44 



NATURE 



{Nov. 13, 1879 



James Clerk Maxwell was educated at the Edinburgh 

 Academy, where he gained the Academical Club Medal 

 for Geometry in 1845, and the Silver Medal for Mathe- 

 matics in 1847. In 1848 his mother's brother, John Cay, 

 of Edinburgh, took him to see William Nicol, who showed 

 him the colours exhibited by polarised light after passing 

 through unannealed glass, &c. This visit seems to have 

 given the first impulse towards his researches in optics. 

 On his return he constructed a polariscope with glass re- 

 flectors. The framework of the first was of cardboard, 

 but a superior article was subsequently constructed by him 

 in wood. Small lenses mounted in cardboard were em- 

 ployed when a conical pencil of light was required. By 

 means of this instrument he examined the figures ex- 

 hibited by pieces of unannealed glass which he prepared 

 himself, and with a camera lucida, and a box of water 

 colours, he reproduced these figures on paper, taking care ' 

 to sketch no outlines, but to shade off each coloured band 

 imperceptibly into the next. Some of these water-colour 

 drawings he forwarded to Nicol, and was more than re- 

 paid by the receipt shortly afterwards of a pair of prisms 

 prepared by Nicol himself. These prisms were always 

 very highly prized by Prof. Maxwell. Once while at 

 Trinity the little box containing them was carried off by 

 his bed-maker during a vacation, and destined for de- 

 struction. The bed-maker died before term commenced, 

 and it was only after a very diligent search that they were 

 found among the late bed-maker's effects, which had been 

 set aside as valueless. After this event the prisms were 

 most carefully guarded, and about three weeks ago were 

 deposited, at Professor Maxwell's request, in one of the 

 show cases of the Cavendish laboratory. The study of 

 the figures exhibited by unannealed glass in polarised light 

 drew the attention of Clerk Maxwell more particularly to 

 the equilibrium of elastic solids, a subject on which he 

 has done some very valuable work. 



After leaving the Edinburgh Academy James Clerk 

 Maxwell entered the University of Edinburgh, where he 

 soon won the esteem of Kelland, Forbes, and Gregory, 

 under whom he studied and worked. In October, 1S50, 

 he came to Cambridge, entering at Peterhouse. At this 

 time his father does not seem to have been very sanguine 

 respecting the advantages to be derived from a Cambridge 

 course, but his opinion of the University rose consider- 

 ably when in 1854 the examiners showed their apprecia- 

 tion of his son by making him Second Wrangler, and 

 bracketing him as first Smith's Prizeman. Clerk Max- 

 well's first term in Cambridge does not seem to have been 

 a very happy one. The Peterhouse men were all classics 

 or pure mathematicians, and he could get no sympathy in 

 his physical work. Finding himself comparatively wi'hout 

 friends at the end of the term, he consulted his father and 

 his college tutor, and by their advice migrated to Trinity 

 on December 14th, 1850, where, having a much larger 

 number to select from, he not only found congenial spirits, 

 but soon became looked up to as their leader by a set of 

 admiring followers. In 1852, while an undergraduate at 

 Trinity, he stayed for a few weeks at a country vicarage 

 in Suffolk with the Rev. C. B. Taylor, a brother of a 

 college friend. While there he was attacked by a serious 

 illness, and the care and kindness with which he was 

 nursed by Mr. and Mrs. Taylor never faded from his 

 memory ; it so impressed him with the power of love that 

 it formed an important factor in the formation of the 

 Christian character which all who knew regarded with an 

 admiration akin to worship. 



As above stated James Clerk Maxwell graduated as 

 Second Wrangler and (bracketed) fir^t Smith's Prizeman 

 in 1854, having previously been elected a Foundation 

 Scholar of his College. In 1855 he became a Fellow of 

 Trinity, and in 1856 obtained the Professorship of Natural 

 Philosophy in Marischal College, Aberdeen, which appoint- 

 ment he held till the fusion of Marischal College and 

 King's College, when he, with other Professors, received a 



pension from the Crown. In 1858 he married Katherine, 

 a daughter of Principal Dewar of Marischal College, thus 

 vacating his fellowship at Trinity. In i860 he succeeded 

 Prof. Goodeve as Professor of Natural Philosophy 

 and Astronomy in King's College, London, but after the 

 death of his father he retired in 1865 to his estate in 

 Scotland, where he subsequently carried out his father's 

 plans for completing the house and offices at Glenlair. 

 In 1 87 1 he was invited by the Senate of the University of 

 Cambridge to accept the Chair of Experimental Physics 

 which had just been created, and on October 25th, 1871, 

 he delivered his inaugural lecture as Professor of Experi- 

 mental Physics in the University of Cambridge. At first 

 the most important part of his work consisted in arranging 

 the details of the Cavendish Laboratory which the Duke 

 of Devonshire had offered to present [to the University, 

 and the building of which was 'personally superintended 

 by Prof. Maxwell from first to last. The whole of the 

 arrangements which render the Cavendish Laboratory 

 so admirably adapted for Physical investigations, are due 

 to the care and forethought of Prof. Clerk Maxwell. When 

 the building had been completed and formally presented 

 to the University, the Duke of Devonshire further signified 

 his desire to provide it with a complete equipment of 

 apparatus, and all this was procured under the personal 

 supervision of the Professor. In 1872 he was elected 

 Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 



During last winter Prof. Maxwell did not enjoy his 

 usual health. In the spring he was unable to carry on 

 his work with his accustomed vigour, but when he left 

 Cambridge for Scotland his friends supposed that with 

 mental test and physical exercise his health would be 

 restored, and did not regard his indisposition as other 

 than temporary. In Scotland, however, his health did 

 not improve, he suffered much pain and was unable to 

 take his usual food. At length by the advice of his 

 medical attendants, and of Prof. Saunders of Edin- 

 burgh, one of his former fellow-students, he returned to 

 Cambridge in the beginning of October. Under Dr. 

 Paget's care he at first made considerable improvement 

 and some hopes were entertained of his recovery. He, 

 however, gradually became weaker, and when Dr. Hum- 

 phry visited him in conjunction with Dr. Paget, it was 

 plain that medical skill could only alleviate his suffering. 

 He died at noon on Wednesday, November 5th, having 

 retained the conscious possession of all his mentai powers 

 to the last 



General invitations were sent to all members of the 

 electoral roll of the University to assemble in Trinity 

 College Chapel at .yya p.m. on Monday, November 10th, 

 and were numerously accepted, especially by heads of 

 houses (including the Vice-Chancellor), and by professors. 

 About 445 P.M , the service was commenced by Mr. 

 Stanford playing the " Dead March " upon the organ. 

 The remains of the late Professor w-erc then carried into 

 the chapel, preceded by the choir and the first part of the 

 Burial Service read. This was followed by the Anthem 

 "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so 

 them also whi h sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him. 

 .... Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 

 After the service the assembly followed the body to the 

 great gate, whence it was conveyed to Scotland to be 

 interred in the family burying-place at Corsock, Kirkcud- 

 bright. 



Prof. Maxwell was appointed Foreign Honorary 

 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 

 of Boston in November, 1874 ; Member of the American 

 Philosophical Society of Philadelphia in October, 1875 ; 

 Correspondent in the Mathematical Class to the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences, Gottingen, in December, 1875 ; 

 Honorary Member of the New York Academy of Sciences 

 in December, 1876; Associate of the Amsterdam Royal 

 .Academy of Sciences in April, 1877 ; and Corresponding 

 Member' of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vienna, 



