OVERSEAS MEETINGS 125 



We scarcely dare to regard the famous series of 

 Baltimore lectures, delivered by Sir William Thomson 

 (Kelvin), as a ' side-issue ' of the Montreal meeting, 

 for the invitation to deliver them had been tentatively 

 accepted for the previous year. They were given 

 at the instance of the authorities of Johns Hopkins 

 University, in the October following the Montreal 

 meeting of the Association, at which Thomson 

 presided over Section A (Mathematics and Physics), 

 and a specially important discussion took place on 

 the seat of the Voltaic electromotive force. The 

 Baltimore lectures dealt with the wave theory 

 of light, ' with the intention of accentuating its 

 failures ' -thus Thomson himself expressed their 

 purpose, while fully recognising the fine qualities 

 of the theory. Certainly, however, the occasion of 

 the lectures gained in interest from the fact that it 

 followed upon the meetings, not only of the British 

 Association in Montreal, but also of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science in 

 Philadelphia. Thomson and other British represen- 

 tatives were present at the latter meeting, and from 

 it a notable company proceeded to Baltimore to 

 swell Thomson's audience. This included Rayleigh 

 and a number of leading physicists, both American 

 and British. ' I felt ' -thus Thomson wrote in a 

 later year ( that our meetings were to be conferences 

 of co-efficients, in endeavours to advance science, 

 rather than teachings of my comrades by myself. 5 

 The Baltimore lectures were the culmination of a 

 wonder-year of scientific conference between physicists 

 of the old world and the new. 



