ii8 



NATURE 



[Dec. i8, 1873 



the rank of major at 20 years of age. The part he took 

 in connection with the American rebellion excited popu- 

 lar indignation against him, led to his imprisonment, the 

 confiscation of his property, and his subsequent flight from 

 home shortly after the birth of his daughter. He never 

 saw his wife again, nor did he see his daughter until 

 20 years afterwards, when she rejoined him in Europe. 



At the age of 23, he appears in a new character upon 

 another scene. He is now a diplomatist, presenting his first 

 state paper to Lord George Germaine in London. He steps 

 at once into a responsible position in the Colonial Office, 

 and presently becomes the " Secretary of Georgia." In 

 the meantime he is doing important scientific work, is 

 elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1779, when 26 

 years of age, and suddenly appears on board the Victory 

 as a volunteer sailor under Sir Charles Hardy, e.'cperi- 

 menting with ship's guns, and writing treatises on naval 

 signals and naval architecture. In the following year he 

 is promoted to the office of " Under Secretary of State 

 for the Northern Department " (Colonial). 



Thirteen months after this he re-appears in military 

 uniform as Lieut.-Colonel Thompson commanding " The 

 King's American Dragoons," and profoundly occupied 

 with experiments upon light artillery, &c. Before 1781 

 is ended, we find him on the other side of the Atlantic 

 with his dragoons on Long Island, and fighting in the 

 neighbourhood of Charleston at the beginning of 1782. 

 In April we hear of him in New York, and presently find 

 that he has returned to England promoted to the rank of 

 full colonel, and otherwise honoured for his American 

 services. 



In the midst of all this activity and excitement he is 

 busily engaged in scientific research chiefly upon subjects 

 connected with gunpowder, bullets, and artillery. With his 

 characteristic exaltation of present pursuits he is now 

 consumed by military ardour, and, dissatisfied with his 

 late inglorious outpost skirmishing in America, obtains 

 appointment for active service in the defence of Jamaica 

 against the French, but is frustrated by the temporary 

 pacific re-action that suddenly prevails. He offers to serve 

 in India, but the Government has become economical. 

 Determined to fight somebody, he selects the Turks, with 

 whom Austria is temptingly disposed to quarrel, and, 

 having obtained the King's permission, proceeds to Vienna, 

 with war-horse, arms, and uniform. Halting oji his way he 

 creates considerable sensation by appearing as a visitor 

 on the garrison parade at Strasburg, displaying his 

 handsome figure, brilliant English uniform, and his skil- 

 ful management of an English blood-horse. Field-Mar- 

 shal Prince Maximilian de Deux Fonts rides up to the 

 stranger, salutes, and asks a few questions. Thompson, 

 with the polished courtesy and tact of which he is so 

 accomplished a master, turns this introduction to good 

 account, secures the friendship of the Prince, who is so 

 strongly impressed with the varied attainments of the 

 brilhant soldier, that he presses him to pass through 

 Munich on his way to Vienna and visit the reigning 

 Elector of Bavaria, an uncle of the Prince. 



The visit is made most successfully, and, with ad- 

 ditional introductions, Thompson proceeds to Vienna with 

 a ready-made continental reputation, though only a few 

 weeks old. Here, as he says, " I owe to a beneficent 

 Divinity that 1 was cured in time of that martial folly.'' 



The agent or Divinity of this reformation, was a lady, 

 who, as he says, " formed an attachment to me, gave me 

 wise advices, and imparted a new turn to my ideas, by pre- 

 senting me in perspective other species of glory than that 

 of conquering battles." It is proper to add, in expla- 

 nation, that the lady was seventy years of age. 



In the meantime the Elector of Bavaria invites 

 Thompson to enter his service. For an English officer 

 to do this, permission from the king was necessary. 

 This was obtained in London, and with it the honour of 

 knighthood, which was conferred in February 1 784, with 

 a continuance of half-pay as colonel. 



Sir Benjamin Thompson proceeds immediately to 

 Munich, and there enters upon the most remarkable part 

 of his extraordinary career. The task which he set 

 before himself in Bavaria was nothing less than a com- 

 plete reformation and re-organisation of the army, and a 

 general improvement of the physical and social condition 

 of the whole nation. Invested with full powers by the 

 Elector he sets about bis work in a strictly philosophical 

 manner. The first four years — 17 84 to 1788 — are devoted 

 to a cool, impartial, and systematic investigation of the 

 social statistics and general condition of all classes, civil 

 and military, in Bavaria. Having thus inductively col- 

 lected and generalised his data, he now proceeds deduc- 

 tively to devise his remedies for the evils thus demon- 

 strated. In all his efforts, from the improvement of 

 saucepan-lids and gridirons to the moral reformation of 

 a whole nation of human beings, he is rigidly methodical 

 and strictly scientific, and his success follows as a direct 

 and visible consequence of this scientific mode of pro- 

 ceeding. 



His well-known and important researches on the 

 Convection and general Transmission of Heat were 

 undertaken and carried out mainly for the purpose of 

 determining the best and most economical means of 

 clothing the Bavarian soldiers,and the construction, warm 

 ing and ventilation of their barracks. Another equally im- 

 portant though less known series of researches were insti- 

 tuted for the purpose of learning how to feed in the most 

 economical manner the beggars, rogues, and vagabonds, 

 whose sustenance and reformation he had projected. 



His success in reorganising both the men and mate- 

 rials of the army was marvellous. It was in the course 

 of his work in erecting cannon foundries and remodelling 

 the Bavarian artillery that his celebrated demonstration 

 of the immateriality of Heat was suggested. 



Itjmay safely be affirmed that the foundation of the 

 present military system and of the recent military suc- 

 cesses of Germany was laid by Benjamin Thompson in 

 Bavaria. He tells us that the fundamental principles 

 upon which he proceeded were " to unite the interest of 

 the soldier with the interests of civil society, and to 

 render the military force, even in times of peace, subser- 

 vient to the public good ;" and further, " that to establish 

 a respectable standing military force which should do the 

 least possible harm to the population, morals, manufac- 

 tures, and agriculture of the country, it was necessary io 

 make soldiers citizens, and citizens soldiers.'" 



Besides the important technical reforms of discipline, 

 arms, barracks, quarters, militar)' instruction, &c., which 

 he carried out, " schools were established in all the regi- 

 ments, for the instruction of the soldiers in reading, 



