Prof. Tyndall on the Claims of Mayer and Joule. 221 



been made to claim for Mayer the credit of being the first to 

 establish in all its generality the principle of the Conservation 

 of Energy. It is true that ' la science n'a pas de patrie,' and it 

 is highly creditable to British philosophers that they have so 

 liberally acted according to this maxim. Bat it is not to be 

 imagined that on this account there should be no scientific 

 patriotism, or that, in our desire to do all justice to a foreigner, 

 we should depreciate or suppress the claims of our own country- 

 men. And it especially startles us, that the recent attempts to 

 place Mayer in a position which he never claimed, and which 

 had long before been taken by another, should have found 

 support within the very walls wherein Davy propounded his 

 transcendent disco veries." 



This paragraph — at all events the latter part of it — refers to a 

 Lecture on Force given by me at the Royal Institution on the 

 evening of Friday the 6th of June, 1862. An abstract of the 

 lecture is printed in the ( Proceedings ; of the Institution ; it is 

 reprinted in the Philosophical Magazine for last July, and it 

 also forms a portion of the Appendix to the 12th Lecture in my 

 book on Heat, which is announced by the Messrs. Longman for 

 the 4th of March. 



Many will agree with me in thinking that it would hardly 

 conduce to the interests or the dignity of science, if the habit were 

 to become general of taking difficult and disputed points, which 

 apparently involve imputations on individual character, into 

 such a court as that chosen by Professor Thomson and Professor 

 Tait. It is very laudable and very desirable that men in their 

 high positions should instruct the readers of i Good Words ;' 

 but these respectable persons are placed in a false position when 

 they are virtually called upon to decide between the rival claims 

 of Joule and Mayer, and to form an opinion as to the scientific 

 morality of myself. With such an audience authority is, of 

 course, decisive; and hence the practical wisdom of combining 

 two pens in performing the normal work of one. There is, 

 however, another court, in which mere authority is less influential, 

 and in the decisions of which I shall always cheerfully acquiesce. 

 To this court, that of instructed men of science, I now beg to 

 transfer the case opened by the two gentlemen referred to in 

 1 Good Words.' 



The precise meaning of the above paragraph, in all its parts, 

 is difficult to define ; but its effect is to leave upon the reader's 

 mind a very unpleasant impression regarding the part which I 

 have acted with reference to the claims of Dr. Mayer and Dr. 

 Joule*. Possibly its distinguished authors did not mean to pro- 



* The journal in which this impression is conveyed enjoys a monthly 

 circulation of 70,000. 



