Jan. 28, I 



NATURE 



307 



they were in their own days. Descartes' method of co-ordinates 

 is a possession for ever. But mathematics has never been cul- 

 tivated more zealously and diligently, or with greater success 

 than in this centur)- — in the last half of it or at the present time ; 

 the advances made have been enormous, the actual field is 

 boundless, the future full of hope. In regard to pure mathematics 

 we may most confidently say, 



" ' Vet rdoubt not thro* the ages one increasing purpose runs. 



And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.' " 



Many who hesitate to assent to these views of the relation o' 

 pure mathematics to civilisation, have no hesitation whatever in 

 lauding applied mathematics, especially astronomy and physics ; 

 and no wonder, for within the memory of this generation, the 

 world has gained these five results of physical science, steam 

 locomotion, telegraphy, telephony, photography, and electric 

 lighting. The first three, it may be said, have revolutionised 

 the methods of human intercourse ; the fourth has multiplied 

 infinitely the means of communicating knowledge to the brain 

 by what Sir William Thomson, following John Bunyan, has 

 termed the Eye-gate ; and the fifth, still in its dawn, includes 

 possibilities of illumination, which we are not likely to exaggerate. 

 But I have no time to eulogise these recent gains of civilisation ; 

 every word I can spare must be given to emphasise the fact, 

 which is most likely to be forgotten, that these wonderful in- 

 ventions are the direct fruit of university studies. I do not 

 undervalue the work of practical men when I say that the most 

 brilliant inventor who ever lived has been dependent upon an 

 unseen company of scholars, the discoverers and the formulators 

 of laws which he has been able to apply to methods and instru- 

 ments. Nor do I forget that Faraday, like Shakespeare, was 

 not a university man. But I mean to say that the manifold 

 applications of science, about which everybody is talking, are 

 only possible because of the abstract studies which universities 

 promote. The electromagnetic inventions which are now so 

 multiform are only possible because scores of the greatest in- 

 tellects of the century, one after another, have applied their 

 powers of absolute reasoning to the interpretation of phenomena 

 which could have been elucidated in any part of the world, and 

 at any epoch of the past, if only the right methods had been 

 employed. As long as universities held aloof from experimental 

 sciences, these discoveries were not made, but when laboratories 

 for investigation were established, an alliance w.os formed by 

 mathematics and physics, and a new type of intellectual workers 

 was produced, men whose hands were as cunning to construct 

 and make use of instruments, as their brains were cunning to 

 develop the formulas of mathematics. Take the splendid list 

 i/f leaders who have followed Franklin and Rumford. They 

 may be called the school of Sir Isaac Newton, so much of their 

 inspiration is due to him. Not all were trained in academic 

 wall-i ; but mt one failed to derive help from the advantages 

 which universities provide and perpetuate. 



One of the greatest of these men. Sir William Thomson, has 

 lately been here. He was invited to come because it was 

 believed that he, more than any other foreigner, could give an 

 impulse to the study of physics in this country. His lectures 

 were on a subject so remote from ordinary thought that I do not 

 suppose its announcement conveys to those who are unfamiliar 

 with the present position of physical inquiries, the least idea of 

 what the lecturer was to talk about. Nevertheless, so great was 

 the attraction of his powers, that a large company, two or three 

 from England, one from Japan, several from beyond the 

 AUeghanies, and many from this neighbourhood, most of them 

 teachers and professors of physics, here assembled daily for a 

 month to catch what they could of his learning and his enthusiasm. 

 His words were taken down and have been given to the public 

 in the form of lecture notes, and have thus reached already the 

 principal seats of learning abroad and at home, but the chief 

 results of his visit will be seen as the years go on in the increased 

 devotion of his followers to their science, and in their emulation 

 of his enthusiasm and concentration. Could I give you a more 

 interesting example of the way in which a university may 

 encourage physical science ? 



Notwithstanding all the progress in physics and astronomy 

 which has been made during a century, those who know the 

 most about these subjects will assure us. that they .are but at the 

 alphabet of their science. Read the address of the .\strononier 

 of Princeton, on a recent occasion, in which he enumerates the 

 impending problems of astronomy ; or that of one of our own 

 staff, when he reviews the condition of electrical science, and 

 declares that ■' as the region of the unknown is infinitely greater 



than the known — there is no fear of there not being work for 

 the whole world for centuries to come ; " and he adds (to please, 

 I suppose, the practical men) that in the applications of science, 

 "the telephone, the telegraph, and electric lighting, are but as 

 child's play to what the world will see." 



Chemistr)' is the child of the nineteenth century. The atomic 

 theory, which lies at the foundation of all modem investigations, 

 was announced by Dalton, — (that English Friend after whom it 

 would not be amiss to name our chemical laboratory " Dalton 

 Hall,' as a tribute alike to his eminence and to the society in 

 which our founder was also trained), — Dalton's law, I say, was 

 announced between 1804 and 1808, so that we can trace more 

 distinctly than in most sciences the exact influences under which 

 chemistry has grown up. Alchemy, the search for gold or for 

 the philosopher's stone, never became a science, and contributed 

 very little to the good of man ; but when the universities of 

 Europe, with their trained observers, their methods of accurate 

 work, their habit of publication, and especially their traditional 

 principles of co-operative study, directed their attention to the 

 fundamental laws of atomic combination, the science of chemistry 

 grew with rapidity, and with benefits to mankind which can 

 never be enumerated. To no man were its early days more 

 indebted than to Liebig — " of organic chemistry the very source 

 and fountain-head " — good as a thinker, good as an investigator, 

 good as a lecturer, but better still, as one of his most illustrious 

 pupils has informed us, "in the peripatetic teaching of his 

 laboratory." 



" It was at the small University of Giessen," says Hofmann, 

 from whom I have just quoted, that " Liebig organised the first 

 educational laboratory that was ever founded. This school 

 forms an epoch in chemical science. It was here that experi- 

 mental instruction such as now prevails in our laboratories 

 received its earliest form and fashion, and if we are proud of the 

 magnificent temples raised to experimental science in all our 

 schools and universities, let it never be forgotten that they all 

 owe their origin to the prototype set up by Liebig, half a century 

 ago." The world appreciates the results which have proceeded 

 from these laboratories — let it also be remembered that they 

 were the creation not of industrial fabrics, not of mercantile 

 corporations, not even of private enterprise, but of universities, 

 and that the motive which inspired their founders and directors 

 was not the acquisition of wealth, but the ascertainment of 

 fundamental law. 



The science which began with the century is going forward 

 more rapidly than ever. Vet, if we examine a recent exposition 

 of the principles of theoretical chemistry, we may discover that 

 here, as in mathematics and in physics, the most expert perceive 

 that the field which is open to investigation is much vaster than 

 that which has been surveyed. Here, as everywhere else, the 

 higher one ascends the greater his horizon. What good is to 

 come to men from these researches it would not be wise to 

 predict ; but we may reflect on what has recently occurred. 

 Within the last few months a boon has been conferred on 

 humanity so great that all the cost of all the laboratories of all 

 the lands in Christendom would have been a small price to pay 

 for so precious a pearl. It came into the world never again to 

 leave it, unheralded, unexpected, from the laboratory of science, 

 to deaden for a few moments and then restore to life the organs 

 of the sight, so that operations on the eye, hitherto dreaded, may 

 be performed without the slightest pain. The chemists may 

 modestly say that this discovery was an accident not to be com- 

 pared in significance with the discovery of Avogadro's law. 

 That ma)' be so, yet this sort of accident does not happen in 

 Africa or the Fiji Islands, — it "happens" where there are 

 universities and laboratories, and trained men able and ready 

 to observe, discover, and apply. 



The hour has passed, and I have hardly introduced a theme 

 which would be more appropriate for a volume than for a 

 discourse. I have not spoken of the study of the structure of 

 the earth, the physics of the globe, the laws of storms, the con- 

 stituent rocks and minerals of the earth, the record of life hidden 

 in ancient strata, the living kingdoms of animals and plants, the 

 distribution of the races of men, the progress of archaeology — or 

 of innumerable subdivisions in the great branches of human 

 knowledge. Such a task would be beyond my powers ; I have 

 only attempted to suggest what each one of you may study for 

 the rest of your lives, as you watch the growth of universities 

 and the progress of knowledge. I have purposely left for 

 another occasion all questions pertaining to professional and 

 technical education. 



