200 
Sir Frederick Treves did not find it possible to show 
clearly in what exact respects the institute claimed to 
have made an advance. I imagine his remarks were 
intended to serve a double purpose—to explain the 
part that radium can play in disease and to show 
on what lines the institute had new information to 
publish. 
The conditions of lay journalism are such that the 
reporter is usually forced to estimate the value of 
claims put forward by considering the way in which 
they are presented, coupled with the standing of the 
speaker and of the institution that has given him a 
platform. Several papers have made the experiment 
of employing an expert in such matters, but on the 
whole the results have been disappointing. It is to 
be hoped that the episode, and your comments on it, 
will act as a warning for future occasions, and that 
in communications to the lay Press men of science 
will be more careful to pre- 
serve a proper perspective 
and to differentiate clearly | 
between new and already 
well-known facts. 
ONE OF THE REPORTERS 
PRESENT. 
r naan 
THE GLASGOW 
MEMORIAL TO LORD 
KELVIN. 
1% May, 1908, in re- 
sponse to a widely 
expressed opinion that a 
memorial should _ be 
erected to Lord Kelvin, a 
meeting was called by 
the Lord Provost of 
Glasgow to consider the | 
matter. This gathering, | 
representative of the city | 
and west of Scotland, re- | 
solved to mark in a fit- | 
ting and permanent form 
its sense of the manifold | 
benefits which Lord Kel- | 
vin’s researches and 
discoveries in physical 
science, and his patient 
application of the same 
to the common uses of 
man by sea and land, 
have conferred upon the world, by establishing 
a worthy memorial of him in the city where he 
lived and laboured. 
The desire thus expressed was amply accom- 
plished on Wednesday, October 8, in the presence 
of a large and distinguished assemblage, including 
many veterans of science trained under Lord 
Kelvin, and leaders in other departments of life, 
when the unveiling of the memorial statue was 
performed by the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 
K.C., M.P., Lord Rector of Glasgow University. 
The statue stands in Kelvingrove Park, at the base 
of the hill on which the University is built, facing 
S.E, towards the river Kelvin and the city. It 
represents Lord Kelvin seated with his familiar 
green book and pencil in hand, in a character- 
NATURE 
— a 
[OcToBER 16, 1913 
| Behind the figure are placed his binnacle and 
mirror galvanometer, with other emblems of his 
services to industry and science. The memorial 
is the work of Mr. A. McFarlane Shannan, 
Glasgow, and, in the words of Prof. Perry, asa 
faithful likeness and, what is more, as a work of 
art, it does all that art could do in awakening the- 
emotions of reverence and love felt by all who 
came closely in touch with the great master. 
At the unveiling ceremony, which took place 
at 11 a.m., a letter from Lady Kelvin was read 
expressing her regret at being unable to attend, 
and after a short introductory speech by the 
Lord Provost, Mr. Birrell began his address. He 
referred to William Thomson’s early life and 
training in Glasgow, and traced his close and 
Clay Model of Statue of Lord Kelvin in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow. Sculptor, Mr. A. McF, Shannan. 
life-long connection with the University, begin- 
ning as student, and ending its first stage as the 
| author of original memoirs at the age of eighteen. 
Then came the eventful interlude at Cambridge, 
and Mr. Birrell genially recalled how Thomson’s 
originality proved his undoing in the competition 
for the Senior Wranglership, and how “the 
ancient and eternal wrongs of the examination: — 
room” were mitigated later when Parkinson, 
despite his pace, was second Smith’s Prizeman.: 
Cambridge over, he returned to Glasgow to the 
professorship of natural philosophy, “a chair 
which he occupied and illuminated for half a 
century.” In closing the review of Lord Kelvin’s 
work in Glasgow as student, as investigator, and 
teacher, the Lord Rector added that he had said 
istic attitude as when at work on some problem. | enough, and far more than was necessary, to prove 
NO. 2294, VOL. 92] 
