This volume presents forty-three letters. In so doing, it reveals two intertwined themes: Helmholtzs love for his family and his lively cultural and social life as well as the course of his medical education at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institut in Berlin and his progress towards becoming a fully accredited medical doctor and, eventually, university scientist. The extensive annotations identify all persons, things, and events mentioned by Helmholtz in the letters. Taken as a whole, Helmholtzs letters to his parents reveal a vivid, compelling portrait of a young man who was soon to become one of the central figures in German (and European) scientific and cultural life during the second half of the nineteenth century.