286 Lateral Stability of the Victoria-street Bridge. 



in all our universities,, are unreliable, and calculated to lead 

 to serious errors when applied to engineering questions. If, 

 on the other hand, the mathematicians are in the right, if the 

 laws of statics are universally and practically true, then it 

 follows that the engineers who have condemned the Victoria- 

 street bridge are in the unfortunate position of being under 

 a most serious misapprehension as to the correct mode of 

 proceeding in the solution of the problems of engineering 

 practice. Which of these two alternatives we are to adopt 

 is the question I submit to the Royal Society to-night. 



I 



