WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 207 



selenium produces a noise comparable with that produced by a 

 Nasmyth hammer ; and it is quite feasible that the impressions 

 received through the retina of the eye, and the nervous system 

 uviicrally, would be equally susceptible of being recorded in the 

 cerebral storehouse. The record itself might be supposed to be of 

 a mechanical, or, more probably, of a molecular character, the one 

 th inn' important being that it must be material. 



These observations are, no doubt, extremely crude, but may 

 serve possibly to direct the attention of physiologist? to a point of 

 interest to their science ; nor would it be the first occasion on 

 which a phenomenon of inanimate nature had revealed the secrets 

 of animate organisation. 



C. WILLIAM SIEMENS. 



ADDRESS 

 Of C. WILLIAM SIEMENS, D.C.L., P.R.S.,* 



President of the Iron and Steel Institute, delivered at the Paris 

 Meeting on the IGth September, 1878. 



THE Iron and Steel Institute has, from its very origin, assumed 

 a somewhat cosmopolitan character. Not only has it devoted a 

 considerable portion of its proceedings to the record of achieve- 

 ments in foreign countries, but it counts among its members 

 foreign metallurgists and others connected practically with the 

 treatment of iron and steel, who, although not able frequently to 

 attend our meetings, appear through their adhesion to appreciate 

 our labours. Belgium is represented upon our list by no less a 

 personage than the enlightened King of that country, while of our 

 other foreign members I need only mention, in this place, the 

 well-known names of Akermann of Sweden ; Kolokoltzoff of 

 Russia ; Krupp of Essen ; Harmann and Lurmann of Oenabriick ; 

 Tunner of Leoben ; d'Allemagne and d'Andrimont of Liege ; 



* Excerpt Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1878, pp. 307-314. 



