CHAP. XL] ITALY, CAMBRIDGE. 325 



We met accidentally at Florence, and I remember 

 his mentioning two things as having particularly 

 struck him amongst the innumerable objects of 

 interest at Eome. He had looked at the dome of St. 

 Peter's with an eye of sympathetic genius, 1 and his 

 ear for melody had been satisfied by "the Pope's 

 band." He acquired Italian with great rapidity, and 

 amused himself with noticing the different phonetic 

 values of the letters in Italian and English. 2 One of 

 his chief objects in learning the language was to 

 be able to converse with Professor Matteucci, whose 

 bust now stands in the Campo Santo at Pisa. During 

 the same tour he took special pains to improve his 

 acquaintance with French and German. The only 

 language he had any difficulty in mastering was Dutch. 



In the years 1866, 1867, 1869, and 1870, he was 

 either Moderator or Examiner in the Mathematical 

 Tripos at Cambridge, where his influence was more 

 and more felt. His work on these occasions was, 

 indeed, a principal factor in the movement, to be 

 hereafter described, which led ultimately to important 

 changes in the Examination system ; to the creation 

 of the Cavendish Laboratory ; and to the foundation 

 of the Chair of Experimental Physics. 



His paper on the Viscosity of Gases, printed in 

 the Phil. Trans, for 1866, had been delivered by him 

 as the Bakerian Lecture for that year. 



1 The tone in which he spoke of this brought home to me, more 

 than anything I have seen in books, the joy of Michael Angelo in 

 etherealising the work of Brunelleschi. 



2 On learning from our teacher, Sign. Briganti, the pronunciation 

 of suolo, he said, "That is the English for rondinella" 



