JULIUS ROBERT MAYER. 397 



nutritious products of culinary art, with the further merit that it can 

 be more rapidly prepared than any other dish, must really at present 

 he regarded as an exotic. Competent instruction at first and a little 

 practice are required, in order to attain a mastery in producing an 

 omelet ; but, these given, there is no difficulty in turning out a first- 

 rate specimen. The ability to do this may be so useful in the varied 

 circumstances of travel, etc., that no young man destined for foreign 

 service, or even who lives in chambers, should fail to attain the easily 

 acquired art. Nineteenth Century. 



-*-*- 



JULIUS EOBERT MAYEK. 



THE name of the remarkable man whose likeness we give in this 

 number of the " Monthly " is now intimately and imperishably 

 associated with the establishment of the most important scientific 

 truth that has been developed during the last hundred years the 

 " Conservation of Energy." It is a truth belonging exclusively to no 

 one man, and to no one nation, but to an epoch of scientific advance- 

 ment that was made by the labors of many distinguished investigators 

 working independently of each other in different countries. In such 

 circumstances it is easy to fall into error in estimating the merits of 

 alleged discoverers. In the first place, there may be very great differ- 

 ences in the positions of men as respects favorable opportunities of 

 making their work known. There is besides less familiarity with 

 what is going on in foreign countries than near by ; and there is, moie- 

 over, the warping influence of national prejudice by which the claims 

 of men are liable to be exaggerated at home and depreciated abroad. 

 There is undoubtedly less of this bias in science than in any other 

 sphere of intellectual exertion, but this sphere is by no means free 

 from it. It was the fortune of Mayer to suffer from all these causes, 

 and to such a degree that his character as an original discoverer has 

 been denied on very high authority. The ground was strenuously 

 maintained that he had no right whatever to a place among the found- 

 ers of the great modern doctrine of the " Correlation of Forces." This 

 denial led to investigation and sharp controversy, the result of which 

 was not only to vindicate his claims to be ranked among the discov- 

 erers of the new principle, but it was shown that he was probably 

 ahead of all others in grasping and developing it. Now that he has 

 passed away, it is proper to review the subject, which may prove in- 

 structive as a chapter of scientific history, as well as interesting in its 

 personal bearing. As we find the investigation thoroughly worked 

 out and most admirably presented in the searching controversy which 

 has now become memorable in the annals of discovery, we shall quote 



