Sept. 6, 1888] 



NATURE 



439 



" Carnot was the first to assert the law that the ratio of 

 the maximum mechanical effect to the whole heat expended 

 in an expansive machine is a /unction solely of the two 

 temperatures at which the heat is respectively received 

 and emitted, and is independent of the nature of the 

 working substance. But his investigations, not being 

 based on the principle of the dynamical convertibility of 

 heat, involve the fallacy that power can be produced out 

 of nothing. 



" The merit of combining Carnot's law, as it is termed, 

 with that of the convertibility of heat and power belongs 

 to Mr. Clausius and Prof. William Thomson ; and in the 

 shape into which they have brought ;t, it may be stated 

 thus : The maximum proportio?i of heat converted into 

 expansive power by any machine is a function solely of 

 the temperatures at which heat is received and emitted by 

 the working substance, which function for each pair of 

 temperatures is the same for all substances in Nature." 



None will regret the loss of Prof. Clausius more 

 keenly than the students of the University of Bonn, 

 where he formed a centre of attraction not only as 

 a great investigator, but as a teacher of almost un- 

 rivalled ability. The secret of his powers as a 

 teacher may easily be guessed from the study 

 of his published papers and treatises. Their great 

 characteristic is the direct insight which they give into 

 the very heart of the physical principles under discussion. 

 The author, while showing himself a master of mathe- 

 matical methods, ever keeps the physical meaning of the 

 symbols before the eye of the reader, and never allows his 

 analysis !to carry him away into the regions of mere 

 mathematical ingenuity. In this he was a worthy compeer 

 of some of our own great mathematical physicists, like 

 Thomson and Maxwell, and the greater part of his work 

 has the additional advantage, for the majority of students, 

 of being effected by the aid of comparatively simple 

 analysis. 



In 1868, Prof. Clausius was elected a Foreign Member 

 of the Royal Society, and in 1879 he was presented with 

 the Copley Medal, the highest distinction at the disposal 

 of the Society. He was decorated with various civil 

 Prussian and Bavarian orders ; and after the Franco- 

 German war, during which he had volunteered to serve as 

 caretaker of the wounded, he received the German 

 decoration of the Iron Cross, and the French decoration 

 of the Legion of Honour. 



G. W. DE TUNZELMANN. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



Wednesday Night. 

 THE meeting of the British Association which opens 

 -■■ to-night, after twenty-four years' absence, in Bath, 

 will be the fifty-eighth. At the meeting of 1864, the 

 President was Sir Charles Lyell, and the occasion was 

 rendered memorable by the presence at once of Dr. 

 Livingstone and Bishop Colenso, both at the time filling 

 a large space in the public eye. Though a vast majority 

 of the members of the Association would prefer to visit 

 Bath to either Birmingham or Manchester, the latter towns 

 possess in Owens College and the Town Hall buildings 

 which offer greater conveniences for the meeting of a 

 scientific Congress. In Bath the Sections will be some- 

 what scattered. The Physical Science Section meets at 

 the St. James's Hall ; the Mechanical Section in the 

 Masonic Hall ; the Chemical Section in the Friends' 

 Meeting-House ; Geology and Biology are housed at the 

 Mineral Water Hospital, with the Blue Coat School for 

 the sub-sections ; Geography at the Guildhall, and Anthro- 

 pology at the Grammar School ; while the President's 

 address and some of the popular lectures, as well as the 

 concluding general meeting, will be delivered at the Drill 

 Hall. The Mayor gives a conversazione to-morrow in the 



Assembly Rooms, and the Chairman and Local Committee 

 give another on Tuesday. A large number of foreign 

 visitors, especially geologists for the International Geo- 

 logical Congress to be held in London on the 17th inst., 

 are expected. Amongst those already arrived are Prince 

 Roland Bonaparte; Profs. Dufont, Gilbert, Capellini, 

 Stephenson, Lory, von Koenen, Frazer, Kalkowsky, and 

 Waagen. 



The retiring President, Sir Henry Roscoe, M.P., F.R.S., 

 in introducing Sir Frederick Bramwell, the President- 

 Elect, spoke as follows: — 



" My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — Four-and-twenty 

 eventful years in the history of science have passed 

 away since the British Association last visited the 

 city of Bath. Those of us who were present here 

 in 1864 will not soon forget that memorable meet- 

 ing. It was presided over, as you all will re- 

 member, by that veteran geologist, that great fore- 

 runner of a new science of life, Sir Charles Lyell, of 

 beloved and venerated memory. Yes, ladies and gentle- 

 men, it was he who prepared the way by his recognition 

 of the true history of our globe for the even more illus- 

 trious Darwin. It was he who pointed out that the causes 

 which have modified the earth's crust in the past are, for 

 the most part, those which are now changing the face of 

 Nature. Lyell was a typical example of the expositor of 

 Nature's most secret processes. His work was that of an 

 investigator of science pure and undefiled, and as such, 

 his life and labours stand for ever as an example to 

 all those who love Science for her own sake. 



" But the far-seeing founders of this our British Associa- 

 tion were as fully alive to the fact as we, in perhaps our more 

 utilitarian age, can be, that, just as man does not live by 

 bread alone, so it is not only by purely scientific discovery 

 that the nations progress, or that science advances. They 

 knew as well as we do that to benefit humanity the appli- 

 cation of the results of scientific research to the great 

 problems of every-day life is a necessity. Hence our 

 founders, whilst acknowledging that the basis of our 

 Association can only be securely laid upon the principles 

 of pure science in its various branches, recognized the 

 importance of the application of those principles in the 

 establishment of a Section which should represent one of 

 the most remarkable outcomes of the activity and force 

 of the nation— a Section of Engineering. It is therefore 

 meet and right that in due proportion this great depart- 

 ment of our scientific edifice — a department which, 

 perhaps, more than any other, has effected a revolution 

 in our modern social system — should be represented in 

 our Presidential chair. 



" Twenty-four years ago it was pure science that 

 we honoured in Sir Charles Lyell : to-day it is 

 applied science to which we show our respect in 

 the person of Sir Frederick Bramwell. It would ill 

 become me, engaged as I have been in the study 

 of subjects far removed from those which fill the 

 life of an active and successful engineer, to venture on 

 this occasion on a eulogium upon the work of my succes- 

 sor, still less is it in my mind to draw any comparison as 

 to the relative importance to be attached to the work of 

 the investigator, such as Lyell, and to that of him who 

 applies the researches of others to the immediate wants 

 of mankind. It is enough for me, as I am sure it will be 

 for you, to remember that both classes of men are needed 

 for the due advancement of science, and to rejoice that as 

 in former years the names of Fairbairn, of Armstrong, 

 and of Hawkshaw, have adorned our list of Presidents, 

 so in the present instance, this branch of science, which 

 represents lines of human activity rendered illustrious 

 by the labours of many great Englishmen, is to-day 

 represented by our eminent President. 



" I have the honour of requesting Sir Frederick Bramwell 

 to take the chair, and to favour us with the Presidential 

 address." 



