Herman was a self-educated man who eventually qualified in medicine and became a country doctor. His scholarly interests in debates on evolution during his day led him to name the first of his three children after British philosopher Herbert Spencer. Reading was the most important amusement for young Herbert and his siblings, Mary and Harold. Gasser was also adept at handicrafts, and proved it by setting up a shop to make furniture. His efforts to learn photographic techniques using a simple box Kodak camera formed the first of his scientific intrigues.
After attending State Normal School, Gasser received two degrees in science at the University of Wisconsin, a bachelor's degree in zoology in 1910, and a master's in anatomy in 1911. However, Gasser's future interests were determined by a physiology course in the University's newly organized medical school. The young lecturer who emphasized the new spirit of research in medicine was Joseph Erlanger, the man with whom Gasser would share the Nobel Prize thirty-three years later. Though Gasser rejected the medical career his father had chosen, he became intrigued by medicine as a scientific discipline. In 1915, he earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, where he conducted research on blood coagulation in his spare time.
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