Tiedemann, 
 eventually drove Henle from the faculty. During the fifties, 
 darkness held its carnival at Heidelberg, dispersing the liberal 
 circles that had gathered there. For publishing an essay which 
 was to serve as an introduction to his History of the Nine- 
 teenth Century, Gervinus was placed on trial for high treason. 
 The proud man disdained to defend himself except to say, 
 "This charge, though it appears directed against me, is really 
 an accusation against History, which cannot be condemned." 
 But the reactionary government of Baden was not afraid of 
 History : it burnt Gervinus' pamphlet, and sentenced the writer 
 to four months in prison. 
 
 When Heidelberg had become impossible, Pfeufer and 
 Jolly accepted Munich's welcome invitation, and Henle re' 
 sponded to the call from Gottingen. After twelve years of 
 constant association, Henle and Pfeufer were to part. "That 
 we do not go together," wrote Henle to his sister, "pains us 
 both, but I think I may say that our friendship has reached its 
 zenith, and it is better that it should be forcibly rent asunder 
 than that it should cool off." Even when moving day came, 
 Henle did not experience the usual sadness of farewell, and 
 his first Heidelberg letter was rounded out by his last :
 
 80 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 I depart, for the second time from a wonderful country, with the 
 regret that it is not peopled with better men, and I shall gladly take 
 in its stead some sand and meadows in order to be able to live among 
 scientific colleagues and under a government to whom one does not 
 become objectionable because of one's justified ambition for one's insti- 
 tution. 
 
 So the scientist left the wooded banks of the Neckar and 
 turned to the North, but the stormy Heidelberg years were not 
 barren, for Jacob Henle carried with him to Gottingen the 
 completed copy of his great Handbook of Rational Pathology. 

 
 VII 
 
 THE CALL TO GOTTINGEN 
 
 In the anatomical building of Gottingen's university "the 
 great university in the small town" old Rudolf Wagner, con- 
 spicuous for his religious zeal and remembered for his discov- 
 ery of the germinal spot, awaited the coming of Jacob Henle. 
 Professor Wagner had feared this day, and long fought against 
 it ; it was his heart's desire to die teaching anatomy, but as his 
 years advanced and his health declined, both colleague's and 
 students insinuated, gently at first and later with increasing 
 pressure, that he step aside; he prepared to withstand all his 
 opponents, but a hemorrhage came to their aid, and the pious 
 man humbly said, "Now that the living God has spoken, I 
 must bow my head," and in submission he sent for Henle. 
 After Wagner and Henle met, the latter, with his usual per- 
 spicacity, explained : "My position towards Wagner is similar 
 to that I once held in relation to Tiedemann, with all its diffi- 
 culties, except that Wagner is a much finer character, and fun- 
 damentally a good man. But it is asking too much that he 
 stand by, and see how someone inherits from him, while he is 
 still alive." 
 
 The halo of spirituality which shone about Wagner, re- 
 ceived a few crimps from Karl Vogt, but it shed its beams 
 upon Henle, who was accordingly granted an interview with 
 George V., the sightless king of Hanover. In those days, 
 
 81
 
 82 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 many letters passed between Gottingen and Munich, and 
 Henle wrote to Pfeufer: 
 
 I have had the honor of dining with his majesty at Rotenkirchen. 
 This is not so remarkable that you should be informed of it, but that 
 this honor is due to my piety, will surely amuse you. The king received 
 me with the statement that he felt it a necessity to inform me how much 
 he congratulated himself upon the acquisition of a teacher whose repu- 
 tation as a scientist was combined with that of a strictly Christian mind 
 The poor deluded man had, on his way through Heidelberg, received a 
 visit from colleague Wagner, and apparently had some specific conversa- 
 tion with him, and then, because of my matter then pending in Heidel- 
 berg, he somehow connected me with this visit, and so I stood face to 
 face with him as a brother in Christ in talar and a white neck-tie, in 
 which you once, in your friendly partiality for my exterior, compared 
 me with calf's head en tortue, and with a countenance which must have 
 appeared still more strange, as my heroic efforts to set it into strict 
 composure were lost upon the blind king and the entire work was done 
 merely for the love of God. 
 
 I did not have the heart to spoil the king's joy, for he cannot get 
 rid of me now; and when he began to reason about deists, I was able to 
 assure him without hypocrisy, that I too did not believe much in deism, 
 and when he expressed the conviction that a professor of anatomy 
 could, in his lectures, do much for the propagation of religious faith, I 
 made him very happy when I remarked that I always call my hearers' 
 attention to the defects of human understanding, even in tangible things. 
 If I talked a Guelfenorder on my neck or into my button-hole, you may 
 rest assured that I shall put it on with a blush. His majesty imme- 
 diately grasped the opportunity of informing himself regarding the 
 utility of the blind gut, and we had arrived in this remarkable private 
 audience as far as tapeworms, when the Hofmarschall announced that 
 the soup was served. 
 
 In the fifties, pastorals could have been bred in Gottingen, 
 for rusticity was its keynote. The same sylvan paths served
 
 THE CALL TO GOTTINGEN 83 
 
 for professors engrossed in meditation, and for cows intent on 
 rumination. There was no railroad nor thriving industries, 
 but every family kept a pig-pen whose dwellers spread the 
 fame of Gottingen sausage. It is true, the principal streets of 
 the town were lined with paving stones, but between their 
 crevices the grass grew with sufficient luxuriance to satisfy 
 herds of sheep. On his initial contact with this ruralness, 
 Henle was appalled it seemed incredible, after his active 
 career, that he should pass the remainder of his days amid 
 such provincial surroundings. As soon as he heard that 
 Pfeufer was negotiating for him at Munich, Henle left his 
 home half- furnished and wrote to his friend: 
 
 I would much rather use my energies in connection with yours, to 
 build up Munich's university than work here in this retirement, for the 
 preservation of a university which blinks melancholically backward upon 
 the good old days. I long for the merriment of the South and the 
 animated life of a large city, more so for the sake of my wife and my 
 growing progeny than for myself, for I, at least, have beautiful mem- 
 ories to live upon. 
 
 Gradually the peace of the small town enveloped the spirit 
 of Henle, and Pfeufer learnt that his Gottingen comrade began 
 to lecture on special anatomy, "in that melancholic-trembling 
 voice which you know so well," and the following bucolic was 
 transmitted to Munich: 
 
 I find myself in the cleanest and richest of anatomical professor- 
 ships imaginable. To use the classroom expression, I am "surrounded 
 by all the integral stimuli" which a man and a professor requires in 
 life only the vexatious and the exciting ones are lacking. We have 
 time, money, devout pupils, and complete teaching apparatus. The 
 colleagues are nothing but open encyclopedias. All are as virtuous and 
 as industrious as I hope to become, because there is no opportunity for 
 anything else. 
 
 The city lodges many students and their teachers; it also harbors
 
 84 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 the necessary bootblack, a cobbler, a tailor, an inn-keeper, and a burgo- 
 master and four gendarmes who govern these citizens. At the stroke 
 of the hour when the lecture is. over, it is somewhat livelier in the 
 streets; at twelve it is noisy, because besides the home-returning men, 
 the streets swarm mth maid-servants with baskets filled with berries 
 and prunes. Carriage wheels are heard only when there is a ball, or 
 when a professor is being buried. At four o'clock everything rushes on 
 the Wall, and runs once or twice around the town, after the fashion of 
 hemorrhoids, more or less completely blind. 
 
 I have already found a student who plays the violin; as I wished 
 to form a trio and needed a C string for my violincello, I inquired at the 
 store and found that the store-keeper permitted the article to run out, 
 because for two years there had been no demand for it. She would, 
 however, have one spun for me. When it was ready, I had to have the 
 opening in the tail-piece of my instrument made larger, because the 
 string would not go through. 
 
 In public and social life, much has been retained to remind one of 
 the town's former connection with England. There is much more civic 
 freedom here than anywhere else in Germany; restrictions of hats, 
 books, collections, etc., woud be just as impossible here as in England. 
 We know nothing of either the religious or political faith of our neigh- 
 bors. But aside from independence in vital matters, there is to be found 
 the English sameness in non-essentials; the unalterable roast at dinner 
 and a certain stability in food and drink, which in spite of the hospi- 
 tality of the host and the merriment of the guest, would bring people 
 of your sensitive taste to despair. Every Sunday we meet the same 
 valet de place, who tells us in advance where we shall dine together 
 the forthcoming Sunday, and everywhere are to be found the culinary 
 products of the same cook. 
 
 Henle sealed his contentment with Gottingen by buying 
 a home, situated directly on the promenade which led around 
 the town, shaded by magnificent lindens, and enriched with 
 a garden of rare plants and old trees. The house had formerly
 
 THE CALL TO GOTTINGEN 85 
 
 been Langenbeck's private hospital, and the walls which once 
 saw the master surgeon amputate a shoulder while you took a 
 pinch of snuff, now witnessed happier scenes. If an academy, 
 a library, an opera and a dramatic troupe had arrived in Gottin- 
 gen, all at once, they could not have aroused the town more 
 than did Henle's advent. He formed his colleagues into a 
 Friday Night Club, and was its animating spirit, but intercom- 
 munion with fellow professors never sufficed for Henle ; gath- 
 ering groups of students and young privat docents around him, 
 Henle organized musical and theatrical circles. His home 
 became the headquarters of visiting artists, and his position as 
 director of the museum enabled him to utilize the museum's 
 hall for concerts. Renowned men and women participated in 
 Henle's musical evenings: here were heard Joachim's violin, 
 and the mezzo soprano of Amalie Weiss. 
 
 Among Henle's new professional friends was the derma- 
 tologist, Conrad Heinrich Fuchs. "I begin to feel," wrote 
 Henle to Pfeufer, "a great attachment to Fuchs, because of 
 the pleasant recollections which his doubtful hard 'b' awakens 
 1 in me, and also for his kind nature and modest manner, in 
 which there is nothing to remind one of the pretentious Sys- 
 tems of Skin Diseases." The point of this note is that Pfeufer 
 and Fuchs were natives of Bamberg, and therefore found it 
 difficult to pronounce the alphabet's second letter; moreover, 
 Fuchs was an adherent of the so-called Natural History School, 
 and he proved it in his once-famous book on diseases of the 
 skin, for while it contains many valuable observations on 
 etiology and diagnosis, and even on therapeutics, the effect is 
 marred by its incomprehensible nosological arrangement. Had 
 Fuchs not made the slightest attempt at classification, instead
 
 86 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 of devoting his chief energies to it, the result would have been 
 less bewildering. 
 
 Another friend was the obstetrician, Eduard Caspar Sie- 
 bold, a member of what Lorenz Oken called the "Asclepiad 
 family of Siebolds." He is now remembered for his classical 
 history of midwifery. Siebold was a singer, and played the 
 kettle-drum and tymbals with unusual skill and Henle did not 
 permit him to neglect these instruments. Henle asserted that 
 at the very first tone, he could tell whether Siebold or an 
 ordinary drummer was playing. 
 
 Then there was Friedrich Wohler, who was certainly 
 worth knowing. He graduated in medicine and sur- 
 gery at Heidelberg, and intended to become a prac- 
 titioner, but he had already worked in the labora- 
 tory of Leopold Gmelin, and was persuaded by him 
 to devote his life to chemistry. Gmelin discovered potassium 
 ferricyanide but Wohler may be regarded as Gmelin's chief 
 contribution to science. The young Wohler went to Stock- 
 holm to study under the great Berzelius, and in later years, 
 along with original researches, he translated his teacher's work 
 from the Swedish. His friendship with Berzelius was matched 
 by his lifelong relationship with Liebig, with whom he was 
 associated in many important researches. Wohler taught for 
 brief periods in Berlin and in Cassel, but for almost half a 
 century he held the chair of chemistry in the medical faculty 
 at Gottingen. Wohler was the man who broke down the bar- 
 rier between organic and inorganic chemistry by constructing 
 an organic substance out of its inorganic constituents and 
 thus the vital force theory received its death-blow. It was 
 granted to Wohler to make another discovery of permanent
 
 THE CALL TO GOTTINGEN 87 
 
 importance : just as his synthesis of urea marked the beginning 
 of modern organic chemistry, so his demonstration that ben- 
 zoic acid taken into the body reappears in the urine as hippuric 
 acid, opened the modern era of the chemistry of metabolism. 
 Wohler was equally interested in analysis and among the 
 elements he isolated were aluminium, beryllium and yttrium. 
 In the spring of 1858, the sons of science went into mourn- 
 ing, for the father of scientific medicine in Germany bade them 
 the last farewell. No longer would his voice be heard in the 
 lecture-room, nor his guiding hand felt in the laboratory. His 
 pupils remained Schwann was at Liege, Henle at Gottingen, 
 Kolliker at Wurzburg, Brucke and Ludwig at Vienna, Wil- 
 helm His at Basel, Virchow at Berlin but their teacher had 
 left them. Johannes Miiller was dead, but the work must go 
 on, and mighty Berlin turned its eyes towards the town of 
 Gottingen, where now dwelt Germany's greatest anatomist, 
 Jacob Henle. The times had changed, for the city which had 
 thrust the youth into prison, invited the man to enter its uni- 
 versity as Johannes Muller's successor. When Pfeufer read 
 in the newspapers that Henle had received the offer from 
 Berlin, his emotions were on edge, and he immediately wrote 
 to Henle asking him if he intended to accept, and assuring 
 him that though he might conclude his life with more content- 
 ment in Gottingen, yet it was certain that he belonged in Ber- 
 lin. Without delay, Henle replied to his most intimate friend : 
 
 It is true I received an offer from Berlin, as brilliant as possible, 
 purely for anatomy, with a to-be-newly-constructed building, with a 
 prosector of my own choice, with a seat in the faculty and at the 
 state examinations and I have rejected it Not without a great mental 
 struggle; but on what solid basis my final decision was founded was
 
 88 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 proven to me when I read your letter, which in spite of the fact that I 
 have always valued you as an authority in practical matters, could not 
 shake my peace of mind. How much I would have liked to have gone 
 for advice to my old friend! The matter was left entirely to me, as not 
 even my wife would give a sign of what preference she felt, and the 
 Berlin Geheimrath who unexpectedly crashed in on me with this offer 
 like a bomb, insisted on coming back for my answer on the following 
 day, and could only be persuaded to depart when I gave him my assur- 
 ance that I would forward my decision within forty-eight hours. 
 
 You may voice your objections that I permitted myself to be so 
 hurried. I however, wished that the Prussians should not lose more 
 time than necessary, as I felt from the outset that their efforts to get 
 me would be unsuccessful. I am greatly attached to Gottingen; I felt 
 at home here from the first moment; every change that has occurred 
 has made my position more comfortable; and I can surely count upon 
 it that it will be the same in the future, and that in any matter con- 
 cerning the university I shall have a decisive voice. I contemplated 
 M tiller's position without the slightest envy, while he, on the other hand, 
 called my position a more enviable one. Why should then, the accident 
 of his untimely death give me an incentive to see if I could not have 
 things better than I already have them? 
 
 The great city and its manifold contacts do not possess the same 
 attraction for me as they do for you; it is probably the result of my 
 provincial origin that the bustle of strange and stiff people makes an 
 unpleasant impression upon me, and that I find more comfort in the 
 quietude in which our life flows on here, under the shadow of our trees 
 and among a few everyday friends. Besides, you must not draw a 
 parallel between Berlin and Munich, and between Gottingen and any 
 other small town. For Munich has, besides all the agreeableness of a 
 large city, still many congenial rural elements, which Berlin lacks, and 
 Gottingen is more a country seat for a number of professors and stu- 
 dents than a small town. If we gradually appropriate das Geschmaeckle 
 of which you speak, we do not notice it upon each other, and if it is ap- 
 parent to our friends from large cities, whom we unfortunately meet
 
 THE CALL TO GOTTINGEN 89 
 
 but seldom and but for a few days we must hope that they like us well 
 enough to put up with it. 
 
 If I felt some of that self-confidence, with which I would have gone 
 into Parliament in 1848, if my leg had permitted me to stand up at the 
 time, I would consider it my duty to become the citizen of a state, which 
 after all, is the dominant factor in German affairs. But I have not yet 
 forgotten, how at the time, it was not my wit, but merely my misfortune, 
 that saved me from compromising myself. That I can bring up my 
 children here physically stronger and mentally less blase than would be 
 the case in Berlin, I know for certain. And for me the reflection over 
 going or remaining was merely a struggle between inclination and duty. 
 Whether it was right for me to withdraw myself from such an important 
 and influential post, with great resources, and participate in the list of 
 a tournament to which I was called, I shall have to justify myself be- 
 fore my conscience and my friends whose eyes are focussed upon me. 
 
 How alone I would have stood! Was it not characteristic that not 
 the slightest hint, not a friendly word of persuasion from the lap of the 
 faculty, or from other friends, preceded the arrival of the Berlin media- 
 tor? Could I be indifferent to the fact that since leaving Berlin, I 
 received not the slightest mark of distinction from the medical societies 
 that spring up there, and that the Berlin Academy purposely avoids 
 me? Though I am not in the habit of imagining things, still it seemed 
 1 to me quite clear that I made myself unavoidable through my book, 
 and that I was proposed and expected as the inevitable one. And Fr. 
 who was supposed to have dished out the gravy, belongs to those who 
 will not forgive me because I did not wait for the physicians to clean 
 out the pathological stall. . . 
 
 Could I, without flattering myself, hope to exercise influence upon 
 the course of studies in Prussia? Dear friend, we both know that we, 
 with united forces and in younger and more spirited years, were unsuc- 
 cessful with the subdual of a less tough dough. A man of M tiller's 
 importance had difficulty enough, and had to, often play his highest 
 trump to remain unattacked in his own field. This is, and we have 
 often acknowledged it, not my terrain, and a man of fifty years should
 
 90 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 not deceive himself into imagining that through transplantation into 
 a new soil, he can acquire new qualities. I live chiefly to please myself, 
 and believe myself to be useful to others if I give to the world the 
 results of my quiet musing. 
 
 To satisfy this passion, there is no place more suitable than Gottin- 
 gen. Were I to go to Berlin, I would have interrupted my work for a 
 few years, first because of the removal and then because of the work 
 incidental to the building up of a new collection. How terribly Miiller 
 had often sighed over the burden of the state examinations, which took 
 up, year in and year out, so much of his time. Forgive this long expo- 
 sition. But as you do not know either Gottingen or Berlin in their 
 modern phases, the matter could not be explained briefly. Verbally, I 
 could even say much more. Could you but glance into our activities! 
 You would not wish to live here, but you would understand why others 
 feel themselves so attached. 
 
 Until he came to Gottingen, Henle was a peripatetic: six 
 years he was Mullet's prosector in Berlin, four years profes- 
 sor in Zurich, and for eight years professor in Heidelberg 
 but for the remaining thirty-three years of his life he was set- 
 tled. It was Reichert who went to Berlin as Miiller's anatom- 
 ical heir. Henle remained in Gottingen, cultivated his garden, 
 paid the mortgage on his house, and worked on his master- 
 piece, The Handbook of Systematic Anatomy.
 
 VIII 
 THE JUBILEE 
 
 In 1866 a year famous for its quarrels Bismarck and 
 King George could not agree, and Bismarck characteristically 
 ended the argument by annexing Hanover. By this act of 
 absorption, the University of Gottingen ceased to stand apart 
 in cloister-like aloofness, for its faculty automatically became 
 members of the University Society of Prussia. Henle had 
 refused to come to Prussia, but Prussia had come to Henle. 
 
 The new state of affairs divided Hanover into those who 
 favored the annexation, and those who disapproved, and in 
 the factional disputes that naturally followed, many old friend- 
 ships were broken. Henle was at all times opposed to Bis- 
 marck's internal policy, and bitterly resented the statesman's 
 present tactics, and therefore five professors resigned from his 
 Friday club. For some time to come, at the least provocation, 
 Gottingen was split into Prussians and Hanoverians; for ex- 
 ample, in 1868, Henle's son Karl, arranged a ball at the 
 museum, and a sleigh-party comprised of students and young 
 ladies. They rode out into a storm that traveled straight to 
 the door of father Henle, who thus explained the cause of the 
 tempest : 
 
 91
 
 92 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 The sleighing party which took place a few weeks ago and tne 
 dance that followed, resulted in a complaint of the police-director to 
 the pro-rector, wherein he summed up the sleighing party under the 
 heading of 'gathering under free skies,' for which the police is to grant 
 permission forty-eight hours in advance. It required much paper to 
 convince the bone-headed bureaucrats that you could not order snow 
 to remain on the ground for forty-eight hours. 
 
 Another and much worse excitement, which extended even to the 
 lowest strata of society, and which once more divided the city into 
 Prussians and Hanoverians, was the ball arranged in the Museum by 
 Karl and his friends. It required a general meeting of 120 earnest men 
 to decide in a conference, whether there is a difference between a feast 
 and a ball, and whether the feast could only be arranged by private 
 individuals and the ball only by the director. To speak more correctly, 
 they merely seemed to hold this conference, for its actual purpose was 
 the official assassination of the present director. I shall, therefore, like 
 Bismarck, be more constitutional than is expected, and shall resign the 
 post which for seven years deprived me of much time, and during the 
 past two years caused me much aggravation, and was only of value to 
 me in so far as I had the disposal of the hall at my command, and was 
 able to invite artists here and keep in touch with them. 
 
 Henle sought relief from these agitations by an excursion 
 to Upper Bavaria. Tourists who visited the Tegernsee dur- 
 ing the fall of 1869, were apt to come across a quintet whose 
 hair was grey, but who chatted together with all the abandon 
 of youth. Many years had passed since the dissolution of the 
 Heidelberg circle, but now Henle, Pfeufer, Jolly, Gervinus 
 and the orientalist Hitzig were together again, reveling in the 
 beauty of the mountain-lake and in the luxury of old mem- 
 ories. Towards the end of the vacation, when Henle and
 
 THE JUBILEE 93 
 
 Pfeufer clasped hands with the love of thirty years between 
 them, they promised each other to meet again next year; 
 three days later, word was brought to Henle, that Pfeufer, 
 while journeying to the Achensee with his wife and daughter, 
 dropped dead in the boat. Henle wrote to his sister: 
 
 Those were three wonderful weeks which I spent with my old 
 friend. Never since we left Heidelberg to go in different directions, 
 did we associate with each other so long and so uninterruptedly. Al- 
 though the lake lay between our residences, we were together every day 
 and usually twice a day. In the morning I had myself rowed over, and 
 at noon his daughter rowed me back in a boat which she had hired. 
 In the afternoon, we generally met together with our retinues on some 
 beautiful spot whereto we went on foot, and Pfeufer in his carriage. 
 Then I had to sit at his side while his grandchildren and my children 
 played around us, and from time to time he would send me away to 
 talk to his wife, who found it painful when she did not hear me. 
 
 We spoke of everything our science, our politics, our families; 
 it seemed as though I was to carry with me the conviction that we 
 were of one mind in everything. He suffered somewhat from asthma, 
 was more sluggish in his movements than before, tired easier, but men- 
 tally was as fresh and alive as ever. He did not think of any danger; 
 his concern was chiefly that he would become too weak for his teach- 
 ing activities, as the clinic exhausted him and the crowds of hearers in 
 the hospital rooms oppressed him. He contemplated giving up the 
 clinic. He still felt strong enough for lectures and for his office. We 
 parted with the understanding to meet again next fall in a different 
 place, for though we found Tegernsee charming, we had already drained 
 its beauties. 
 
 Three days later, he was dead. His death was such as he wished 
 for himself and for me, for he said this in a letter which he wrote to me
 
 94 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 after our father's death. We cannot bemoan his fate; the autopsy 
 showed that he had been approaching an unforboded serious affliction 
 But the situation of the wife and daughter who returned from a trip so 
 joyously undertaken, with the corpse at the bottom of the boat! We 
 received the sad news in Munich at the art exhibition. The distraction 
 of the return journey, the life in the overfilled family house in Niirn- 
 berg, the pleasure in seeing the sisters in Mainz in good health, helped 
 me to bear the first pangs of the grief. Now when I find myself in the 
 old familiar rooms, I first feel how much the absent friend was tied up 
 with all my doing and thinking. 
 
 Henle kept a bust of the departed upon his desk, and 
 Merkel says that many a hallowed glance fell upon it. Henle 
 wrote to Pfeufer's widow: 
 
 That our dear friend is unforgettable and that the breach which 
 his death created can never be filled, I feel as much as you do. To me 
 too, the world looks changed since I miss the heart which shared all my 
 joys and sorrows, and I no longer can hope to give him pleasure by my 
 work and draw from him a word of approbation. How vague every- 
 thing seems that remains to me of friends, besides the memory of this 
 one! You may, therefore, be certain that I find your laments justified, 
 and that I shall never tire of hearing them as long as you feel the need 
 to express them. There is a certain equalization of justice in this, that 
 whoever had the happiness of possessing such a man as you did, must 
 also accept the danger of the terrible contrast which death creates. 
 But who would, because of this danger, place a limit upon such happi- 
 ness ! And when parting must come, there is no better consolation than 
 the knowledge that nothing in happiness had been missed. 
 
 In this same year, our much-quoted Friedrich Siegmund 
 Merkel, who was then a young doctor of twenty-four, arrived
 
 THE JUBILEE 95 
 
 from Erlangen to become Henle's prosector in Gottingen, and 
 showed devotion not only to the master's system of anatomy, 
 but to his daughter Anna, and thus Henle acquired his first 
 son-in-law. Merkel later became professor at Rostock and 
 then at Konigsberg; he wrote numerous anatomical articles 
 and pamphlets, among his chief contributions being his trea- 
 tise on topographical anatomy, and his description of the tac- 
 tile corpuscles of the papillae of the skin. Merkel edited suc- 
 cessive editions of Henle's Ground-plan of Anatomy. It has 
 been asserted that sons-in-law make the best biographers, 
 and Merkel's life of Henle has proved indispensable to the 
 present writer. 
 
 Henle's fourth daughter, Emma, and his second son, 
 Adolf, were born at Gottingen. During the seventies, three 
 more of Henle's children Karl, Sophie, and Elise were mar- 
 ried. Grandchildren added to his joys, except when death 
 chose infancy as its untimely victim. But sunny countenances 
 were the usual visitors to the patriarch's fireside. When 
 trouble came to any members of the household, they instinc- 
 tively turned to Henle, and the hand that might have been 
 penning an immortal idea a moment ago, would be kindly 
 stretched forth to comfort a child's distress. Fame never 
 disarranged Henle's simplicity. Sitting at his desk until ten 
 o'clock, teaching for the remainder of the morning and part 
 of the afternoon, a post-prandial application to belles-lettres 
 followed by devotion to science until supper-time, then smok- 
 ing a cigar while his wife read a novel and his daughters 
 busied themselves with needlework, and back to his desk 
 again where he worked until midnight, finding his recreation 
 in his musical and literary circles, his days flowed peacefully
 
 96 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 on, and for long periods he moved merely between his home 
 and the anatomy building. The spring of Henle's life was 
 stormy, but its winter was mild. Tranquility was the key- 
 note of his venerable years. 
 
 During 1882, three of Henle's eminent friends, the nov- 
 elist Auerbach, the chemist Wb'hler, and the histologist 
 Schwann, passed away. The old Henle immediately prepared 
 a standard memoir of Theodor Schwann, the co-worker of his 
 youth, living again through the stirring days when he and 
 Schwann moved into one house and reconstructed biology. 
 Henle received his diploma in 1832 and it was now 1882 a 
 span of half a century. The fiftieth anniversary was on the 
 fourth of April, and on that day glad outbursts of music were 
 heard near Henle's home the Gottingen militia's serenade; 
 the chief burgomaster delivered the town's greetings, the stu- 
 dents presented their teacher with a golden laurel wreath, and 
 in the celebrations that followed, Henle saw before him some 
 of the most distinguished scientists of Germany. It was the 
 master's Jubilee, and his former pupils came from their aca- 
 demic chairs to honor him. Kolliker prepared a noble ad- 
 dress, signed by great names, in which he said: 
 
 You celebrate to-day the day on which just fifty years ago, you 
 delivered your famous dissertation De membrana pupillari, and upon 
 which you received your doctor's degree. This day is not only a day of 
 honor for you, but a great joy for all who ever stood close to you. 
 Permit us then, your one-time pupils and now your colleagues, to offer 
 to you our sincere esteem and our gratitude. 
 
 A worthy pupil and friend of Johannes M tiller, you followed him 
 first into the field of comparative anatomy, but only to soon go your
 
 JOHANNES MULLER
 
 THE JUBILEE 97 
 
 own way. With full recognition that the work of Schleiden and 
 Schwann, based upon the groundwork of Bichat, had to be upbuilt and 
 reconstructed, you created your General Anatomy, a scientific work of 
 the highest importance, which in truth was to become the keynote of 
 your future work, Conspicuous from the beginning, through its abund- 
 ance of facts and ideas, through the masterful discussion of the physi- 
 ological activity of tissue on the ground of their anatomical structure, 
 and through the careful and just valuation of previous works, this work 
 will remain for all times, a paragon. With the complete understanding 
 that physiology is the foundation of pathology, you erected for yourself 
 in this field an indestructible monument by your Pathological Researches 
 in which you foretold, with great keenness, the latest developments in 
 the theory of epidemic diseases. Besides this, your Anthropological 
 Lectures, and the Journal of Rational Medicine which was founded by 
 you and Pfeufer and continued for more than two decades, also your 
 Yearly Reports, bear brilliant testimony to your vigorous and fruitful 
 activity. 
 
 The climax, however, of your achievements are your researches in 
 the field of human anatomy, and it is here where your extraordinary 
 talent shines triumphant, not only in the way your discoveries were 
 made, but also the manner in which they were presented. In fact, your 
 Handbook of Systematic Anatomy is recognized as the sole work of its 
 kind, raising the ancient and supposedly final anatomical sciences to an 
 unprecedented degree of perfection, which must serve as a foundation 
 for all future builders. 
 
 The picture of your manifold and unusual labors would still remain 
 incomplete, if we were to omit mention of your activity as an academic 
 teacher, and in this field we, your pupils and colleagues, are competent 
 judges. There was no one more eloquent, clearer in presentation, 
 deeper in thought and conviction, and in these respects you will always
 
 98 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 be to us an unattainable example. Accept then, much-beloved and 
 highly revered master, our sincerest thanks, for all that you have meant 
 to science and to us! Accept our best wishes for the glorious event 
 which you celebrate to-day, and permit us to give expressions to our 
 hopes, that there may remain to you many years of great happiness and 
 blessed work. 
 
 Of the numerous other addresses, the best remembered 
 is the one from the medical faculty of Kiel, which began with 
 the remark that their greeting was not an isolated word out 
 of the large sum of gratitude which had been coming to him 
 for the past fifty years, for physicians and research-workers 
 without number owed to him their education and inspiration. 
 The characteristic Festschrift, the university of Gottingen's 
 commission to the sculptor Hartzer for a bust of Henle to 
 stand in the vestibule of their anatomical building, the decora- 
 tions from various states including the government of Prussia, 
 were other tokens of esteem which marked this jubilee. Hen- 
 le's alarm that he was being honored beyond his merits, com- 
 bined with his naive pleasure at the constant stream of well- 
 wishers and the ever-accumulating messages of congratula- 
 tion, added to the sincerity and geniality of the celebration. 
 
 After the elaborate public entertainment was over, Henle's 
 children and grandchildren gathered around him, and in their 
 midst, decorated only with the "Jocose order of the patriarch," 
 he was most content. To this inner group a few chosen 
 friends were invited, among them being Henle's illustrious 
 pupil, Wilhelm Waldeyer, who has given us this exquisite 
 picture : 
 
 Another beautiful phase of his being was his love and highly-
 
 THE JUBILEE 99 
 
 developed devotion to his family. Whoever had an opportunity of 
 seeing him in the circle of his family, will never forget how well Henle 
 understood to make his dear ones happy. It was then that his warm 
 heart, his delightful sense of humor showed itself. I found him thus 
 in the spring of 1882, when he afforded me the pleasure, after the official 
 days of his Jubilee, were over, of inviting me to a celebration in his 
 most intimate family circle, and also a year later in Herrenalb, where 
 he and his family were spending their vacation, and I was tramping 
 through the Schwarzwald. These days will remain unforgotten; and 
 as he was then unbroken, so he remained to the very end. 
 
 Unbroken but not unbowed, for the autumn of 1884 found 
 Henle a sick man. Yet throughout the winter semester, even 
 when the physical agony of intercostal neuralgia forced him 
 to resort to morphine, that flashing eye and winning tone still 
 captivated the student-youth of Gottingen. Not till the offi- 
 cial vacation began, did he seek relief but what can Baden- 
 Baden do for a renal sarcoma with metastasis in the vertebral 
 column? Henle re-discovered the kidneys, but his own kid- 
 neys killed him. Upon his death-bed he spoke cheerfully and 
 consolingly to his wife and children to the end the thirteenth 
 of May, 1885. 
 
 On that day, the curtain descended upon a career of dra- 
 matic completeness, for it opened with a prison and ended 
 with a jubilee. No longer would the students see their "old 
 Jacob," and son-in-law Merkel was called from Koningsberg 
 to become the anatomist of Gottingen and here, in his sacred 
 hours, he enshrined in his book the imperishable name of 
 Jacob Henle.
 
 IX 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 
 
 Henle's history does not end with his death, for though 
 the man is dead, his work endures. Henle's first contribution 
 to science was his dissertation on the membrana pupillaris 
 (1832), by which he increased our knowledge of the embry- 
 ology of the eye. The organ of vision continued to attract 
 Henle: he described the histology of the retina (1839), its 
 anatomy (1864), the physiology of the lachrymal canal (1865), 
 the fibres of the crystalline lens (1875), the construction of 
 the lens (1878), and its development (1882). As a result of 
 these studies, we have several eponyms. Within the palpebral 
 conjunctiva, Henle found structures resembling lymph folli- 
 cles whcih are now known as the trachoma glands of Henle, 
 or the aggregated glands of Bruch. This discovery was re- 
 sponsible for an ophthalmological puzzle, for it is still un- 
 decided whether these glands are normal or pathologic. The 
 lamina basalis which forms the inner boundary of the choroid 
 is known both as Bruch's layer and as Henle's membrane. 
 The zone of cone-fibres and rod-fibres in the region of the 
 macula lutea, bears the name of Henle's fibrous layer. The 
 retinal layers exclusive of the rod-and-cone layer are known as 
 Briicke's tunica nervea or Henle's stratum nerveum. The 
 
 101
 
 102 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 masses on the cornea, near the border of Descemet's mem- 
 brane, are Henle's warts. After witnessing an execution, 
 Henle wrote "Experiments and Observations on a Decapi- 
 tated Person" (1852), which states his discovery that the yel- 
 low spot contains no rods but cones only. 
 
 During Henle's early years in Berlin, the medical faculty 
 was preparing the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Medical 
 Sciences, and Henle was commissioned to write the articles 
 on albumin, olein, epidermis, epithelium, eructation, excreta, 
 sepsis (1834), falx cerebri and cerebelli, fibro-cartilage, fibrin, 
 fauces, fat, yawning, goose-flesh, gall-bladder (1835), vascular 
 glands, sense of hearing (1836), hallucinations (1837). He 
 wrote also for Froriep's Notices, Hufeland's Journal, Wieg- 
 mann's Archives, Casper's Weekly, Oken's Isis, and the Eng- 
 lish Magazine of Natural History, but most of his work during 
 the Berlin period was published in the journal with which he 
 was himself connected Miiller's Archiv. His contributions 
 to these periodicals included his observations on the acque- 
 ductus vestibuli and cochlea (1834), Owen's trichina spiralis 
 in human muscle (1835), musculus spinalis cervicis in man 
 (1837), mucus and pus formation, extension of epithelium in 
 the human body, the retention of memory in the special senses 
 (1838), the microscopic elements of milk, the construction of 
 glands (1839), the contractility of vessels, dropsy, and the 
 structure and formation of the human hair (1840). The outer 
 cellular layer of the inner root-sheath of the hair follicle, sur- 
 rounding the layer of Huxley, is known as Henle's layer. 
 
 After the suave Humboldt succeeded in persuading the 
 Prussian government that its institutions were safe even with 
 the conspirator Henle out of prison, Henle produced his
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 103 
 
 habilitation-thesis, Symbolae ad anatomiam villorum intesti- 
 nalium imprimis eorum epithelii et vasorum lacteorum (1837). 
 With this treatise the modern knowledge of the epithelial 
 tissues begins, and the young man of twenty-eight was among 
 the immortals. In these researches, although they were con- 
 ducted with nothing better than a Schieck microscope, the 
 investigator established names which have become permanent 
 parts of histology, such as pavement epithelium and cylinder 
 epithelium, and was the first to define columnar and ciliated 
 epithelium, and the first to describe the stratum mucosum of 
 the epidermis, and the intestinal epithelia. His pronounce- 
 ment, in the following year, that "all free surfaces of the body, 
 and all the inner surfaces of its tubes and canals, and all the 
 wall of its cavities, are lined with epithelium," was one of 
 the most momentous generalizations of the century, and it 
 paved the way for the far-reaching cell-theory of Schleiden and 
 Schwann, which in turn prepared the path for the Darwinian 
 theory. Henle is the first author mentioned by Schwann, and 
 on account of the fundamental importance of Schwann's work 
 on the cell-theory which, like Henle's researches on the 
 epithelium, originated in the lodging-house at Number 66 
 Friedrichstrasse we will quote some of Schwann's references 
 from his "Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in 
 the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants" (1839) : 
 
 A very important advance was made in the year 1837, when an 
 actual growth of the elementary particles of epithelium was proved to 
 take place without vessels. Henle showed that the cells in the super- 
 ficial layers of epithelium are much more expanded than those in the
 
 104 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 deeper strata, a fact which leaves scarcely any doubt as to tiieir true 
 plant-like that is, non-vascular growth. 
 
 There is another observation of Henle's, which is opposed to the 
 epithelium being regarded as a lifeless substance secreted from the 
 organized tissue; I allude to the passage where he proved that the 
 vibratile cilia, whose motion it is so difficult to explain by physical 
 laws, stand upon little cylinders which are merely a modification of 
 the epithelium. 
 
 It often occurs that the tabular epithelial cells are not regularly 
 hexagonal, but represent flat elongated stripes, a fact which has been 
 observed by Henle in the epithelium of the vessels. The cells which 
 are prolonged into cylinders constitute the other modification in the 
 form of the epithelial cells. They were discovered by Henle in the 
 intestinal mucous membrane. 
 
 With regard to the formation of the epithelial cells, Henle has 
 already proved the rete Malpighii to consist of round nucleated cells, 
 probably the young epidermal cells, and also that the diameter of the 
 cells increases towards the outside, so that in the fetal pig he was 
 enabled to trace the gradual transition of the cells of the rete Malpighii 
 into those of the epidermis. 
 
 Henle's treatises on the Narcine, a new kind of electric 
 ray (1834), on the Branchiobdella and on the explanation of 
 the sexual organs of the Annelida and hermaphroditic snails 
 (1835), on the Enchytraeus, a new annelid (1837), and on the 
 larynx, with special consideration of the larynx of reptiles 
 (1839) constitute his independent work in comparative anat- 
 omy. In the important monograph on the larynx which 
 aroused the enthusiasm of old Humboldt Henle traced the 
 development of the organ of voice from the simple cartilage-
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 105 
 
 strip in the Proteus to the complex structure in higher ani- 
 mals, saying in the introduction : 
 
 As our knowledge regarding the development of the larynx and 
 the significance of its individual parts is still very incomplete, and in 
 fact, the origin and gradual development of the larynx in the embryos 
 of the highest animals is so difficult to follow, I determined to undertake 
 a comparative-anatomical research of this organ, in the hope of showing 
 the various degrees of development in the different organisms, gradu- 
 ating from the lowest to the highest. In this sense, I have given a 
 zootomical description of the larynx in the form of the story of its 
 development. 
 
 It is one of the oddities of science that these words 
 should have been written twenty years prior to the publica- 
 tion of the Origin of Species, and by a man who was never 
 reconciled to Darwinism. 
 
 All of Henle's work in comparative anatomy was accom- 
 plished under the influence of Johannes Miiller, with whom he 
 collaborated in the systematic description of the Plagiostomi. 
 Miiller, who was a great student of fish, already knew the 
 Plagiostomi through his study of the Myxine and Petromyzon, 
 while Henle was familiar with the subject on account of his 
 Narcine investigation, and when a barrel of Sicilian fish was 
 opened in the Berlin museum at the same time that a collec- 
 tion of India fishes arrived, both scientists found many in- 
 teresting points to discuss, and decided to systematize and 
 extend the data on sharks and rays. As the material in Berlin, 
 although extensive, was inadequate for their purpose, they 
 journeyed to Rotterdam and Leyden, and later to London, 
 everywhere accumulating scientific friends and treasures. In
 
 106 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 London they became greatly attached to the Owen family, 
 and while the distinguished Sir Richard painted Miiller's 
 portrait, Henle improved the German of Mrs. Owen the 
 cleverest of female diarists. After leaving England, the trav- 
 elers separated in the interest of the investigation, Henle 
 going to Frankfurt, and Miiller proceeding to Paris. 
 
 When they met again in Berlin, both had numerous ob- 
 servations and discoveries to report, and prepared their manu- 
 scripts for the press. In order to insure the publisher against 
 loss, the authors agreed to purchase twenty copies annually 
 as long as a deficit remained. "The Systematic Description 
 of the Plagiostomi" (1838-41) was certainly a splendid piece 
 of research, but as the Plagiostomi didn't read it, and as few 
 human beings did, and as the practical publisher demanded 
 that the contract be fulfilled with scientific exactitude, Miiller 
 and Henle, in the course of years, possessed scores of copies 
 of their mutual masterpiece. 
 
 During Henle's last year in Berlin, his "Pathological Re- 
 searches" (1840) appeared. In the brilliant essay on fevers 
 he dethroned the archaeus of Helmont and the sensitive soul 
 of Stahl, and offered a rational explanation of elevated body- 
 temperature. But the feature of the book was the essay on 
 "Miasms and Contagia," which laid the foundation of the 
 germ-theory of disease, as it contains the first clear state- 
 ment, in modern terms, that infectious diseases are due to 
 specific microorganisms. Henle said that if these organisms 
 are invisible, it is not because of their extraordinary small- 
 ness, but because they differ so little from the tissues in which 
 they are imbedded, that they remain unrecognizable. The
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 107 
 
 predictions which Henle made in 1840 were fulfilled, more 
 than forty years afterward, by his pupil, Robert Koch. When 
 the stain was introduced into bacteriology, Henle was hailed 
 as a prophet but in the Berlin days, when Henle and Hirsch- 
 wald met for the last time, the publisher complained that 
 the entire edition of "Pathological Researches" was still on 
 his hands. 
 
 After his removal to Zurich, Henle discovered the De- 
 modex folliculorum (1841), the ubiquitous pimple-mite which 
 presides over spoilt complexions. But as Henle mistook the 
 rear end of the parasite for its head, he was not particularly 
 proud when this acarus was mentioned, and although he 
 later wrote on the gregarines, the parasites of invertebrates 
 (1845), he was never completely at home in Johannes Miiller's 
 domain of zoology and comparative anatomy. As the mas- 
 ter's welcoming and guiding hand was now lacking, Henle 
 turned to a field where he had few compeers human ana- 
 tomy. In a communication to Schoell, he says: 
 
 With infinite joy, I now write my Handbook of General Anatomy. 
 It is splendid to cast away a few old prejudices and to watch how 
 here and there a light, or at least, the twilight, breaks through, and how 
 a new principle substantiates itself in a newly founded fact. And now I 
 work faster than in the olden times when I had to run in to you every 
 two hours or so, with a half page of my Contagia. You had to stand a 
 great deal from me in those days, but I have profited much, and know, 
 therefore, that you are not regretting it. I was, in those days, almost 
 too modest, but I believed implicitly, that which to me appeared abso- 
 lute and vital, must surely have already occurred to other sensible 
 people. Now when in spite of all the mistrust against me, and in spite 
 of my wish to agree with the majority, I daily find fresh confirmation
 
 108 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 or refute them, I feel more comfortable and I learn to proceed without 
 apprehension. 
 
 My book creates sensation enough, and the critics find two ways 
 of dealing with it: some sing me all sorts of praise, but find this and 
 that to be startling, and believe that this and that holds entirely too 
 fast to need to be defended against my attacks; if we were to do so and 
 so, then there would remain little that was certain. Others belittle me 
 in the very beginning, and hold me up as a warning example why a 
 theoretician should not treat of practical things, and then believing they 
 have accomplished enough, they concede the details, step by step, or 
 break their teeth on it. Only a few, young, sanguine, and still un- 
 occupied people, gape with open mouths, and on these my hopes are 
 centered. 
 
 Aside from its new facts, such as the demonstration of 
 unstriped muscle in the endothelial coats of the lesser arteries, 
 the broad conceptions and the new principles enunciated in 
 Henle's "General Anatomy," made its publication the most 
 important medical event of the year 1841. Bichat was sur- 
 passed, and science acclaimed a new master. "To us young 
 medical men," wrote Kussmaul, "a new world opened up 
 through Henle's General Anatomy. It holds its readers almost 
 more by the vistas it suggests, than by what already exists. 
 Curiosity drove me to read the book, and the impression 
 which it made upon me I can only compare with which I 
 received on reading Liebig's works, and I began, just as I 
 did with the latter, to commit the vital parts of the contents 
 to memory." Of the numerous encomiums which this work 
 has received, none is more illuminating than the tribute of 
 Walther Flemming, one of the greatest names in cytology, 
 author of the aphorism, Omnis nucleus e nucleo:
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 109 
 
 It was Henle, who in his researches and studies on epithelium, 
 made the most important references to the cellular construction of 
 animal tissue. How deeply he became absorbed in the general problem 
 of the cell theory is plainly evident from the fact that two years after 
 the publication of Schwann's book, he published his General Anatomy; 
 and one may say that this contained the first real, rational tissue theory 
 of the animal body, so comprehensive and many-sided, that it earned the 
 admiration of the entire biological world. If I may use a paradox, it 
 is not a work which can be accomplished in two years, and it shows 
 that Henle occupied himself with animal tissue in the sense of the cell 
 theory, long before it was proclaimed. 
 
 During his latter days in Zurich, Henle collaborated 
 with Kolliker in the publication of a monograph on the Pa- 
 cinian bodies (1844), and in this year appeared the first vo- 
 lume of Henle and Pfeufer's/oi/rna/ of Rational Medicine 
 (1844-69). The contents opened with Henle's belligerent 
 manifesto on Medical Science and Empiricism, and early is- 
 sues of the magazine contained his essays on hypertrophy 
 and tumors through checked resorption, wherein he explain- 
 ed the relationship between the blood and lymph streams, 
 and on tonus, cramp and paralysis of the bronchi and ex- 
 pe"ctoration, which was valuable for its observations on the 
 physiology and pathology of breathing, and for its demon- 
 stration of the contractility of the bronchi through the action 
 of the smooth musculature. The journal grew in influence, 
 and to later numbers Henle contributed his observations on 
 cylindroma-siphonoma, a new genus of tumor (1845), on the 
 absorption of narcotics through the lymphatics (1846), on 
 blood analyses, on Hassall's corpuscles (1849), on the cora- 
 cobrachialis muscle (1857), on the tissues of the suprarenals
 
 110 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 and hypophysis cerebri (1865). The Journal of Rational 
 Medicine existed for twenty-five years, and upon the death of 
 Pfeufer, Henle closed the magazine's career with the words: 
 "If our successes were helpful, if our errors served as warn- 
 ings, then the flag of Rational Medicine has not waved in 
 vain." 
 
 Apart from his periodical editorship, Henle was the an- 
 nual reviewer of medical progress, a task which was begun 
 in Berlin, and extended through the Heidelberg period, far 
 into the Gottingen times. These Yearly Reports were on 
 the progress of physiology, pathology and pathological ana- 
 tomy (1838-9), on pathology (1845-6), on histology (1844-8), 
 and on general and special anatomy (1849-55). The anato- 
 mical reports were published in Canstatt's Yearly Reports 
 until the publication passed into the hands of Virchow, and 
 Henle then continued these annual summaries of anatomy in 
 Henle and Meissner's Yearly Reports (1856-71). "One of 
 Henle's most important activities," said Leyden, "were his 
 Yearly Reports, a literary creation which ranks exceptionally 
 high, and is practically the only one of its kind. These Yearly 
 Reports were always looked forward to with great expecta- 
 tion." 
 
 Even as an annual reporter, Henle was too much alive 
 to be tedious, and if his Yearly Reports were not as calmly 
 indifferent as Hofmann-Schwalbe's, they were far more read- 
 able and stimulating. To offer simply the bare facts, to 
 abstract all the articles on a given subject and put down the 
 data without interpretation or comment, to present the status 
 of every topic with the routine impartiality of an index-
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 111 
 
 catalog, did not accord with Henle's idea of what an annual 
 report should be. He could not help becoming incensed at 
 statements which he knew to be unwarranted, and work which 
 he regarded as significant, aroused his enthusiasm. If cer- 
 tain points seemed dubious, Henle laid aside the pen, and 
 his scalpel or microscope either confirmed or confuted the 
 author he was reporting. 
 
 These reports became famous for their commentary, and 
 it is said that toward spring, at which time they appeared, 
 there was an annual uneasiness among authors, and they 
 turned the pages with shaky fingers to see how they had 
 passed the censorship of so keen a critic. "It is not of so 
 much importance," said Henle, "to write up pathologico- 
 anatomical facts; in this direction our report does not even 
 pretend to be complete, as it does not comprise all the scat- 
 tered and so-called interesting instances. On the other hand, 
 I am endeavoring to group together those discoveries which 
 promise to disclose facts regarding the nature and organic 
 foundation of disease phenomena, as well as experiments 
 which are made in order to bring the connection of the pheno- 
 mena upon the path indicated by physiology. As there are 
 not only facts to be taken into consideration, but also the 
 mode of the connection, theory and polemic cannot be avoid- 
 ed." In the numerous tilts that ensued, Henle was not in- 
 variably the victor. Virchow maintained that connective 
 tissue contains fully developed cells with all their attributes, 
 while Henle insisted that only the nuclei were present, and 
 that what Virchow mistook for complete cells were optical 
 delusions. He wrote:
 
 112 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 These optical delusions bring to mind the kind of pictures, which 
 were rather widely distributed after Napoleon's death. At first glance, 
 one sees an urn, and over it a drooping willow tree, and between the 
 two a low cypress; if, however, one looks at the white space which 
 these three objects create, one recognizes the profile of the figure of 
 Napoleon, and once we are accustomed to contemplate the white sil- 
 houette which surrounds the pictures, they themselves become mean- 
 ingless. Virchow's connective tissue corpuscles are vacant spaces, sur- 
 rounded by fibres or strata, which one overlooks or considers a homo- 
 genous mass when one becomes absorbed in contemplating the vacant 
 places. 
 
 In this dispute, Henle went down beneath the lance of 
 his junior, but the above-quoted paragraph is evidence that 
 Jacob Henle was delightful even when he was wrong. It is 
 due largely to these Yearly Reports that Henle's books are 
 so rich in references to the history and literature of the medi- 
 cal sciences. 
 
 Henle's chief contribution to pathology was his "Hand- 
 book of Rational Pathology" (1846-53). It is the product 
 of an intellectual revolutionist, and not only did it over- 
 throw antiquated systems, but it brought forward certain 
 speculations whose utility had not been fully established. 
 To those who argued that we should cling to the old dead 
 theories until the new ones proved to be of permanent value, 
 Henle proposed the following parable: 
 
 A pedant owned a nightingale for a long time, and had great 
 pleasure in its song. Then the bird died. The pedant found the 
 silence unpleasant, and went out to purchase another bird. There were 
 but a few pilfered nests in the market, and the vendors did not know 
 whether the eggs were fertile, or at least would not guarantee that
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 113 
 
 male birds would hatch; then too, the brood would require much atten- 
 tion before they grew up to be singers. The pedant thought this to be 
 too risky, and he went away saying that he would rather keep his dead 
 nightingale. This was conservative, but to what purpose? That the 
 care might be wasted on the young brood was possible, but that the 
 dead nightingale would never sing was certain. 
 
 Written in a graceful and brilliant style, opening with 
 the dictum, "The duty of the Physician is to prevent and to 
 cure diseases," studded with such epigrams as "The day of 
 the last hypothesis would be also the day of the last observa- 
 tion," and "An hypothesis which becomes dispossessed by 
 new facts, dies an honorable death; and if it has already call- 
 ed up for examination those truths by which it was anni- 
 hilated, it deserves a monument of gratitude," laughing the 
 medical devil out of existence and establishing rational con- 
 cepts of disease, the Handbook of Rational Pathology created 
 a sensation, and what made it of epochal importance was 
 its cardinal principle: "The physiology of the sick and of 
 the healthy are not different, physiology and pathology are 
 one." As Walther Flemming said: 
 
 There is no better testimonial of Henle's success than this: that 
 the principles which he, as a pathologist, fought for, have become a 
 part of us to such an extent that we forget there could ever have been 
 an opposition. For who knows to-day much of the natural-philoso- 
 phico-medical system, which was in vogue during Henle's youth? One 
 has to question the elders, as the young have but little time to devote 
 to the history of medicine. That the systems of those days are ancient 
 and already belong to history, is largely due to Henle. His reform-cry,
 
 114 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 Rational Pathology and Physiology are identical, became the watch- 
 word of all true physicians. 
 
 Henle's anthropological lectures at Heidelberg were ex- 
 ceedingly popular, and were attended not only by students of 
 all the faculties, but by such men as the historian Gervinus 
 and the Swiss Gottfried Keller, one of the foremost lyrists 
 and novelists in German literature. Henle first met Keller 
 in Switzerland, and remarked, "It was all one whether a 
 tame young bear or a poet had been sitting at the table with 
 us, for outside of some inarticulate growling, we heard noth- 
 ing else from him." After hearing Henle's anthropological 
 lectures, Keller interwove their essence into his chief novel, 
 Der grune Heimich. In his old age, it gave Henle much 
 pleasure to prepare his "Anthropological Lectures" (1876- 
 80) for the press. 
 
 After his settlement in Gottingen, when Henle felt that 
 the time had come for his main work, he undertook a com- 
 plete re-examination of the human body, a labor which he 
 completed after sixteen years of unremitting toil; his osteo- 
 logy (1855), was followed by syndesmology (1856), myology 
 (1858), splanchnology (1862-66), and neurology (1871), 
 these instalments comprising his three-volumed "Handbook 
 of Systematic Anatomy" (1855-71), which was followed by 
 an "Atlas" (1874-77), for use in the dissecting-room, and by 
 a condensed presentation of the subject, "Ground-plan of 
 Anatomy" (1880), later editions of which have been edited 
 by Merkel. Upon the publication of the great textbook, 
 Henle complained humorously that now he was compelled
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 115 
 
 to teach according to Henle. The illustrations, whose num- 
 ber and excellence impelled universal admiration, were drawn 
 by Henle himself, and the language of the text was classic. 
 "Henle," said Flemming, "was an orator with his pen as 
 well as in his academic chair." Henle advocated a neutral, 
 common-to-all, Latin terminology in science, saying "There 
 are other means of expression of love for the fatherland and 
 mother-tongue, than the sacrifice of time and tongue which 
 makes one say, instead of n., a., and v. cruralis, schenkelnerv, 
 schenkelpulsader, and schenkelblutader." Henle wrote on 
 the disadvantage of eponymic terms in anatomy, but his own 
 name is found on the bones, muscles, vessels and viscera of 
 the human body; examples, besides those already mentioned, 
 are Henle's spine, Henle's fissures, Henle's ligament, and 
 Henle's fenestrated membrane. 
 
 Special reference should be made to Henle's urogenital 
 work. He discovered cylindric casts in the urine ; pointed out 
 that varicocele is almost invariably left-sided; described the 
 expanded outer half of the Fallopian tube, known as Henle's 
 ampulla; the portion of the uriniferous tubule, known as the 
 canal of Henle; the granular mononuclear cells in the semi- 
 niferous tubules, known as Henle's cells; the fibrin formed 
 by precipitating semen with water, known as Henle's fibrin; 
 the remains of the gubernaculum surrounding the vas de- 
 ferens and vessels of the spermatic cord, known as Henle's 
 internal cremaster; and the striated muscular fibres encirc- 
 ling the prostatic and membranous urethra, known as Henle's 
 sphincter. But his most interesting find in this field was the 
 U-shaped turn of the uriniferous tubule which is formed by
 
 116 THE LIFE OF JACOB HENLE 
 
 a descending and an ascending loop-tube, known everywhere, 
 as Henle's loop. Concerning this discovery, the fortunate 
 Henle wrote one of his characteristic notes to Pfeufer: 
 
 It is about time, my dear friend, that I inform you of the good 
 fortune which has befallen me, of making a discovery in my old years, 
 which is far more surprising and remarkable than any other heretofore 
 made by me. Apart from the joy of having found something new in an 
 organ a thousand times investigated and settled, I also enjoy the 
 extraordinary satisfaction that my find is based on injection, and that 
 the colleagues who credit me merely with the gift of the tongue, can 
 no longer look down upon me from their injection-syringe. 
 
 Henle's medico-historical knowledge was extensive, and 
 he was intimate with many scientists who made history in 
 the nineteenth century, but he produced only three biographic 
 memoirs: on Albrecht von Haller (1872), on Ernst Heinrich 
 Weber (1878), and on Theodor Schwann (1882). In the 
 year of his jubilee, Henle's scientific work was nearing its 
 close, but in that year a man whom he had trained, and who 
 was deeply influenced by his theory of contagion, electrified 
 the world by his discovery of the tubercle bacillus. Forty 
 years earlier, Henle vainly searched for microorganisms in 
 typhoid cadavers, in smallpox material, and in the scales of 
 scarlatina, but by his fixing and staining methods, Robert 
 Koch substantiated his teacher's theories by demonstrating 
 bacillus after bacillus. 
 
 Henle's last publication was appropriately in anatomy, 
 a noteworthy monograph on the growth of the human nail 
 and the horsehoof (1884). In sending a copy to Waldeyer, 
 on the twenty-ninth of December, Henle wrote:
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 117 
 
 Enclosed is the child of my ageing loins; it is a great pleasure for 
 me to send you this, as it gives me an opportunity to renew our 
 neglected correspondence, and to inquire as to the state of your health. 
 I cannot say much for mine. Since the beginning of this semester, I 
 worry along with a leftsided intercostal neuralgia, which I have been 
 able to tame with morphium to the extent of being able to deliver my 
 lectures. Besides the physical suffering, it also causes me great sorrow 
 to find that it in no way conforms with my beautiful theory founded 
 on the process of vena hemiazygos, as the exacerbations are evidently 
 wholly independent of venous stagnations. . Under these conditions, the 
 days of our external existence pass in quietude and monotony. 
 
 In the coming spring, the old scientist reached the end 
 of his journey, but before he passed from the sight of men, 
 he had bequeathed to us the true knowledge of epithelium, 
 the rational outlook upon pathology, the germ-theory on 
 which we have built the corner-stone of modern medicine, 
 and the most comprehensive study of the human body that 
 had yet appeared. Sic itur ad astra, O Jacobus Henle! 
 
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