MEMOIR OF THE LATE PROF. E. HODGKINSON^ F.R.S. 167 



and he was frequently present when they were made. 

 Several pages are devoted again to the subject of the 

 neutral line, indicating, from the manner of its discussion, 

 that the subject was not at this time clearly fixed in the 

 minds of the foremost investigators ; and no one can read 

 these pages, and the views of Prof. Barlow, without feeling 

 convinced that the learned Professor has scarcely done full 

 justice to Mr. Hodgkinson in reference to the fixing of the 

 neutral line in the section of fracture. The statement of 

 Prof. Barlow, in his B/Cport to the British Association, and in 

 his Essay 'on the Strength of Materials,^ would lead to 

 the conclusion that Mr. Hodgkinson had only rectified a 

 small error into which he. Barlow, had inadvertently fallen. 

 This is not a complete statement. Mr. Hodgkinson did 

 much more than correct a slight error in an adopted theory ; 

 he showed the fallacy of the theory which, it appears. Prof. 

 Barlow had obtained from M. Duleau, a distinguished 

 French writer. There can be no doubt that Mr. Hodg- 

 kinson was the first to give the correct theory of fixing 

 mathematically the position of the neutral line. Mr. Hodg- 

 kinson's paper was published in 1822, and we find, in 

 1824, ^^' Whewell, in his 'Mechanics,^ stating, ^'I woidd 

 gladly have given a section on the strength and fracture of 

 beams, had there been any mode of considering the sub- 

 ject which combined simplicity with a correspondence to 

 facts. The common theory, which supposes the material 

 incapable of compression, is manifestly and completely 

 false ; and though Mr. Barlow^s experiments and investi- 

 gations give us much information, they do not appear to 

 lead to any conclusions sufficiently general and simple 

 to authorize us to present the subject as an elementary 

 one.'^ (See Preface, page xii, WhewelFs 'Mechanics,^ 

 1824.) It is obvious that the learned Professor had not 

 seen Mr. Hodgkinson^s paper at this time, or he would 

 have given, without doubt, in this place the same chapter 



