56 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



dance, and we none of us thought that he could 

 manipulate. In this, however, we were soon un- 

 deceived, for though as a rule his hand was on 

 the shake, his muscles sometimes had what may be 

 termed lucid intervals, and then he used quickly to 

 make his circuit complete, and arrange his apparatus, 

 and then begin shaking again. He afterwards greatly 

 distinguished himself by working on the alloys, as also 

 by the preparation of the metals of the alkaline earths. 

 He worked also in the physical laboratory, especially 

 on the redetermination of electrical constants. He was 

 remarkable for his intense application in spite of his 

 physical infirmities, and during the winter used 

 frequently to sit up all night in the cold laboratory at 

 a temperature far below freezing point, in order that he 

 might make accurate determinations, which he could 

 not do in the day-time, owing to the vibrations caused 

 by passing vehicles. My friend, the late Dr. Atkinson, 

 used to tell a story which indicates the confidence 

 placed in Matthiessen by the custodian of the physical 

 laboratory. Atkinson, desiring to make use of a 

 particular instrument, asked Matthiessen to give him 

 an introduction to the custodian, which he did, adding : 

 "If you tell him that you are a friend of mine, he will 

 let you unscrew every piece of apparatus in the place." 

 Poor Matthiessen came to a sad end, for he poisoned 

 himself with hydrocyanic acid years afterwards at Bart's, 

 where he became Professor of chemistry and where he 

 was succeeded by Russell. He was scientific up to 

 the last, and drank the poison mixed with soda water, 

 so that death came to him easily as in sleep. 



Most of us were soon working at original re- 

 search, and the number of interesting papers which 

 were published from that laboratory during the first 

 five years of Bunsen's appointment in Heidelberg 



