INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS. 249 



seen, or to calculate the best arrangement of some experiment which he means 

 to make, is likely to meet with far less distraction of mind than if his sole 

 aim had been to sharpen his mind for the successful practice of the Law, or to 

 obtain a high place in the Mathematical Tripos. 



I have known men, who when they were at school, never could see the 

 good of mathematics, but who, when in after life they made this discovery, 

 not only became eminent as scientific engineers, but made considerable progress 

 in the study of abstract mathematics. If our experimental course should help 

 any of you to see the good of mathematics, it will relieve us of much anxiety, 

 for it will not only ensure the success of your future studies, but it will make 

 it much less likely that they will prove injurious to your health. 



But why should we labour to prove the advantage of practical science to 

 the University ? Let us rather speak of the help which the University may 

 give to science, when men well trained in mathematics and enjoying the advan- 

 tages of a well-appointed Laboratory, shall unite their efforts to carry out some 

 experimental research which no solitary worker could attempt. 



At first it is probable that our principal experimental work must be the 

 illustration of particular branches of science, but as we go on we must add to 

 this the study of scientific methods, the same method being sometimes illustrated 

 by its application to researches belonging to different branches of science. 



We might even imagine a course of experimental study the arrangement of 

 which should be founded on a classification of methods, and not on that of the 

 objects of investigation. A combination of the two plans seems to me better 

 than either, and while we take every opportunity of studying methods, we shall 

 take care not to dissociate the method from the scientific research to which it 

 is applied, and to which it owes its value. 



We shall therefore arrange our lectures according to the classification of the 

 principal natural phenomena, such as heat, electricity, magnetism and so on. 



In the laboratory, on the other hand, the place of the different instruments 

 will be determined by a classification according to methods, such as weighing 

 and measuring, observations of time, optical and electrical methods of observa- 

 tion, and so on. 



The determination of the experiments to be performed at a particular time 

 must often depend upon the means we have at command, and in the case of 

 the more elaborate experiments, this may imply a long time of preparation, during 



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