468 The Faraday Centenary. [June 17, 



the waves described by Faraday. For some time he failed absolutely 

 to observe the phenomenon, but after a while he was perfectly well 

 able to recognise it. He mentioned that as an example of Faraday's 

 extraordinary powers of observation, and even now he doubted 

 whether anybody but himself and Faraday had ever seen that pheno- 

 menon. 



Many matters of minor theoretic interest were dealt with by 

 Faraday, and reprinted by him in his collected works. He was 

 reminded of one the other day by a lamentable accident which 

 occurred owing to the breaking of a paraffin lamp. Faraday called 

 attention to the fact, though he did not suppose he was the first to 

 notice it, that by a preliminary preparation of the lungs by a number 

 of deep inspirations and expirations, it was possible so to aerate the 

 blood as to allow of holding the breath for a much longer period than 

 without such a preparation would be possible. He remembered 

 some years ago trying the experiment, and running up from the 

 drawing-room to the nursery of a large house without drawing any 

 breath. That was obviously of immense importance, as Faraday 

 pointed out, in the case of danger from suffocation by fire, and he 

 thought that possibly the accident to which he alluded might have 

 been spared had the knowledge of the fact to which Faraday drew 

 attention been more generally diffused. 



The question had often been discussed as to what would have 

 been the effect upon Faraday's career of discovery had he been subjected 

 in early life to mathematical training. The first thing that occurred 

 to him about that, after reading Faraday's works, was that one would 

 not wish him to be anything different from what he was. If the 

 question must be discussed, he supposed they would have to admit 

 that he would have been saved much wasted labour, and would have 

 been better en rapport with his scientific contemporaries if he had 

 had elementary mathematical instruction. But mathematical train- 

 ing and mathematical capacity were two different things, and it did not 

 at all follow that Faraday had not a mathematical mind. Indeed, 

 some of the highest authorities had held (and there could be no 

 higher authority on the subject than Maxwell) that his mind was 

 essentially mathematical in its qualities, although they must admit 

 it was not developed in a mathematical direction. With these words 

 of Maxwell he would conclude : — " The way in which Faraday made 

 use of his idea of lines of force in co-ordinating the phenomena of 

 electric induction shows him to have been a mathematician of high 

 order, and one from whom the mathematicians of the future may 

 derive valuable and fertile methods." 



Sir William Thomson, in moving a vote of thanks to Lord 

 Eayleigh for his lecture, said that the Eoyal Institution was during 

 the last part of Faraday's life, and during the whole of his scientific 

 career, his home. The splendid results of Faraday's labours con- 

 tributed in no small degree to the scientific glory of the 19th 

 century, and helped to make it one of the most prolific periods in 



