WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 109 



have listened, with great interest and pleasure to his address 

 regarding the work of our most highly respected and esteemed 

 member, the late Sir Charles Wheatstoue. He has done it, 

 I consider, in a very masterly manner. I have read other 

 notices regarding the work of Sir Charles Wheatstone, amongst 

 others the address of M. Tresca before the French Academy, and 

 I have taken part in a memorial addressed by the Royal Institu- 

 tion in his honour, but I have not hitherto found his works 

 recorded in such a temperate, just, and complete manner as has 

 been done this evening by Mr. Clark. We should honour the 

 dead, but we should also be just with regard to them, and, 

 whilst we avoid fulsome praise, we should take care to give them 

 fairly and fully that amount of credit which is due to them. 

 In the case of Sir Charles Wheatstone that amount of credit is 

 very large indeed. Sir Charles Wheatstone laboured during a 

 period of between thirty and forty years incessantly in the field 

 of science, and his fertile mind has produced results such as few 

 have been allowed to attain ; therefore, he can well afford to 

 have his work justly dealt with, and they need not be increased 

 or diminished by one iota. There are one or two points men- 

 tioned by the President which I think could hardly be claimed 

 for Sir Charles Wheatstone. I would mention the one regarding 

 the effect of electricity in capillary tubes. Sir Charles Wheat- 

 stone followed up the experiments on that subject with his usual 

 energy, but I believe the idea was first suggested at Frankfort by 

 Professor Lippmann. I think our President will be too glad to 

 correct any excess of credit ; it would not be a credit to Wheat- 

 stone, but rather detract from his real merits, if anything that 

 was not fairly due to him was attributed to him. I think, how- 

 ever, on the whole, we have heard an address regarding the work 

 of Sir Charles Wheatstone which deserves to live amongst us as a 

 lasting record of the work of one of the greatest men this 

 century can boast of. I beg to propose that our President be 

 requested to allow his address to be printed and circulated amongst 

 the members. 



