SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



473 



suit over the value of his services, he 

 was asked who was the greatest living 

 pliysicist, ho replied that he was. On 

 being askea afterwards if this did not 

 seem rather egotistical, he answered: 

 ' I had to tell the trutn, I was testify- i 

 ing under oath.' His personality was 

 attractive to those who knew him well 

 and understood his supreme absorption 

 in his own work. To others he doubt- 

 less seemed self-centered, somewhat 

 unsympathetic and undemonstrative. 

 FitzGerald appears to have had ex- 

 actly the opposite characteristics. 

 Physiognomy is extremely illusive, but 

 the portraits here given seem to indi- 

 cate the individualities of the two men. 

 FitzGerald was unselfish and self-sac- 

 rificing almost to a fault. Dr. Menden- 

 hall tells us in his commemorative 

 address that Rowland did not know 

 even approximately how many students 

 he had, and on being asked what he 

 would do with them, replied: 'Do with 

 them? — I shall neglect them.' But he 

 adds : ' To be neglected by Rowland 

 was often, indeed, more stimulating 

 and inspiring than the closest personal 

 supervision of men lacking his genius 

 and magnetic fervor.' FitzGerald sac- 

 rificed his research work to teaching, 

 to administration ' and to helping 

 others ; he was always ready to give 

 his ideas to students and to his friends. 

 He took no interest in questions of 

 priority and scientific credit. Rowland 



spoke of ' professors degrading their 

 chairs by the pursuit of applied sci- 

 ence.' FitzGerald said that it was a 

 small matter whether the human race 

 got to know about the ether now or 

 litty years hence, but that it was a 

 vital matter that present scientific 

 ignorance should not continue for a 

 generation. 



FitzGerald tended to devote himself 

 more and more to humaa affairs, giv- 

 ing much time to the Irish Education 

 Board and visiting this country to 

 observe our schools ; but the memorial 

 volume containing his collected papers 

 shows that he did contribute greatly 

 to our knowledge of the ether. He was 

 almost the first to appreciate fully 

 Maxwell's work and to carry it for- 

 ward, his memoir ' On the Electro- 

 magnetism of the Reflection and Re- 

 fraction of Light,' presented before the 

 Royal Society in 1888, being accepted 

 as a classic. Many of his other papers 

 contain important contributions and 

 suggestions, and the addresses should 

 be of interest to all those who are able 

 to appreciate the great forwai'd ad- 

 vance in our views on the nature of 

 electricity and the constitution of 

 matter. It may be noted as of inci- 

 dental interest that FitzGerald did not 

 go to school as a boy; his father was 

 an eminent bishop, and his mother a 

 sister of the mathematical physicist. 

 Professor Johnstone Stoney. 



