486 The Faraday Centenary, [June 26, 



affection — while I look to liim with love and honour — what I wanted 

 to say is that I think he has done quite rightly in giving you the 

 scientific side of these wonderful discoveries, and showing you the 

 way in which they are growing and giving us a better knowledge of 

 the condition of matter. When Faraday first made experiments like 

 these, some wiseacres said : What is the use of it ? Faraday replied ; 

 " Will you tell me what is the use of a baby ? " But Faraday's baby 

 has centred around it all the ho2)es and desires of the parents that 

 produced it, and the State also has shown much interest in its up- 

 bringing. The bodies that appear in those tubes have become 

 important factors in the progress and industry of the world. The 

 carbonic acid, which I recollect first seeing as a little globule of acid, 

 is now carried in cylinders filling railway trucks, and is applied to 

 many purposes, some important, others more useful than important. 

 For instance the liquid carbonic acid enables barmaids to get beer 

 up from the cellars below without pumping it ; that nitrous oxide 

 which we were so interested in as a condensed gas is now largely 

 used by dentists as a means of extracting our teeth without pain ; 

 sulphurous acid will, I am certain, become most important in war, 

 for if you took a brittle shell filled with liquid sulphurous acid and 

 threw it between the decks of a ship it would produce such a stink 

 that everybody would disappear in a moment. The time is coming 

 when other gases will be used in this way. Their importance does 

 not altogether consist in their applications to industry, though they 

 are becoming very important in that way. But their importance is 

 that they are teaching us more of the constitution and properties of 

 matter ; it is in that respect that they are becoming so interesting in 

 the eyes of scientific men. I have been extremely interested in 

 watching the production of that liquid oxygen. I looked upon it 

 with great respect, and wondered to see it not covered with a cage as 

 if likely to go off at any moment in a terrific exj^losion. But it is 

 produced in such a manner that its own cold keeps it down, and so 

 we saw it handled in the most marvellous way as an ordinary liquid. 

 I have the utmost pleasure in seconding the vote of thanks to Prof. 

 Dewar for the brilliant exposition which he has given us. 



The Chairman then put the motion, and it was carried with 

 acclamation. 



Prof. Dewar in reply said : My Lord Duke, my Lords, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen, — I am exceedingly indebted to you for the very kind way 

 in which you have referred to the labours of the lecturer. I can 

 assure you that it has been a source of great pleasure to me, and 

 that in fact I have had the least part to do. This kind of illustration 

 cannot possibly be given without means of various kinds, and there 

 are several benefactors whom I should like to mention in connection 

 with this lecture. First of all, Dr. Anderson gave the pumps which 

 enabled me to compress and evaporate such volatile bodies ; secondly, 

 we require machinery to set those pumps in motion, and somebody to 

 look after it, and that has been supplied by the kindness of Mr. Kobert 



