384 FKAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



of the French Academy of Sciences; and he received 

 from the Eoyal Society the Copley medal its highest 

 reward.* 



November 1878. 



At the meeting of the British Association at Glas- 

 gow in 1876 that is to say, more than fourteen years 

 after its delivery and publication the foregoing lec- 

 ture was made the cloak for an unseemly personal at- 

 tack by Professor Tait. The anger which found this 

 uncourteous vent dates from 1863, f when it fell to my 

 lot to maintain, in opposition to him and a more emi- 

 nent colleague, the position which in 1862 I had as- 

 signed to Dr. Mayer. In those days Professor Tait de- 

 nied to Mayer all originality, and he has since, I regret 

 to say, never missed an opportunity, however small, of 

 carping at Mayer's claims. The action of the Academy 

 of Sciences and of the Eoyal Society summarily dis- 

 poses of this detraction, to which its object, during his 

 lifetime, never vouchsafed either remonstrance or reply. 



Some time ago Professor Tait published a volume 

 of lectures entitled ' Eecent Advances in Physical Sci- 

 ence,' which I have reason to know has evoked an 

 amount of censure far beyond that hitherto publicly 

 expressed. Many of the best heads on the continent 

 of Europe agree in their rejection and condemnation 

 of the historic portions of this book. In March last 

 it was subjected to a brief but pungent critique by Du 

 Bois-Eeymond, the celebrated Perpetual Secretary of 

 the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Du Bois-Eeymond's 

 address was on ' National Feeling,' and his critique is 



* See 'The Copley Medalist for 1871,' p. 479. 

 f See ' Philosophical Magazine ' for this and the succeeding 

 years. 



