AND MODERN PHYSICS. 47 



The summer of 1856 was spent at Glenlair, 

 where various friends were his guests Lushington, 

 MacLennan, the two cousins Cay, and others. He 

 continued to work at optics, electricity, and magnetism, 

 and in October was busy with " a solemn address or 

 manifesto to the Natural Philosophers of the North, 

 which needed eoftee and anchovies and a roaring hot 

 fire and spread coat-tails to make it natural." This 

 was his inaugural lecture. 



In November he was at Aberdeen. Letters* to 

 Miss Cuy, Professor Campbell, and C. J. Munro tell 

 of the work of the session. The last is from Glenlair, 

 dated May 20th, 1857, after work was over. 



" The session went off smoothly enough. I had Sun, all 

 the beginning of optics, and worked off all the experimental 

 part up to Fraunhofer's lines, which were glorious to see with 

 a water-prism I have set up in the form of a cubical box, five 

 inch side. . . . 



"I succeeded very well with heat. The experiments on 

 latent heat came out very accurate. That was my part, and 

 the class could explain and work out the results better than I 

 expicted. Next year I intend to mix experimental physics with 

 mechanics, devoting Tuesday and THUKSDAY (what would 

 Stokea say ?) to the science of experimenting accurately. . . . 



" Last week I brewed chlorophyll (as the chemists word it), 

 a green liquor, which turns the invisible light red. ... 



" My hust grind was the reduction of equations of colour 

 which I made last year. The result was eminently satis- 

 factory." 



Another letter,t June 5th, 1857, also to Munro, 

 refers to the work of the University Commission and 

 the new statutes. 



* IJfo of J. C. Maxwell," p. 2G7. 

 t " Lifo of J. C. Maxwell,' 1 p. 2C9. 



