xvii 



In the list of Fellows lost to the Royal Society this year, the name 

 Thomas Graham stands out with great prominence. Much as he was 

 known, and widely, he was little seen in what may be called the social 

 circles of scientific life ; and although we shall miss him and his work in a 

 field which he alone seemed to cultivate and understand, and although his 

 work must greatly influence science, and through it civilization, the public 

 will not observe that any name of importance is absent on great occasions or 

 in large meetings. 



He was born in Glasgow, in 1805, Dec. 21st. His father was a mer- 

 chant of that city, and gave him every opportunity of learning. Having 

 attended the primary school, he went at nine years of age to the Grammar 

 School for Latin and Greek under Dymock, for the usual term of four years, 

 and under the rector, Dr. Chrystal, for the finishing year. Then he went to 

 the University, at an early age certainly, but such is the custom of the place. 

 We hear of no great feats of scholarship in the Grammar School. Graham 

 was too quiet to be brilliant. We hear of diligence, and that he occupied 

 a seat in the first form, and got prizes for lessons as well as a prize every 

 year for not having been absent for one day. The education at this school 

 was sound, and it was not easy for a boy to leave it without some useful 

 knowledge of the languages taught, as well as a very clear idea of the his- 

 tory and progress of the world. In college he remained for seven years 

 before taking his degree of M.A. in 1826. At that time the university was 

 too much of a high school, but it was of course obliged to suit itself to the 

 young who attended. It is clear that Graham had his whole time occupied 

 at the best schools of learning around him, and many must still remember 

 his teacher in chemistry, Dr. Thomas Thomson, and in physics, Professor 

 Meikleham. 



His attention seems to have at this time been devoted for the most 

 part to physics and mathematics. "When he had taken his degree, he 

 was expected to enter on distinct professional studies. His father had de- 

 signed him for the church, but his mind was bent on the study of science. 

 A struggle took place between two strong wills, and caused him much 

 misery for many years, Neither was accustomed to speak his mind, 

 otherwise the great respect which each had for the other would have been 

 discovered sooner for the good of both. 



This sorrow was softened to Graham by the great tenderness of his 

 mother, to whom he was most devoted, and to whom he told, in a long 

 series of confiding letters from Edinburgh, where he now went to study, 

 all his doings and feelings. In these letters we are led to hope for a very 

 full picture of the early manhood of Graham. It was at this time that he 

 learnt isolation, and satisfied his love of sympathy by writing, so that he 

 acquired a habit which never left him. It is in these notes, reaching up to 

 his last illness, that we must look for all that he thought on scientific and 

 other subjects ; and they, with his published papers, will constitute his true 

 autobiography. Few stirring events happened to him ; his life, externally 



vol. xviir. b 



