XXVI 



An old and valued friend of Graham, Dr. A. W. Hofmann, then inti- 

 mately associated with him, thus speaks of his administration of the Mint*: 

 — " It would be difficult, within these narrow limits, to convey an adequate 

 notion of the great and manifold activity exercised by Graham in the 

 high office entrusted to him. The new chief of the Mint soon showed a 

 vigilance, a knowledge of the work, an amount of industry and energy, 

 and, when called for, an unsparing severity which astonished all, and 

 especially some of the officials of the establishment. Such requirements 

 had not heretofore been exacted, nor such control exercised. The new 

 Masters love of innovation, and his disturbance of settled arrangements 

 (for in such light was his action viewed), had to be resisted with every 

 effort. The author of this sketch at that time held an office in connexion 

 with the Euglish Mint, and was therefore witness, though from without, 

 of the struggle which Graham had to go through in his new position. It 

 was years before he finally overcame these difficulties, and was enabled to 

 return to his favourite study." 



Graham, besides the memoirs mentioned and omitted here, wrote a 

 system of chemistry. The second edition is still valuable ; it explained at 

 a very early stage theories which are now general, although it did not 

 actually adopt novel arrangements. The book is a masterpiece of clear- 

 ness in arrangement and style, but it was written so slowly that the 

 publisher said that to press him was like drawing his blood. The 

 anxiety to be correct was painful. It gives a calmness to all his writing, 

 but really goes too far, as it rather represses the enthusiasm of the 

 reader, and diminishes the force of the words. He may be said never to 

 speculate till he has made experiments ; he seems to feel the forms with 

 his fingers before he ventures to describe them ; but he reaches to utmost 

 space in this maimer more surely than others have done by the boldest 

 imagination. He is, however, capable of the widest generalizations, and 

 these he makes at times with surprising speed. 



When speaking of liquids, Graham has been quoted as saying that the 

 rate of diffusion held a place in vital science not unlike the time of falling 

 bodies in the physics of gravitation. We judge of the value of discoveries 

 by the fruit they produce ; when we do so, it requires some time to 

 judge fairly. Although there seems to us a boundless region opened up, it 

 is not yet traversed ; perhaps he who opened it was best able to see its 

 extent. By his experimental examinations of the motion of molecules, he 

 has made a step which before was left to reason only ; and unless he can 

 be shown to have made a mistake, we do right (whilst associating him 

 with other illustrious men of former times) to connect him more closely 

 with his most direct predecessor, Dalton. With such distinguished names, 

 therefore, it seems just that we should, until the world shall teach us 

 better, leave that of Thomas Graham. — R. A. S. 



* In a masterly discourse on Graham's life and scientific work, delirered before the 

 German Chemical Society in Berlin, Dec. 11. 1869. 



