ABSTRACT
Karl Abraham would have liked to make a profession of his hobby, comparative linguistics. In 1896, he took his leaving exams at the grammar school. Hilda Abraham writes in her biography that he began a dentistry course in Wurzburg but came home after the first semester and said he would prefer to study medicine. He demurred, but agreed to study dental medicine, and his father's brother Adolf offered to finance his studies. In Wurzburg, Abraham took part in all the sports previously forbidden to him. He went swimming, played tennis, and, in due course, took up mountaineering, the sport that would become his great passion. In Wurzburg, Abraham took the usual subjects for the first semester of a degree course in medicine, which included experimental physics taught by Professor Wilhelm Rontgen. In Wurzburg, Abraham took part in all the sports previously forbidden to him.
