244 INTRODUCTORY LBCTUBE ON EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS. 



Experiments of this class those in which measurement of some kind is 

 involved, are the proper work of a Physical Laboratory. In every experiment 

 we have first to make our senses familiar with the phenomenon, but we must 

 not stop here, we must find out which of its features are capable of measure- 

 ment, and what measurements are required in order to make a complete 

 specification of the phenomenon. We must then make these measurements, 

 and deduce from them the result which we require to find. 



This characteristic of modern experiments that they consist principally of 

 measurements, is so prominent, that the opinion seems to have got abroad, 

 that in a few years all the great physical constants will have been approxi- 

 mately estimated, and that the only occupation which will then be left to men 

 of science will be to carry on these measurements to another place of decimals. 



If this is really the state of things to which we are approaching, our 

 Laboratory may perhaps become celebrated as a place of conscientious labour 

 and consummate skill, but it will be out of place in the University, and ought 

 rather to be classed with the other great workshops of our country, where equal 

 ability is directed to more useful ends. 



But we have no right to think thus of the unsearchable riches of creation, 

 or of the untried fertility of those fresh minds into which these riches will 

 continue to be poured. It may possibly be true that, in some of those fields 

 of discovery which lie open to such rough observations as can be made without 

 artificial methods, the great explorers of former times have appropriated most 

 of what is valuable, and that the gleanings which remain are sought after, 

 rather for their abstruseness, than for their intrinsic worth. But the history 

 of science shews that even during that phase of her progress in which she 

 devotes herself to improving the accuracy of the numerical measurement of 

 quantities with which she has long been familiar, she is preparing the materials 

 for the subjugation of new regions, which would have remained unknown if 

 she had been contented with the rough methods of her early pioneers. I might 

 bring forward instances gathered from every branch of science, shewing how 

 the labour of careful measurement has been rewarded by the discovery of new 

 fields of research, and by the development of new scientific ideas. But the 

 history of the science of terrestrial magnetism affords us a sufficient example 

 of what may be done by Experiments in Concert, such as we hope some day 

 to perform in our Laboratory. 



That celebrated traveller, Humboldt, was profoundly impressed with the 



