MAPHEMA TIAL PHYSICS. Os. 
THE SCOPE AND METHOD OF MATHEMATICAL 
PHYSICS. 
By Proressor R. ©. Macnavrin, M.A., LL.M., Victoria 
Un niversity College, Wellington, N.Z. 
Turse are the vords of a disting ee French man of 
letters: —‘‘ When at Oxford, some years ago, during the 
meeting of the British Association, I met, amongst the few 
students still in residence, a young Englishman, a man of 
intelligence, with whom I became intimate. He took me 
in the evening to tae New: Museum, weil filled with speci- 
mens. Here short lectures were‘delivered, new models of 
machinery were set to work; ladies wére present, and took 
an iterest in the experiments. On the last day, full of 
enthusiasm, ‘God Save the Queen’ was sung. I admired 
this zeal, this solidity of mind, this organisation of science, 
these voluntary subscriptions, this aptitude for association 
and for labour, this great machine pushed on by so many 
arms, and so well fitted te accumulate, criticise, and classify 
facts; but yet, im this abundance, there was a void. When 
1 read the pete ene I thought I was present at a com 
ess of heads of mauufacieries. All these learned men 
verified details and Bie ged recipes. It was as though 
I hstened to foremen, busy im communicating their pro- 
cesses for tanning leather cr dyeing cotton; yeneral ideas 
were wanteg.” 
I give yon this quotation, not because I entirely agree 
with it, but becsuse it draws atenuee te a possible defect 
that we migot well remedy. nr sim is to advance science. 
ec dtoiris this. The first is to win 
Now, there are two ways cf 
ene!) wistnariee in +3 2 Xa Teawzye gle N 2 is 
small victories in the various departments. o one with « 
knowledge of facts wouid dream of disparagmg this method, 
2 = 
for it is mainly by lis means that se science has acquired that 
accurate oe led “2 ot the worid that is the secret cf mast 
of its practic f owever, we must net forgat 
‘chat Pies 1s ancther Footbed and one that is certainly not 
jess important than the first. “That is, to discover and to 
disseminaie the ee principles—what we cali ‘“iaws ’— 
that sum wp our experiences. Fortunately. there is no neel 
to discuss the relative merits of these two methods—science 
cannot advance without both; but there are several reasons 
why discussions on general principles should be more fre- 
quent, at meetings such.as this, than they are. (1) They 
