90 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



turning-point in the history of the subject and to have 

 laid the foundation of our present ideas of the theory 

 of electrolysis. 



The following letters (translated) from Helmholtz 

 indicate the great amount of trouble which he took 

 in connection with this lecture : 



November 2 1st, 1880. 

 HONOURED FRIEND, 



I am quite ready to give the Faraday Lecture for 1881 

 if it can be arranged to take place between the I5th March 

 and the 22nd April. Of late I have been working partly 

 upon electrolysis and partly upon electro-dynamics, more or 

 less on Faraday's lines, and I will try how much of this I can 

 make suitable for chemists without becoming too abstract. 



I saw our old friend in Heidelberg in September. He was 

 well and happy, although he speaks about wishing to retire. 



My kindest regards to your wife. 



Yours, 



H. HELMHOLTZ. 



January $rd, 1881. 

 HONOURED FRIEND, 



If the Council of the Chemical Society already wish to 

 publish the title of my Faraday Lecture, I think of calling it 

 something like this : " The Modern Development of Faraday's 

 Ideas on Electricity." Can you think of a better English 

 expression for it? (Die neuere Entwickelung von Faraday's 

 Vorstellungen vom Wesen der Elektricitat}. If so, please 

 suggest it. I will write my address in English. If you will 

 then kindly take the trouble to read it through and correct all 

 that does not please you, I should be very grateful to you. I 

 do not as yet know how far I dare attempt to perform experi- 

 ments. In a strange place with strange apparatus it is always 

 risky. Besides that, Professor Tyndall writes me that there 

 will only be an hour between the closing of the last lecture 

 and the beginning of mine, and therefore that would give but 

 little time for preparation. The phenomena of which I shall 

 have to speak are undoubtedly known to most chemists, and 

 I shall probably only have to set out the apparatus in order 

 to explain what I mean shortly and quickly. 



