384 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



the Eoyal Society the Copley medal its highest 

 reward. 1 



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 lecture 

 was made the cloak for an unseemly personal attack by 

 Professor Tait. The anger which found this uncour- 

 teous vent dates from 1863, 2 when it fell to my lot to 

 maintain, in opposition to him and a more eminent 

 colleague, the position which in 1862 I had assigned to 

 Dr. Mayer. In those days Professor Tait denied 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 Royal Society summarily disposes 

 of this detraction, to which its object, during his life- 

 time, never vouchsafed either remonstrance or reply. 



Some time ago Professor Tait published a volume of 

 lectures entitled ' Recent Advances in Physical Science,' 

 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-Reymond, 

 the celebrated Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of 

 Sciences in Berlin. Du Bois-Reymond's address was 

 on * National Feeling,' and his critique is thus wound 

 up: 'The author of the "Lectures" is not, perhaps, 



1 See < The Copley Medalist for 1871,' p. 479. 



See ' Philosophical Magazine ' for this and the succeeding years. 



