THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF GEORGE SIMON OHM. 255 
We have thus far striven to set forth in hasty outline what Ohm has 
been to science, without mentioning more of the other circumstances of 
his life than were necessary to an understanding of his scientific serv- 
ices. This has seemed permissible because, on the one hand, Lamont in 
1855 delivered from this place an address which also covered the bio- 
eraphical points of his career. On the other hand, another member of 
our academy, Privy Councilor von Bauernfeind, a pupil and friend of 
the one immortalized, in his ‘* Memorial address on Ohm,the physicist,” 
has given us acomplete presentation of the life of his teacher, drawn 
from reliable sources and from personal acquaintance. 
The deeds of a scientist are his scientific investigations. Truth once 
discovered does not remain shut up in the study or the laboratory. 
When the moment comes it bursts its narrow bonds and joins the quick 
pulse of life. That which has been discovered in solitude, in the 
unselfish struggle for knowledge, in pure love of science, is often 
fated to be the mighty lever to advance the culture of our race. When 
nearly a hundred years ago Galvani saw the frog’s leg twitch under 
the influence of two metals touching, who could have suspected that 
the force of nature which caused those twitchings would transfer the 
thoughts of man to far distant lands, with lightning’s speed, under the 
the waters of the ccean—would even render audible at a distance the 
sound of the spoken word! That this force of nature—after man by 
ceaseless investigation had learned to vastly increase its strength— 
would illuminate our nights like the sun! This enormous development 
of electro-technology, which we have followed with amazement in the 
last decades, could only be accomplished upon the firm foundation of 
Ohm’s law. For only he can govern a force of nature who has mastered 
its law. Ohm by wresting from nature her long-concealed secret has 
placed the scepter of this dominion in the hand of the present. 
This great service of Ohm and the fundamental importance of his 
law, as well for the science as for the technology of electricity, are to-day 
generally recognized. In order permanently to honor his memory, the 
international congress of electricians, assembled at Paris in 1881, deter- 
mined to call **an ohm” the unit of resistance to conduction, then fixed 
and now generally accepted, after the name of him who introduced this 
important conception into the science and technology of electricity. 
Thus it happens that the name of the modest scientist who never strove 
for show or glory is to-day upon the lips of the thousands who are busy 
in our highly developed electro-technical industries. 
Although this ideal monument is the most beautiful and the most 
lasting, yet the duty of gratitude seems to urge that posterity, which 
has gathered the rich fruit of his industry as an investigator, should 
also honor the memory of the great physicist with a visible monument. 
This idea was suggested by the hundredth anniversary of Ohm’s 
birth, which we are to-day tardily celebrating. In order to carry it 
