444 Golden Wedding Presentation [June 17, 



but from my kind chemical friends, I told the story of my beginning 

 to be a Stradivarius. I said I was essentially a product of disease. 

 I think I was. In those days I could do nothing else. Consequently 

 I laboured to copy Stradivarius, with the idea of producing an 

 instrument on which I might learn to play, because up to that time 

 I had only been able to learn to play the flute. I did not know 

 what I was going to meet when I commenced to try to play the 

 violin ; but in any case the cart came before the horse, and in neither 

 case was it a success. 



I have discovered within the last few weeks that my wife had the 

 violin secreted in Cambridge, and I have had it repaired so that it 

 •can be examined. You will note the vanity of the maker, because 

 it is duly signed — my first authentic signature — "James Dewar, 

 1854." I imitated the Italian makers by signing my name, evidently 

 in order that it might not be forgotten. Now that it has been 

 repaired, I hope that when your Grace comes to the professorial 

 rooms to-night, as friends are in the habit of doing, you will see the 

 instrument ; but I am not going to pretend now to have retained 

 any of my qualities as an executant. Sir Alexander Mackenzie has 

 kindly sent two young ladies who will at any rate let you hear that 

 there is a chant du bois in it. This was the first experiment I made, 

 and it was one which taught me manipulative dexterity — the co- 

 ordination of hand and brain — which has been of the greatest use to 

 me in my scientific career. 



With regard to what your Grace has said of my achievements in 

 science, I feel overburdened with honour. My work has been an 

 absolute pleasure and delight to me. It has never engendered in me 

 a thought of anticipating reward. The crown of science is the joy 

 of its cultivation, and that is nowhere more exquisitely expressed 

 than by Shakespeare when he describes what in his day was certainly 

 the most advanced chemistry — namely, the. knowledge associated with 

 the medical faculty. I dare say many of you will remember the 

 quotation I am going to read ; it embodies the philosophy that has 

 always appealed to me as a guide in life. Shakespeare is describing, 

 through the mouth of Cerimon in Pericles, the qualities of the 

 physician : — 



" I held it ever, 

 Virtue and cunning were endowments greater 

 Than nobleness and riches ; careless heirs 

 May the two latter darken and expend : 

 But immortality attends the former, 

 Making a man a god. "Tis known, I ever 

 Have studied plrysick, through which secret art, 

 By turning o'er authorities, I have 

 (Together with my practice) made familiar 

 To me and to my aid, the blest infusions 

 That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones ; 

 And I can speak of the disturbances 

 That nature wcrks, and of her cures : which gives me 



