ABSTRACT
In 1733 at the age of 33, Daniel Bernoulli was fi nally off ered a professorship in botany at his home university , the University of Basel , after several earlier failed attempts. Certainly, botany was not the subject that he would have chosen, but it was good enough. Most important, it was in Basel. He correctly expected to be able to trade it for a better fi eld later, although his uncle Jacob Bernoulli probably would not have approved of his opportunism. Although Daniel was reluctant to leave behind in St. Petersburg his friend Leonhard Euler , with whom he had worked so eff ectively for several years, he hated the harsh climate in Russia more than ever, and he yearned for his native Basel. How could a scientist who took such pleasure in the movement of fl uids bear to be stranded in that frozen wasteland for so many months of the year?
