PREFACE. xvii 



new chair thus formed and to superintend the erection of the laboratory. In October, 

 1871, he delivered his inaugural lecture. 



The Cavendish Laboratory, so called after its founder, the present venerable chief of 

 the family which produced the great physicist of the same name, was not completed 

 for practical work until 1874. In June of that year it was formally presented to the 

 University by the Chancellor. The building itself and the fittings of the several rooms 

 were admirably contrived mainly by Maxwell himself, but the stock of apparatus was 

 smaller than accorded with the generous intentions of the Chancellor. This defect must 

 be attributed to the anxiety of the Professor to procure only instruments by the best 

 makers and with such improvements as he could himself suggest. Such a defect therefore 

 required time for its removal and afterwards in great measure disappeared, apparatus being 

 constantly added to the stock as occasion demanded. 



One of the chief tasks which Maxwell undertook was that of superintending and 

 directing the energies of such young Bachelors of Arts as became his pupils after 

 having acquired good positions in the University examinations. ' Several pupils, who have 

 since acquired distinction, carried out valuable experiments under the guidance of the 

 Professor. It must be admitted, however, that the numbers were at first small, but perhaps 

 this was only to be expected from the traditions of so many years. The Professor was 

 singularly kind and helpful to these pupils. He would hold long conversations with them, 

 opening up to them the stores of his mind, giving them hints as to what they might try 

 and what avoid, and was always ready with some ingenious remedy for the experimental 

 troubles which beset them. These conversations, always delightful and instructive, were, 

 according to the account of one of his pupils, a liberal education in themselves, and were 

 repaid in the minds of the pupils by a grateful affection rarely accorded to any teacher. 



Besides discharging the duties of his chair, Maxwell took an active part in conducting 

 the general business of the University and more particularly in regulating the courses of 

 study in Mathematics and Physics. 



For some years previous to 1866 when Maxwell returned to Cambridge as Moderator 

 in the Mathematical Tripos, the studies in the University had lost touch with the great 

 scientific movements going on outside her walls. It was said that some of the subjects most 

 in vogue had but little interest for the present generation, and loud complaints began to 

 be heard that while such branches of knowledge as Heat, Electricity and Magnetism, were 

 left out of the Tripos examination, the candidates were wasting their time and energy 

 upon mathematical trifles barren of scientific interest and of practical results. Into the 

 movement for reform Maxwell entered warmly. By his questions in 1866 and subsequent 

 years he infused new life into the examination ; he took an active part in drafting the 

 new scheme introduced in 1873 ; but most of all by his writings he exerted a powerful 

 influence on the younger members of the University, and was largely instrumental in 

 bringing about the change which has been now effected. 



VOL. I. C 



