March 5, 1885] 



NA TURE 



411 



came to me and volunteered to assist in the investiga- 

 tion. I could not give them all work in the particular 

 investigation with which I had commenced — " The electric 

 convection of heit" — for want of means and time and 

 possibilities of arrangement, but I did all in my power to 

 find work for them on allied subjects (Electrodynamic 

 Properties of Metals, 1 Moduluses of Elasticity of Metals, 

 Elastic Fatigue, Atmospheric Electricity, &c.) I then 

 had an ordinary class of a hundred students, of whom 

 some attended lectures in natural philosophy two 

 hours a day, and had nothing more to do from 

 morning till night Those were the palmy days of 

 natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow — the 

 pre-Commissional days. But the majority of the class 

 really had very hard work, and many of them worked 

 after class-hours for self-support. Some were engaged 

 in teaching, some were city-missionaries, intending to 

 go into the Established Church of Scotland or some 

 other religious denomination of Scotland, or some of the 

 denominations of Wales, for I always had many Welsh 

 students. But about five and twenty of the whole number 

 found time to come to me for experimental work several 

 hours every day. In those days, as now, in the Scottish 

 Universities all intending theological students took the 

 "philosophical curriculum" — zuerst collegium logicum — 

 then moral philosophy, and (generally last) natural 

 philosophy. Three-fourths of my volunteer experiment- 

 alists used to be students who entered the theological 

 classes immediately after the completion of the philo- 

 sophical curriculum. I well remember the surprise of a 

 great German Professor when he heard of this rule and 

 usage : " What ! do the theologians learn physics ?" I 

 said, " Yes, they all do ; and many of them have made 

 capital experiments." I believe they do not find that their 

 theology suffers at all from having learned something of 

 mathematics, and dynamics, and experimental physics 

 before they enter upon it. I had then no other premises 

 than the old lecture-room and the adjoining apparatus 

 room. To meet my requirements for my new volunteer 

 laboratory corps, the " Faculty " i the then governing body 

 of the College) allotted to me an old wine-cellar, part of 

 an old professor's house, the rest of which had been 

 converted into lecture-rooms. This, with the bins swept 

 away, and a water-supply and a sink added, served as 

 physical laboratory (a name then unknown) for several 

 years, till the University Commissioners came and 

 abolished a certain old function of Glasgow University, 

 the " Blackslone Examination." The examination room 

 was left unprotected, its talisman, the old " Blackstone 

 Chair," removed. 1 instantly annexed it (it was very 

 convenient, adjoining the old wine-cellar and below the 

 apparatus room) ; and, as soon as it could conveniently 

 be done, obtained the sanction of the Faculty for the 

 annexation. The Black-tone room and the old wine-cellar 

 served well for physical laboratory till 1870, when the 

 University was removed from its old site imbedded in the 

 densest part of the city, to the airy hill-top on which it 

 now stands. In the new University buildings ample and 

 commodious provision was made for experimental work. 



In that good old time some students used to come to 

 me under the impression that the laboratory would prove 

 an agreeable lounge, where they could meet pleasantly 

 and spend the forenoon talking matters over. They were 

 soon undeceived as to its being a lounge for idly whiling 

 away time. I hope they were not altogether disappointed 

 when they thought it would be agreeable, and I almost 

 hope they found it even more agreeable than they ex- 

 pected. They certainly learned so nething of patience 

 and perseverance, if not much science, in the six months 

 of the College session. As a matter of general education 

 for those not going to practise medicine, was it of any 



1 Results up to 1S56 published under this title, as Bakerian Lecture for 

 1856 (Trans. R. S., and republished recently in vol. ii. of "Collected 

 Papers."- W l.i 



ue entering a chemical or physical laboratory? I found 

 as main as three-quarters of the students were destined for 

 service in the religious denominations in after-life. I have 

 frequently met some of those old students who had entered 

 upon their profession as ministers, and have found that they 

 always recollected with interest their experimental work 

 at the University. They felt that the time they had spent 

 in making definite and accurate measurements had not 

 been time thrown away, because iteducated them into accu- 

 racy, it educated them into perseverance if they required 

 such education. Some students even worked so hard in 

 my laboratory that I had to interpose for the sake of their 

 health. There is one thing I feel strongly in respect to 

 investigation in physical or chemical laboratories — it 

 leaves no room for shady, doubtful distinctions between 

 truth, half-truth, whole falsehood. In the laboratory 

 everything tested or tried is found either true or not true. 

 Every result is true. Nothing not proved true is a result ; 

 — there is no such thing as doubtfulness. The search for 

 absolute and unmistakable truth is promoted by laboratory 

 work in a manner beyond all conception. It is a kind of 

 work in which also patience and perseverance are pro- 

 moted in a most marked degree. No labour must be 

 shrunk from ; everything must be carefully done. There 

 is this which is satisfactory about it : that perseverance is 

 sure to be rewarded. There is no failure in physical 

 science. We do not always find the particular thing 

 looked for ; we often find that what we looked for does 

 not exist, or that something else exists very different from 

 what we expected to find ; but that something is to be 

 found in any investigation entered upon with intelligence 

 and pursued with perseverance, is a certainty ; and also 

 that that something is not valueless follows as a matter of 

 course. Every additional knowledge of the properties of 

 matter is of value. 



A large part of the work of a physical or chemical 

 laboratory must be measurement. That might seem 

 rather trying work ; " harsh and crabbed" shall we say? 

 Who cares to measure the length of a line in land survey- 

 ing, or of a piece of cord, or of ribbon, or of cloth ? These 

 may not be in themselves essentially interesting occupa- 

 tions ; but if it becomes necessary to measure something 

 smaller than can be seen with the eye, the measurement 

 itself becomes an object to inspire the worker with the 

 greatest ardour. Dulness does not exist in science. 

 What do you think of a measurement of something 

 you can only gauge by inference from the perform- 

 ance of the apparatus tested in some peculiarly subtle 

 way? The difficulties to be overcome in physical science 

 in mere measurement are teeming with interest. Pro- 

 perties of matter, or forces to be contended with, oblige 

 us to be always digressing. We cannot go on saying — 

 " We will think of nothing but the object before us." 

 Every person who aims at one object of course perse- 

 veres until he attains it ; but he keeps his mind open until 

 he can return to some other object never thought of at first, 

 but which thrust itself on him as a difficulty occurring in 

 the pursuit of the first object. The very disappointments 

 in attaining objects sought after in the investigations of 

 physical science are the richest sources of ultimate profit, 

 and present satisfaction and pleasure, notwithstanding the 

 difficulties and disappointments contended with. But I 

 am afraid I am taxing your patience too much. I will 

 only just say with reference to physical laboratories that 

 they are now advancing to something of the method and 

 consistent system that Thomas Thomson and Liebig so 

 greatly gave to chemical laboratories. I, myself, have 

 not done so much as I might have done in that way. 

 The physical laboratory at Glasgow has, I believe, been, 

 more than most others, devoted to whatever work oc- 

 curred in physical investigation, measuring properties of 

 matter, comparing thermometers, electrometers, galvano- 

 meters, and doing other practically useful work. We put 

 the junior students at once into investigations, and let 



