Low-Temperature Research. 699 



HODGKINS TRUST. 



Essay by Miss Agnes M. Clebke. 



Low-Temperature Research at the Royal Lnstitution, 1893-1900. 



Early in 1895 the late Mr. Thomas G. Hodgkins presented to the 

 Royal Institution a sum of 100,000 dollars,* as a source of income to 

 be employed in the " investigation of the relations and co-relations 

 existing between man and his Creator." On the ensuing 6th of 

 February the Managers resolved to carry out the intentions of the 

 donor, by devoting the resources thus placed at their disposal to the 

 work of the Institution, which, having for its aim the attainment of 

 truth, constitutes an effective means of " directing thought to the 

 source of all knowledge." 



" In der Schopfung," Kepler wrote, " greife ich Gott, gleichsam mit 

 Handen " ; and Faraday reflected, " with wondering awe," on the 

 powers of interrogating nature " given by the Almighty to man." 

 These great men were no mere transcendentalists. The lofty aspect 

 under which they viewed physical research may indeed be temporarily 

 forgotten, but cannot permanently be lost sight of, for it corresponds 

 to an invincible human instinct. Law formulates intelligent purpose ; 

 and the laws of nature are an expression of the Will of God. In 

 tracing them out, man seeks, more or less consciously, the infinite ; 

 and his capability of tracing them is derived solely from the 

 analogy of his mind with the Creative Mind, which designed a uni- 

 verse assumed by the necessities of thought to be a " cosmos " — an 

 orderly arrangement, such as his faculties can apprehend. Were it 

 unplanned, or planned according to a method incomprehensible by 

 human reason, science would have no locus standi : life should be 

 conducted on purely empirical principles. As a fact, however, we 

 find the world essentially intelligible ; and, by striving to enlarge the 

 limits of its intelligibility, we promote the purpose of the Creator in 

 placing us there, and, following in the track of His primal conceptions, 

 bring our inchoate ideas more and more into harmony with them. 

 The object of the present paper is to show what has been done 

 towards this end at the Royal Institution, during the last seven years, 

 under the terms of the Hodgkins Trust. 



Research at low temperatures has long been recognised as the 

 characteristic task of the establishment. Resuming, after the lapse 

 of a third of a century, the traditions of Davy and Faraday, Professor 

 Dewar gave a new stamp to his operations by the enlargement of 



* Investment in Consols amounts to 17,986£. Is. 



