RT Journal
T1 EMil fischer
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1919
FD August 16
VO 73
IS 7
SP 536
OP 536
DO 10.1001/jama.1919.02610330074014
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1919.02610330074014
AB In his biographic study of "Great Men," Ostwald divides scientists into the classical and the romantic types. To the former belong such men as Helmholtz and Faraday, who were characterized in their work by steadily advancing from one firm base to another in logical, systematic manner. Pasteur may perhaps be regarded as a most striking representative of the romantic type, which advances suddenly at the call of visions to brilliant success or, more often, except in the case of the most gifted, to dismal failure. Emil Fischer, whose death we recorded two weeks ago, was distinctly of the classical type. His achievements, while exceedingly brilliant, were in every instance the outcome of work systematically planned and developed, following step by step logical processes to an anticipated conclusion. Rarely, if ever, has any scientist accomplished a series of great tasks with so few deviations from the straight road toward each goal