June 25, 1896] 



NA TURE 



177 



appreciate the versatility of faculty, the exhaustless energy, and 

 the tenacity of purpose which have enabled you to grapple 

 successfully with problems the most varied, and to reveal to us 

 on every side the reign of order and law. In the midst of all 

 you have endeared yourself to us by the graces of your personal 

 character, notably by that simplicity which, unniarred by 

 honours or success, remains the permanent possession of trans- 

 cendent genius, and by that humility of spirit which, the clearer 

 the vision of truth becomes, bows with the lowlier reverence 

 before the mystery of the universe. 



My Lord, the contemplation of a past so rich in achievements 

 and honours encourages your colleagues to look forward to the 

 future in the hope that you may have health and strength to win 

 new triumphs in years to come, and long to remain among us the 

 ornament and the glory of our ancient University. 



William Stewart. 



Clerk of Session. 



The address from the Royal Society was presented by 

 the President, Sir Joseph Lister, Bart., and the Treasurer, 

 Sir John Evans, K.C.B. It ran as follows : — 



The Royal Society. 



Dear Loro Kelvin, — The President, Council, and Fellows 

 of the Royal Society desire, on the happy occasion of the jubilee 

 of your Professoriate in the University ol Glasgow, not only to 

 be represented, as they are, by their highest officers, the Presi- 

 dent and Treasurer, but also to assure you, by some direct words, j 

 of the warm sympathy of the whole Society. 



There is no need to dwell on the many ways in which you I 

 have contributed to that improvement of natural knowledge to 

 secure which the Society was founded, or on the many valuable ' 

 communications with which you have enriched the .Society's 

 records. Since you first joined the Society, and the jubilee of 

 that event is not far oft", the Society has always known how ' 

 much your belonging to it has added to its strength ; but it has ' 

 lieen especially during the recent five years, which went too ; 

 swiftly by, while you filled in so admirable a manner the chair 

 of President, that the Society has felt how close are the ties 

 which bind it to you and you to it. 



We ask you to receive our heartiest congratulations on the 

 present glad event, and our warmest wishes for your welfare in 

 the years yet to come. 



(Signed) Joseph Lister, Pres. R.S. 



When the presentation of addresses had been com- 

 pleted, Professor Moody Stuart, Dean of the Faculty of 

 Law, amid great and prolonged applause presented Lord 

 Kelvin for the degree of Doctor of Laws. " As a memorial," 

 he said, "of this day, the Senate desire to confer on Lord 

 Kelvin the highest honour they have to bestow, by placing 

 his illustrious name on the roll of Doctors of Laws of the 

 University." 



The cer.emony of capping was performed by Professor 

 Gairdner, amid a renewed outburst of cheering. 



Lord Kelvin thereafter took the chair as Senior Pro- 

 fessor in the University, and proceeded to confer the 

 remainder of the honorary degrees. 



Prof. Moody Stuart, in presenting ihe recipients, said : — 

 The Senate desire to commemorate this occasion by con- 

 ferring the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on some of the 

 distinguished men of science from the continent of Europe, 

 from the United States of America, and from the British 

 Colonies, who have honoured the University by their presence 

 today. In the name of the Faculty of Law, and by authority 

 of the Senate, I have now the honour of presenting them for 

 this degree. 



Prof. Cleveland Abbe, head of the Meteorological Office, 

 Washington, distinguished for his important contributions to 

 astronomical and meteorological science. 



Prof. Christian Christiansen, Copenh.-igen, author of many 

 important (lapers on physical science, and of a most beautiful 

 experimental illustration of differences of refractivity at different 

 temperatures. 



Prof. Per Theodore Cleve, of Upsala, long esteemed as one 

 of the most notable workers in chemical and mineralogical 

 science. Mis name has become known to a wider public in 

 connection with the discovery of helium in the mineral Cleveite 

 named after him. 



His Kxcellency General Annibale Ferrero, Ambassador to 



NO. I. 39 1. VOL. 54] 



this country from His Majesty the King of Italy. General Ferrero 

 is specially eminent in mathematical and geodetical science,^ 

 and, notwithstanding the engrossing duties of his high office, 

 continues to take his part in the scientific work to which his 

 life has been devoted. 



Prof. Izidor Frohlich, of the University of Buda-Pesth and- 

 Academy of Sciences, Buda-Pesth, who has published a large 

 number of important papers on physical optics and on electricity. 



Prof. Gabriel Lippmann, of the Sorbonne, Paris, inventor of 

 the capillary electrometer and discoverer of the principles of 

 true colour photography. 



Prof Archibald Liversidgc, of the University of Sydney, 

 New South Wales, Dean of Faculties in that university, dis- 

 tinguished as a traveller, a chemist, and a geologist. 



Prof. Eleuthere Mascart, official head of meteorology in 

 France, a physicist of great reputation, and author of a very 

 important treati.se on electricity. 



Prof Henri Moissan, of the University of France, one of the 

 most originative and practical of modern chemists. 



Prof Simon Newcomb, of Johns Hopkins University, Balti- 

 more, whose numerous researches have contributed largely to- 

 the progress of gravitational astronomy, the most notable being 

 his work on the satellites of Saturn and his researches on the 

 motion of the moon. He was awarded the Copley Medal of 

 the Royal Society of London in 1S90. 



Prof Nikolai Aleksejevich Oumov, of the University of 

 Moscow, who has gained great distinction by his researches on 

 energy aiid on electro-dynamic induction. 



Prof Emile Picard, of the University of France, who holds a 

 leading position among the great French mathematicians. 



Prof. Georg (Quincke, of the University of Heidelberg, one 

 of the most famous experimental physicists in Germany, author 

 of numerous important experimental investigations, among others 

 on capillarity and in optics. 



Prof Woldemar Voigt, of the University of Gottingen, well 

 known as the author of numerous papers on the mathematical 

 theory of light and on the electricity of crystals. 



Lord Kel^'in then said — The University of Glasgow is hon- 

 oured by the presence to-day of many distinguished visitors from 

 foreign countries, from America, from India, from Australia, 

 and from all parts of the United Kingdom. Names of men re- 

 nowned for their scientific work in distant countries have been 

 added to our list of honorary graduates. That I have had the 

 honour of conferring these degrees in the name of the University 

 is a subject of keenest regret to all here present, because it is due to- 

 ; the absence of Principal Caird on account of illness. We hope that 

 the beginning of next session will see him at home in the 

 ' University with thoroughly recovered health. In his absence 

 the duty of conferring degrees has fallen, according to University 

 law, on me as senior Professor present. I am also one of the 

 recipients of the degree, and, in the name of all who have to- 

 day been created Doctors of Laws of the University of Glasgow, 

 I thank the Senate for the honour which we have thus received 

 on the occasion of the jubilee of my professorship. For myself,. 

 I can find no words to express my feelings on this occasion. 

 My fifty happy years of life and work as Professor of Natural 

 Philosophy here, among my students and my colleagues of the 

 University and my many kind friends in the great City of" 

 Glasgow, call for gratitude ; I cannot think of them without 

 heartfelt gratitude. But now you heap coals of fire on my head. 

 Vou reward me for having enjoyed for fifty years the privilege- 

 of spending my time in the work most congenial to me and in 

 the happiest of surroundings. \'ou could not do more for me 

 if I had spent my life in hardships and dangers, fighting for my 

 country, or struggling to do good among the masses of our 

 population, or working for the benefit of the people in public 

 duty voluntarily accepted. I have had the honour to receive 

 here to-day a gracious message from His Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Wales, and addresses from sister-universities in all 

 parts of the world ; from learned societies, academies, associa- 

 tions, and institutions for the advancement of pure and applied 

 science ; from municipal corporations and other public bodies ;. 

 from submarine telegraph companies, and from their officers, 

 my old comrades in their work : from students, professors, and 

 scientific workers of England, Scotland, and Ireland and other 

 countries, including my revered and loved St. Peter's College, 

 Cambridge, and my twenty Baltimore coefficients of 1884. The 

 term coefficients is abused by mathematicians. They use it for 

 one of the two factors of the result. To me the professor and 

 his class of students are. coefficients, fellow-workers, each con- 



