28a GREAT MEN OF SCIENCE 



have only one exception to mention: Tyndall, Faraday's 

 successor at the Royal Institution in London; he above all 

 deserves the credit for the fact that Mayer finally enjoyed 

 a few years of general recognition,^ 



Julius Robert Mayer was the third son of an apothecary 

 at the sign 'Zur Rose' in Heilbronn; he early showed signs 

 of a lively mind and receptive sense, and thus found for them 

 plenty of food in his home, where there was much physical 

 and chemical apparatus, a natural history collection, and 

 books of all kinds. As a boy he spent a great deal of time 

 in the open air, and also visited mills and factories in the 



Mayer, but he expressly stated that he did so because Joule was a fellow 

 countryman. This could not lead to much confusion, and we must also 

 recollect that before Thomson made his report in England, Joule's work 

 also remained unnoticed. 



1 For this reason we bring a portrait of Tyndall alongside that of Mayer. 

 Tyndall was in many respects similar to Alexander von Humboldt; only 

 as regards externals, a modestly reduced edition of him; Tyndall was a 

 highly effective representative of, and propagandist for, the highest view 

 of science and research. His lectures at the Royal Institution, which ap- 

 peared for the most part in print, and also in the German translation, give a 

 picture both charming and genuine of the state of scientific research at that 

 time. In one of these lectures to a large audience drawn from all circles 

 (Faraday was present) in the year 1862, he spoke in his own highly in- 

 teresting style on energy and its transformation, and at the conclusion 

 surprised his hearers with the remark, that everything of which he had 

 spoken had been woiked out quite independently by a German doctor, 

 Robert Mayer, in Heilbronn, whose name was probably unknown to his 

 heareis. He then added: 'When we consider the circumstances of 

 Mayer's life, and the period at which he wrote, we cannot fail to be 

 struck with astonishment at what he accomplished. Here was a man of 

 genius working in seclusion, animated solely by a love of his subject, and 

 arriving at the most important results in advance of those whose lives were 

 entirely devoted to Natural Philosophy.' 



Offence was taken in England over these remarks of Tyndall 's and he 

 was called to account publicly; but his opponents were silenced after his 

 last reply (1864): 'To allow Doctor Mayer to remain in the position in 

 which I found him would put the fault for that neglect upon me, from 

 which only a reference to the ignorance of his contemporaries could 

 liberate me. In every sentence which I have written in his favour, I was 

 conscious of the force that only a completely original mind is able to 

 offer, and without fear for his and for my faith, I now leave his reputa- 

 tion, and also my own behaviour with regard to it.' (See also Weyrauch, 

 op. cit., pp. 338-342, also Kleinere Schriften, from which we learn that it 

 was Clausius who made Tyndall acquainted with the too little known 

 writings of Mayer.) 



