In a word, Müller appreciated fully the mystery of life, faced the problem of it directly, stated it in unequivocal terms, and by so doing saved the rising science of biology from wandering off into speculations which were seductive enough at that time, but which would have proved vain and wasteful of time and investigative energy. Müller's influence on his students was sufficient in this matter to set the seal of vitalism, as it is called, on most of the biological work done in Germany about the middle of the century, and it was a recurrence to his observations and his methods which led the reaction to vitalistic theories that characterized the concluding years of the nineteenth century. With regard to the significance of Müller's work, Professor Du Bois-Reymond, himself a pupil of Müller, in his memorial {243} address delivered before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin in 1859, [Footnote 8] says: "It has been objected by those who insist on the greatness of Müller's reputation that he himself made no discovery that can be said to be of the first rank. Müller's fame is great enough for us to allow that there is something true in this objection. He accomplished more in developing the ideas of others than in original research of his own. That he did not make any great discovery is, however, rather due to the fact that he came at a time when great discoveries were no longer lying around loose as they had been in the preceding century, waiting to be made, as it were; and what he accomplished was of more value than one or two single discoveries of primary importance. He made the original ideas of other men so clear that they were at once accepted by all the medical and scientific world. In this way he furthered the progress of medicine better than any devotion, however successful, to one single feature could possibly have accomplished. [Footnote 8: Gedächtnissrede auf Johannes Müller, von Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Berlin, Buckdruckerei der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Dummler), 1860.] "Müller made mistakes, but then who ever fails to make mistakes in the face of nature? As a rule, however, he hit the nail on the head. There are many suggestive thoughts from him that the investigators of later times have proved to be true. He suggested, for instance, that there must necessarily be some connection between the ganglionic bodies and the nerve stems. He suggested, also, that there must be a special nerve system for the intestinal tract. Later discoveries in physiology have established both of these thoughts and have shown that Müller had so entered into the spirit of nature and her processes as to be able to think her thoughts. There is no doubt that there are suggestions in {244} his writings, especially those of the later years of his life, which will give a series of triumphal substantiations of the same kind."