George Frederic Barher. 229 



of illustrations, on "A New Vertical Lantern Galvanometer,''' 

 in which claim is made for the i);eneral principles of constrnc- 

 tion of the instrument, and the advantages possessed by it in the 

 readiness with which it could be put into nse, the brilliancy of 

 the illuminated circle of light which it gave upon the screen, its 

 great range of delicacy by which all experimental requirements 

 might be answered, and, finally, the satisfactory chai'acter of its 

 performance as a demonstration galvanometer (Proc. Amer. 

 Phil. Soc, xiv, 440). This was followed by a communication 

 " On the Measurement of Electromotive Force (ibid., xx, 649), 

 in which the author states : " Having had occasion to make 

 measurements of electromotive force by the method of com- 

 parison, I have been led to devise a form of standard cell, 

 which appears to have advantages over others heretofore used 

 as to justify me in bringing it before the Society." 



In 1880, before the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, at its Boston meeting, Dr. Barker, as retiring 

 President, delivered an address upon " Some Modern Aspects 

 of the Life-Question," from which the following paragraphs 

 are introduced: 



" As Preston has suggested, if we regard this ether as a gas, 

 defined by the kinetic theory that its molecules move in straight 

 lines, but with an enormous length of free path, it is obvious that 

 this ether may be clearly conceived of as the source of all the 

 motions of ordinary matter. It is an enormous storehouse of 

 energy, which is continually passing to and from ordinary matter, 

 precisely as we know it to do in the case of radiant transmission. 

 When potential energy becomes kinetic, the ether loses and the 

 matter gains motion. When kinetic energy becomes potential, 

 the lost energy of the matter is the motion gained by the ether. 

 Before so simple a conception as this, both potential energy and 

 action at a distance are easily given up. AH energy is kinetic 

 energy, the energy of motion. Giving now to the ether its store- 

 house of tremendous power, and giving to it the ability to trans- 

 fer this power to ordinary matter upon opportunity, and we have 

 an environment compared with which the strongest steel is but 

 the breath of the summer air. In presence of such an energy it 

 is that we live and move. In the midst of such tremendous 

 power do we act. Is it a wonder that out of such a reservoir the 

 power by which we live should irresistibly rush into the organism 

 and develop the transmitted energy which we recognize in the 

 phenomema of life? Truly, as Spinoza has put it, 'Those who 

 fondly think they act with free will, dream with their eyes open.' " 



" Such are now the facts and theories to be found in the science 

 of to-day considering the phenomena of life. Physiologically 

 considered, life has no mysterious passages, no sacred precincts 

 into which the unhallowed foot of science may not enter. 

 Research has steadily diminished day by day the phenomena sup- 



